1496
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
cases of abuse, or such criminality on the part of her people as would place them without the pale of any law. For instance, if Congress for sufficient reasons, had, by decree, granted to an individual, (let us suppose a resident of Be.xar) an exclusive right, or privilege to manufacture powder, or paper, or to introduce, for a limited period, certain goods free from taxes; and, subsequently by a general de- cree, should prohibit the concession of such privileges to any person; can it be supposed that the local authorities of Bexar, would consider as annulled, by this latter decree, the special favor granted to that individual by the former, without any abuse of the privilege on his part~ There cnnnot exist more general and nt the same time more ex- plicit terms, than those of the decree of September the 29 th 1823, it says: "all goods of whnt class soever, whether home products, or foreign;" which includes anything whatever, any production of every part of the world "that may be introduced in Texas." That is to say, not only by her own inhabitants, but by any other person having the right to trade with the Mexicans and to enter their ter- ritory. "For the consumption of her inhabitants," that is to say, not only for the consumption of the individual who may introduce them, but, also, for the purchaser, if he is a resident of Texas. To pretend that the individual who goes personally to New Orleans, or any other place, to buy flour, coffee, sugar, etc., for his own con- sumption, has the right to introduce these goods, but not to sell them to his Texian neighbor appeal's to me to be unjust, and oppres- sive, repugnant to the system that rules us and to the Constitution in every sense, because it amounts to a declaration that the rich possess rights the poor are not to enjoy; that the rich man, who can take his gold and silver to purchase h~s necessaries in foreign coun- tries, can introduce whatever he pleases, and live in luxury; while the poor man who earns four reals a day by his labor, or by that of his mules, horses, or mares, wit.h which he could each clay purchase from a merchant, the flour, sugar, etc., necessary for the subsistence of his family, is deprived of the use of those indispensable articles _because he has not a sufficient capital to absent himself from the country and to introduce them expressly for his own consumption. If a broad construction of t.his measure is recognized, it appears to me, that the fundamental pr.inciples solemnly acknowledged, and guaranteed by the Constitution, that all free citizens are to enjoy equal privileges and to be equal in the eyes of the law, is a nullity and a mockery. This is a very important matter, particularly to the older inhabit- ants of Texas, who have been so long exposed to the depredations and hostilities of the Indians. Texas, does not, at present, produce
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