143
PAPERS OF lVfrnABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
No. 716
1838 Apr. 22, 0. DE A. SANTANGELO. PETITION TO THE HONORABLE CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS
TO THE HONORABLE CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLW OF TEXAS
GENTLEMEN: If services rendered, and sacrifices made to the cause of the people, constitute any claim to the consideration of their repre,;entatives, it will be easy for me to substantiate my right to the liberality and benevolence of the Texian nation, and its worthy and able rulers. I would, nevertheless, have abstained from making the slightest mention of my pretensions, if the heavy losses which I have expe- rienced through my unwearied devotion to the political independence of the country, did not compel me to take this repugnant step. I will, therefore, with brevity and succinctness, submit my actions, and nothing else, to your wisdom, and rely entirely, and without reserve, upon your justice and your generosity. When in the beginning of the year 1836 the President of l\Iexico, General Santa Anna, resolved to concentrate in his own person the government of the confederated States, and as a consequence to exterminate the Texians, who were unwilling to resign to him the sovereignty of the State of which they formed a part, several of the l\lexican journals commenced a torrent of virulent abuse of the Texians, with the evident intention of preparing public opinion, both in Mexico &nd abroad, for the premediated invasion. Not one of the Mexicans or strangers resident in Mexico dared to hazard the slightest observation against these calumnies; and Col. Stephen F . .Austin himself, who had just been liberated from a protracted and severe imprisonment, was compelled to remain satisfied with deplor- ing in secret the evils that menaced his youthful Colony. About this period I was at the head of a Seminary in the city of 1\Iexico, which produced an income of seven or eight thousand dol- lars per annum, and at the same time I conducted a semi-weekly periodical, called "El Correo Atlantico ", which had a patronage of nearly one thousand subscribers, which would have afforded me a revenue of more than twenty thousand dollars annually, the price of subscription being fourteen rials per month for the inhabitants of the metropolis, and eighteen for those residing beyond it. ·with such auspicious prospects I could certainly entertain no brighter hopes in Texas, nor did the Texians themselves view my interposi- tion in defence of their liberties as instigated by any ignoble motive. Impelled, then, by irresistible sympathy, and consulting my princi• ples solely, I had the hardihood to demand, in the Correo of the 13th and 17th June of the slanderous editors of other journals, the proofs of the c~lpability of the colonists, at the same time adducing the strongest arguments I could summon in support of their inno- cence, It was not allowed me to say more. On the 24th of the same
Powered by FlippingBook