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PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
was manifested, which filled the antagonists of Texas with joy. At this moment I stepped forward, placed my name first on the list, drew out my purse, contributed w:hat I could, and then the collection of a considerable sum took place. No ridiculous ostentation induces me to mention this fact; my sole object is to prove that I suffered no occasion to escape me, in which I could be of the slightest service to the cause of Texas. The subsequent suspension of the Correo is by no means to be ascribed to the small number of subscribers. I had determined to con- tinue it at all hazards; but the extraordinary heat of the weather ren- dered me incapable of holding the pen, and the impossibility of pro- curing a collaborator compelled me finalty to abandon it. It will scarcely be believed that even my silence did not shelter me from new insults. My farewell appeared in the "Correo" of the 15th of August, and on the 16th the valient editors of the "L'Echo de la Louisiane,'' honored me with expressions, which, had they emanated from rational and educated men, would have necessarily been produc- tive of serious consequences. I have hitherto spoken of losses, injuries, toil and dangers, all of which was spontaneously incurred; and although willingness, in the present instance, be not less meritous than duty, nevertheless, as I was neither counselled nor required by any Texian to pursue the course I selected, I would abstain from presenting my claims to you under the aspect of Justice. But the true question is this: were my services useful to the Texians, or not? If they were useful, will their national honor and sence of right permit them to forget them? A few words on this subject, and I have done. The charges of Mexico against Texas were doubtless nonsensical. To assert that the adhesion of the colonists to the system they in common with the other confederated states had sworn to observe, was treachery; that the defence of their sovereignty, liberty, and independence from all other states, which were literally proclaimed by the federal compact, was rebellion; that the liberal offer made by them to co-operate with the other states in re-establishing the fed- eral government, which had been destroyed at the point of the bayonet, was ingratitude; and that their right to maintain the full enjoyment of their jurisdiction in their own territory, was tlStlrpation; all this, together with the efforts of the Mexican government to obtain French or English intermediation in their quarrel, was undoubtedly the ne plus tlltra of folly. But, very little acquaintance with the moral character of the Mexicans is required to be convinced that these very delusions, which flattered so much their passions, formed the strong- est lever that raised them to declare a national war to Texas. Their Congress took care to foment this national excitement, when, in its decree of the 27th of April, 1836, at which time it had not yet re- ceived the news of the defeat and capture of the president Santa Anna of the 21st at San Jacinto, a "Legion of Honor" was estab- lished "to reward the distinguished services of the army and navy." This institution however could add but very little to an enthusiasm ' ' . which had already reached its height among all classes, smce, as I have already insinuated, the Mexican federal refugees in New-Orleans,
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