83
PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
New-Orleans July 10. 1820.
To General James Long, Commander in Chief
'
of the forces of Texas.
I have received.with lively sensibility the communi- cation you have addressed to me informing me "that I had be·en duly elected President of the Republic of Texas by the Supreme Council thereof conformably to the Constitution and as President ex efficio Generalisimo of the armies and navies thereof". I have given to the subject of of [sic] this unexpected invitation all the consideration in my power. I have reviewed the present state of that Colony its struggles for freedom and independence; its proximity to the United States its natural resources in silver copper iron and lead mines of inexhaustible character; its fine healthy cli- mate and exuberant soil; its capacious harbors and majestic rivers; all paralyzed by the despotic and intolerant colonial system of Spain. Under these circumstances I have reflected upon the course which duty pointed out to me; and I have come to the determination to accept the 1 appointment which the people of Texas thro' their Supreme Council have conferred upon me. • The basis of the policy I shall be anxious to adopt is pacific; to make no unjust or unnecessary wars; to open the ports to a fair commerce and the soil to a virtuous emigracion ; to, inculcate the prin- ciples and practice of Religion, morality frugality and industry; to make provision for schools colleges and seminaries of learning; to open roads and canals and introduce manufactures and the mechanic arts; to expand the agriculture of the Country and convert its forests and wastes into cultivated fields; to arrest the progress of slavery which along the Gulf of Mexico is spreading with such rapidity, weakning the ·strength and the morals and the republican habits of States these will be the leading features of a policy I should recom- mend and which I should exert all my efforts to see introduced and established. I pray you to tender to the Supreme Council my high Considera- tions and accept yourself assurances of _my respect and esteem. E. W. Ripley. P. S.) I shall probably be at Galveston in from 40 to 60 days. This gratuitous tender of the Chief Command to Genera-I Ripley was in perfect harmony with the well-known magnanimity of Gen- eral Long. It was not forced upon him by popular sentiment. It was not the work of the Supreme Council; nor that of any of his fol- lowers. It was a voluntary matter on his part; a suggestion of his own; a noble sacrifice of ambition and selfishness to the loftier senti- ments of private friendship, and an ardent devotion to the public good. He was willing to forego the honors and emoluments of his position, in order to secure the genius and experience of a friend who, on account of his extensive popularity, influence and well-ear~ed fame, might be, as he supposed, more efficient than himself in pro- moting and securing the great ends to which he was consecr.ati_ng ~i?I- self; manifesting by this act a degree of modesty and patriotic d1sm-
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