The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Volume I

167

P.\PERS OF iflR.\BEAU B O APARTE LAMAR

said anything other than what be thought. Be pleased, Your ~:x- cellency to communicate to the Head of the Government, askmg him for ~e to be so kind as to end my letter of retirement. God, Lib~rty an<l Un'ion.-Pari .-Aug. 30, 1834.-His Excellency -Lorenzo de Zavala.-His Excellency the Secretary of the Depart- ment of Relations-Francisco Lombardo.-Copy-Paris.-Aug. 20, 1834.-Joaquin :Moreno. 0. 182 1834 Ai1g. 30, L. DE ZAVALA TO A. L. DE S ~'l'A AN~ A, (l\lEXICO, IE., IC0]2 2 His Excellency, Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna · Paris, Aug. 30, 1834. Sir General- ever did I believe that the time would come when I should write you a letter which would have as its object the opposition, in the name of liberty, civilization and its own glory; of the resolutions which emanate from your Government, whose pur- pose it is to destroy the first; to oppose the progress of the second; and to stain the third, at the same time taking from the country the honor of naming you one more on among its di tinguished patriots. But alas! the last event which have hrought to you men without honor, genius, or conscience cannot be indifferent to a man who saw in you a point of support for liberty and stability, or perhaps for the solid establishment of social institutions capable of establishins; the fortune of our unfortunate nation. It bas not been thus becaus~ of your misfortune, that of the nation, and of all. You, my Generalr ·have de troycd the conditions of your political exi tence. You have opposed the progress of a glorious and philosophic revolution; yon have fallen in with some monstrous contradictions and have placed your elf in a di astrous position, leaving the brilliance and tability which were formerly yours. I say that you have de troyecl the con- ditions of your political existence. Fir t: because, naturally, if you are President, it i only by virtue of the Constitution and the form in which it organizes the functions of government. - Second: if you were elevated to the Presidency, it was by the vote and strength of a party which you formerly called national. \\Tell now, you have torn the Constitution to pieces by not permitting the Cabinet, one of the constituent bodie of the Government, to as emble. The sophistries of your CounseUors cannot cor.rect this great error, the l'esults of which will be extremely lamentahle. You have destroyed the Constitution by permitting contemptible mobs to dissolve the government of ome of the state , just as was done in the time of General Bustamente against whom you made war for the e same reasons.-You have ruined the conditions of your political existence, abandoning, vilifying, and persecuting the same persons .who ac- companied you in your triumphs, who elected you a leader, who ,elevated you to power; mean·while, you place yourself in the hands of those individuals against whom you made war; who cursed you, ""Copy by George Fisher. In no. 1~3.

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