Z07
PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
-on the 22nd ult. to con ider of the situation of Texas, and the means to be adopted for the public safety, has been instructed to address you in explanation of the views of that meeting, and of the situation in which they con ider the country to be now placed.- For my own part, I have no desire to appear before you, expressing my individual opinions, and I speak to yon, not only of my own sentiments and feelings, but those of a meeting respectable alike for its numbers, and the indi- viduals composin"' it. What I shall say, I religiously believe, and what that meeting did was induced solely from disinterested and patriotic motives. I have been your fen.ow citizen for years, and you cannot belive that I am influenced by speculation. On the Honor of a man I assure you that I have all to lose, and nothing to gain by the dis- turbances of our country; and I am in no way connected either with the peculation or the speculators. Fellow-Citizens-you are in the midst of a revolution, that threatens your de truction and without l11owin"' it, you stand en a precipice that crumbles beneath you and which every moment threatens to precitipate you in the abi below.- You are lulled to sleep in the belief that speculation alone has created the present excitement. But be entreated no longer to indulge in this dangerou belief, but to examine for yourselves the true situation of affairs.-Examine for yourselve the late movements of the General Government. Look into their ulterior designs, as avowed in congress, & you will perceive that so far from speculation having any thing to do with the present subject that the troops of the genrl. Government are on their march to Texas, £or the purpose of compelling you to either leave the country or submit to an Imperial Government, with strong military stations in your Country to awe and keep you in sub- jection. · . Your republican form of Government is broken down our state au- thorities have by the military been driven from the exercise of their con titutional duties, and detain in custody the Governor of your State, and of your choice. ot only in Coahuila and T()xas-has this arbi- trary and despotic course been pur ued, but other states of the Fed- eration mourn the less of their constitutions and their libertie and at this moment the proud and gallant & republican tate of Zacatecas mourns the loss of two thousand citizens, slain in battle by the troop of Gen. Santa Anna, and the survivors now endure the galling chains of military rule.-Durango and other states have al o fallen beneath the rule of military power, and every tate and province of the Mexi- •can Republic (excepting Texas) have submitted to the Dictator. How this state of things came about, I will endeavor faithfully to explain to you, and if I, wilfully mistake a single fact, may I forever after be branded with infamy among ,you. To understand, you must fir t know that the form of Government is virtually altered and that another form is about to be established in its stead, and at this time Gen. Santa Anna instead of being your President, has been invested by the General Congress, with the absolute powers of the Dictator. Elected President by the Republican Party, he no sooner took bis eat, than he threw off the veil of disguise, and to the amaze- ment and consternation of the Republican Party, he exhibited himself the friend and supporter of the Aristocrats and defender of the Clergy.
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