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P,\PERS OF l\IrnABEAU BuONAPARTE L.\MAR.
is an old, and in fact an original doctrine, implied by existing [agree- ments?) between the governor and the governed. Secondly.-!£ tl1e people of Texas have the moral and political right to declare themselves independent of the l\Iexican Government, is it expedient for them, now to exercise that right. In order to illustrate this part of the proposition the committee pro- pose to take a rapid review of the past.. · In the year of eighteen hundred and twenty one, Texas was an un- inhabited wilderness, infested by hostile Indians, from the Sabine river to San Antonio-not excepting Nacogdoches itself-Encouraged by the invitation of the Colonization laws, the settlement of this wil_der- ness was commenced, and continued by individual enterprise, entirely unaided by succors of any kind, from the government-the settlement of the country has not cost the government one cent. The emigrants dared to settle on unreclaimed wilderness-the haunt of wild beast, and the home of the daring hostile savages; and in so doing, poured out their blood like water-who, of the old settlers have forgotten the memorable scenes of the Colorado, and the late gallant Captain Robert· Kuykendall¥ In the successful progress of the settlement of the country, and in the midst of the enactment of the flood of laws proffer- ing protection to tbe persons and property of the emigrants, General Gurrero, came to the office of the Presidency of the Republic. He and his friends spoke of liberty as a Goddess before whose shrine they were wont to worship. And the inviolable sacredness of person and prop- erty-friendship to the emigrants etc. Among the fi'l:,st acts of his administration, was one to free all the negroes-this he said was to give splendor to his official career; and make an epoch in the bistory of the Republic. And the sole reason, as then understood, that his decree to this effe~t was not carried into execution was his want of ability to do so. His friends seeing this, kindly petitioned his Excellency to rescind it; and he out of partic1tlar friendship to the emigrants, graciously condesended to kill his darling in its infancy. ·To Gurrero, succeedtd Bustamente, the Vice President. The latter was considered the antipode of the former. Under his rule was enacted the law of the sixth of April, 1830. The eleventh section of which prohibited the emigration of natives of the United States of the North -but, none other-this totally seperated many of the first emigrant-. from their relatives and friends, who intended to have removed to the country, and had disposed of their property to do so. Families and the nearest tics of kindred and friendship were thus severed. Bustamente, was displaced by Santa Ana, who was extoled as the great apostle of equal rights. He was represented as standing in the portico of the Temple of l\fexican Liberty, with his brows bound with a patriot's wr~ath, unrolling and vindicating the constitution and laws of his country. Him, the first Convention, memorialised, petitioned, we will not say supplicated-he answered all their prayers with the silence of con- tempt. The ~econd ·conventiton, again petitioned and memorialised this man, and "to make" assurance doubly ~ure, and to take a bond of fate,
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