277
PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
No. 281
[1835 ?], .Al\ONYUOUS. COMl\IU !CATION UPO1 THE UNCO - STITUTIONAL ASSUMPTIO OF POWER BY PRESI- DENT SANTA .Ai~NA AND THE CONGRESS OF ;l\1EXICO
Letter to a public Journal
l\Ir. Editor-In consequence of the political exsitement of Texas I as an humble individual and having had the honor, which it is my pride to bost, of being born nursed & rised in the land claim the privilege of being heard through the medium of your paper and vehemently protest against be doctrin that is now going the rounds and all such Monarchial principles, that is; that no man has any right to express or even have an opinion (in relation to the present all absorbing question whether Texas shall or not-submit-to l\fili- tary rule) ui:iless he has as much property as certain hoping gofors -:-come men whats to eat is ready-survile submissive individuals as we have among us. My principles are, that all men ware born equal whether rich of poor and under the constitution which the Dictator Santa Anna bas just destroyed garinteed to the most humble of us all the inestimable previlege of speaking writing and communicating our ideas freely. Truth and reason are the only doctrings that will pervail and let them be advanced by the rich 01 poor are equially valueable But let us dismiss this ana turn our attention to the all absorbing question Shall Tex.as survilely submit to the distruction of the Constitution which she bad sworn to suport and crouch under the banner of a semy barbriou Dictator who ac- knowledges no law but his will, and his will, shall be obeyed. So says ignorance and survility.-What now is called the· U, states of exico, previous to 1820, belonged to old Spain and she to this day has not surrendered her title. 'l'he people of the collectively in the year 1820 declared their Independence of Spain. In 1822 formed a confederacy of the States and that confedricy through the representatives of each sta"te formed a Constitution 4th October 1824. To shew that the people of Texas have the right to protest & do any thing else as they think pro [per] again t the over throw of the Constitution I will cort the la s close of the Constitution "The Articles of this Constitution and the Con titutional Act, which establi1Shes the Liberty and independence of the .l\Iexican ation 1 its Religion, form of Government, Liberty of the press, .and division of the Supreme Fowers or the Federation, and of the States, can never be reformed'' Notwithstanding, the above decliration of the Consti- tution the lass Congress declared an act, that they had the right of oltering the Constitution and actualy pas ed a law vesting in Santa Anna .all power. In fa.ct they have laide a side the Peoples Constitution and now Santa Anna, the Dictators, his will is the law. By tho e whom I shall hereafter designate the ubmi sive men of Texas who contend that Texas has no voyce in protesting .against the unlawful distruction of the Constitution, I a k, if she has not a
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