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TEX.\S ST.\TE LrnR"\RY
short of that high moral and poiitical necessity which constrains op- position to usurpations of your rights and liberties, should induce you to do it. Such is not your present situation. The supporters of t11e Constitution among the l\Iexicans are your friends; they a:11 tell you that your rights shall be respected; that every thing in reason sh-all be granted you; they implore you to abide by your oaths, to sustain the federal Constitution, ru1d to put down its enemies: you can do nothing else, nnd any other course would be a violation of the most sacred and solemn obligation into which man can enter. Should, however, our fond expectations not be realized; should centralism, in the balance of the Republic, finally triumph, and fi-?- its chains and its blighting effects on the other states, Texas, faithful to the principles in which her citizens have been educated, will resist its encroachments on her, and without revolution, and without a decla- ration, will rest on her original sovereignty, and, ,agreeably_to the r.onstitution, her natural and national rights, will remain a free and indepeJ1den1l people, and will be so considered by_all liberal nations, and will thus sec_ure her independence without giving to either :\1exicans or other nation, the least ground of complaint. But you are told that it is your interest to become a free and independent people; and you arc told that a rise iu the value of your lands is of more importance to you than your oaths and obliga- tion~.; than your honor -at home, and character abroad. Fellow- citizens, we will suffer the answer to this suggestion to be strictly girnn by yourselves: we hurry over it in silence : we leave it to your own hearts to give the rejection to such a bribe. Again, yon are told, that by a declaration of independence, you can beeome attached to the government of the United States. Have you any assurance that yon could be so attached 1 Have the officers of the United States' government given you so to understand, or has any fact transpired to lead to surh a conclusion 1 None. Then to act on a belief of that sort would be dangerous in tl1e extreme; for if the United States did not take us under itis protection, all admit that our situation would be critical. But let us refer for one moment to the previous history of that government, and judge for ourselves as to the probable result. Interference with the territory of foreign nations, and all entangling alliances it has ever been the policy of the United States to avoid. ·when :Mr. Jefferson purchased L'Onisiana, it produced the most tremendous excitement, and amounted almost to a severance of the Union. The constitutional power of the government to acquire foreign territory, has ever been denied by the republican party, and it is not probable that any great change has taken place on that subject. The manufacturing interest, it is well !mown, is op- posed to the acquisition of territory to the South; and these things, taken in consideration with the good faith that should be observed between ·governments, would, no doubt, induce the government of the United States to decline admitting us into the Union. What, then, would be our situation 7 An inclepcndcnt people composed of ahont 60,000 inhabitants, cleeply in debt, and not n dollar in the treasury: engaged in a war with Mexico to last probably our lifetime: for, by a declaration of independence, we array against us the whole
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