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TEX.\$ STATE LIBR.\RY
_friends the destinies of the people. With no political guardians who shall watch, and counteract the secret machinations of the traitor? who warn you of your danger? and who deliver you¥ With no Judiciary, murder, robbery and every grade of crime will be com• mitted and go unpunished. The honest and industrious will be exposed to pillage and insult, and the lawless and unprincipled will riot and revel in the plunder, and burning and murder of the people of Texas. Such, Fellow-Citizens, will be your horrid -condition, should the present government be broken up. Break down this govemment, miserable as it may be, disorganized as it is, inefficient as it seems, and where will you find another? Your secession from Coahuila must be ete,·nal, and with that before you, no altemative presents itself but anarchy or despotism, on the one hand, and your present form on the other. Break down this Government, and to whom can you look for authority in any one of your acts 1 Who shall receive the volunteers from the United States? Who attend to the numerous & pres.sing demands made on the country f Who provide_ for meeting the enemy now on the march against you f ·who in fine will attempt the providing of the ways and means to prevent the slaughter of our wives and children by l\Iexican and Indian foes 1 Who direct your energies to resist that force now directed against your country, avowing as their rule of warfare an indiscriminate murder of all ages sexes and conditions f That the present Government is badly organized, that many imprudent measures· have been adopted, that much cause for dissatisfaction has been given, cannot be denied; but these things present no sufficient reason why you should hesitate to yield a ready and generous support to the Government. Bad as it is, and badly administered as it has been, it is still your Government. It still is the government of Texas, and its wea1."lless and inefficiency is surely a strong reason why you should rally around it, and sustain it ·with your talents and virtues, and, if necessary, with yom lives. The first organizatfon of the Government of the U_nited States wa& but little better than ours. For a long time it tottered and seemed ready to fall; it was ridiculed and its officers abused; and then as here, treason had its advocates conspiring its overthrow; and had not the moral virtue and mo.ral courage of the people at large, sustained it, instead of the glorious spectacle now presented by 12 million of free and prosperous people, military despqtism would be no,v rearing its triumphant head. But Washington and Hancock, and Adams and Jefferson and Henry and Franklin, lived in that period, and sustained the poor miserable, and abused Gov- ernment. As time and experience threw more light on the puhlic mind, the GoYernmcnt was improved and by degrees strengthened, and at length attained that degree of strength and greatness which now comm.ands universal respect & admiration. Will the people of Texas pursue a clifTerent course T "•ill they not too support nnd sustain their infant l?Ovcrnmcnt until time is given to improve and stren_gthcn it f Are there none in Texas to imitate the example of ·washi11gton and his illustrious associates? And who will step for- ward and defend it if necessary with their lives. I believe tl1cre arc many and upon such T call. Upon all friends of 'l'cxas, of or1lcr,
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