358
TE..'\AS
TATE LmR.\RY
people? .1:'o! it would be impo ible! I put it to your eandor and republicanism, gentlemen, to say, if the incapability of self-goven1- nient on the part of the Mexican people whieh is demonstrated by the e incessant revolutions-if the insecurity of person and property -and the violation of all law and order which follow a the unavoid- able -con equences of uch commotions-would not have justified the people of Texas in e tablishing an independent government, better calculated to promote their security and happine s Y To this question, there can be but one answer given by the de cendants of the sage and soldiers of '76. Again, it will not be denied in this land of liberty, that allegiance and p1·otecti<rn are reciprocal, and that when a state cea e to protect its inhabitants their allegiance simultaneously ceases. Iexico has never afforded the colonists a shadow· of prote-ction. : When the colonial settlements commenced, Texas was in the occupancy of various tribes of Indian.s, who committed continual depredations and in- humanly murdered many of the most useful and re pectable of both sexes. Not a l\Iexican soldier ever aided in expelling the e Indian - not a gun, nor an ounce of ammunition was furnished the colonists; and not a dollar was paid them for their services. Again, the ~fex- i-can government has for years pa t exhibited a determination to annihilate the colonial settlements. I pass over many minor evidences of this diabolical determination, and come to the law of 6th of April, 1830. By this law, rorth Americans, and they alone, were forbidden admission into Texas. This was enough to blast all our hopes, and dishearten all our enterprise. It showed to us that we were -to remain, scattered-isolated-and unhappy tenants of the wild~rne . Com- pelled to gaze upon the resources of a lovely and fertile region, un- developed for want of population. That we were to be cut off from the ociety of fathers and friends in the United State of the .1:·orth-to prepare comfort suited to ,vho e age and infirmities, many of us had immigrated and patiently submitted to every species of privation, ad whose presents [sic] to gladden our fire ides we were hourly antici- pating. That feature of this law, granting admis ion tQ all other nations except our brethren of the United States of the Jorth, was suffi'Cient to goad us on to madness. Yes, the door of immigration to Texas was closed upon the only si ter republic worthy of the name, which Mexico conld boast of in thi new world. It wa clo ed upon a people, among whom the knowledge and foundations of rational liberty are more deeply laid than among any other on the habitable globe. It was closed on a people who would have carried with them to Texas tho e principles of freedom, and tho e idea.s of clf-gornrnment, in wihch, from birth, they had been eclncated and pt·acti ed. In hort, and worse than all, as it tamp the Mexican government with the foul blot of ingratitude;_ it wa clo cd on a people, who, generously and heroically aided them in their revolutionary tmggle, an<l who were the first and foremost to rccogni c and rejoice at the eonsnm- mation of their inc1°epcndcncc. •'othing but envy-jC'alcus~·-and n predetermination to destroy the colonial ettlemcnt , could have prompt<'<l the paJ sage of this mo. t iniquitous law. Simultaneon!'i with it, all parts of Texas were deluged with garri. ons, in a time of profpnnd peace. In the pre:enr nnd vicinity of th .- gnr-
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