P.\PERS OF I1RABEAU BUONAPARTE L .\l\IAR 367 the face of the globe, and its c1imate is equalled only by that of Italy. It is ituated within the cotton and sugar region, inter ected by numer- ou navigable rivers, and bounded on one side by the Gulf of Iexico, on which there are bay and· harbours well adapted to all the purposes of commerce. It contains at present a population of about 70,000, composed of bold and enterprising men, devotedly attached to liberty anl at all time ready'to defend their homes inch by inch if nece sary. In hort, Texa i l:irger than England or France, and su ceptible of a greater and dens r population.• :Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, our inhuman oppressors not content with enslaving the body, also endeavour to enslave the conscience. · They require us to subscribe implicitly to all the dogrnt1 of a particular religion without reference to our feeling or our cre<?d. Can we submit to this 1 . Will not prayers for our uccess in a cause so righteous ascend to heaven from every temple of God throughout thi land? Did not our fathers of the American revolution contend a well for religious as for civil liberty 2 Did they not firrht, and bleed, and con- quer to establish the acred principle that a11 men have a right to worship .Almigh~y God according to the dictates of their own con- l'Ciences. ,\.nd ,ha11 we, to whom this gloriou inheritance has been .left, ba ely urrcnder the blood bought privilege at the nod and command of an earthly tyrant 1 Perish! perish for ever the hateful thought. 1\Iy feelings will not permit me, o-entkmen to dwell upon the brutal atrocitie and cold blooded massacre of the Mexican army. It is too eYident to require argument, that in the refu al of quarter and in hoi ting the red flag, the inhuman despot, Santa nna, has denrdionized himself. That be now stands before the world as a pirate-the com- mon enemy of mankind. That he has offered an insult to every ci - ilized nation, and ha made it their imperious duty to check his blood tained career. But those martyred patriots have not fallen in vain. ..:\lthmwh their blood h:i been . wallowed by tl1e sands of that :field of death, and their ashe have been scattered by the whirlwind of heaven, yet the ligh.t of their funeral pyre will gather together the sons of liberty who wiJl teach these Jllexican murderers that the A nalo American rnce in a C'an. e so sacred, can never 'lie· nnhonoured and un revenged. 1\Ir. Chairman and Gentlemen, I have done. I trust I have hovm to you that the people of· Texas have, for fourteen years, lived under a government distracted by incessant revolutions, necc sarily in- volving a violation of all law and order, and a total insecurity of per. on and p1•rpert~. 'l'hat no shadow of protection has ever been extended to them; but that on the contrary, a vexatiou , oppres ive, and unconstitutional y tern of legi lation, ha been pursued towards them, calculated and intended to blast all of their hopes, and to dis- hearten of all their enterprise. Superadded to this, I have shown to you that every guarantee of their rights, has been violently, un- constitutionally, and totally destroyed. 'fhat their governor has been imprisoned, their legislature di solved, and an army of mercenaries ent to rivet upon tl1em the chains of a military despotism. Impelled •see Gen. Austin's speech at Louisville. [Note in document].
Powered by FlippingBook