407
PAPERS OF !IRABEAU BUONAPARTE LAMAR
they must before the wrath of an injured people, nerved in the cause of liberty and vengeance. Soldiers! your country calls you to her defence. Your homes, yQur. firesides; the scenes of former joys and of your future anticipations; all the endearment of domestic happines , and all the hopes of coming competence and peace, summon you to the field. You are summoned too by the spirits of Fannin and Travis, and their gallant companions, whose blood has cemented the foundations of our freedom. Their flesh has been food for the raven, and their bones have been whitening on the prairies until your pie.us patriotism gathered the scattered relics, with decent sepulchral honors to a soldier's grave. But their glorified spirits, still hovering around the home of their patriotic devotion, call upon you to sustain the Independence which they have consecrated by their martyrdom, and to recompense with merited vengeance the wrongs tbey have endured from a perfidious and das- tard enemy. Shall the call be made in vain? Shall we turn a deaf ear to the voice of our Country, and the beseeching cries of our mur- dered brethren Y Surely there can be no one so insensible to guilt and shame as to look with indifference upon the desolation of his own country. If there be so foul a blot upon humanity; if there be in the whole limits of our land, one who is mean enough, when his home is invaded by an insolent foe, to seek safety in dishonourable flight, I would s.ay to him-detested recreant! retire to the shades of infamy, and sully no more a beautiful land whose blessings belong to the brave and victoricus. Let then every patriot soldier, every worthy citizen who abhors the name of traitor, and contemns the vile epithet of coward rally to the call promptly around the unfurled banner of freedom; let him repair with impatient zeal to the theatre of his nations' glory, and there snatch upon the brink of danger, fame for himself and safety for his country. The dastard who lingei·s behind may live to fatten upon the fruits of his recreancy, but when he dies, he rots in infamy to the joy of all; whilst.the noble hero who makes his bosom 1 he bulwark of a peoples liberty will find a rich reward for toil and valor in the pride of conscious virtue, and the smiles of a grateful nation. If he fall in the holy Contest, he wiil still survive in the affections of his comrades, and his name will gather glory with the flight of ages. . You are locked .to for aid in this.second struggle fol' Independence. Your contributions heretofore have not been proportioned to your por,ulation. Fe" of ~,cu have pai·ticipated in the toils and glory of the strife. Your homes have been exerr pt from the calamities of war. For that exemption you. are indebted to the 0 allantry of your more exposed and suffering countrymen. Whatever circumstances may have restrained you before, there can remain no reasons to withhold your services now. We know your courage; your skill in arms is familiar to us all. Your country requires the immediate exhibition of both- let both be displayed when the great and decisive battle which is pending, shall be fought, and Texas is free, sovereign and inde- "Each little rill, each mountain river, "Rolls mino-ling with his fame forever." Citizens of the Red lands!
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