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PAPERS OF MIRABE.\U BUONAPARTE LAMAR
Iturbide betrayed the King, and set up the standard of independence in :Mexico· .Americans again poured into Texas,-through their means the Spaniards were a second time expelled, and through Texas the means were afterwards principally obtained, by which the l\Iexicans were greatly as i.sted in establishing their independence. A sort of c ntral government wa established in :Mexico, to which the Texians gave their adhesion, were encouraged and rewarded for their aid in expelling the Spaniards, in order to afford additional ecurity against the common enemies. Texas was therefore won by tho e who now hold it. It was theirs by conquest, as much as Mexico, San Louis, or Vera Cruz was won by the inhabitants of those provinces. But these di tinct parts of the dismembered Spanish vice royalty, had no more right to lord it over Texas than they had to lord it over each other. If they united afterwards to form a league or a common government, it was by the consent of the parts, a in the case of our confederacy. rTeither Mexico nor Vera Cruz fell heirs to all tbe claims of Spain, or were the residuary legatees of her power in this part of America. Texas belonged to the people of Texas, and these were nearly all natives of the United States. They joined the confederacy of 18'24, upon the footing of one of the states, but this has been put down by the bayonet, after many bloody battles in :uexico, in which Santa Anna has principally acquired all his military reputation. Texas remained faithful to the con titution; the consequence was, that a military force was marched to compel its inhabitants to submit to Santa Anna, to delive,· 1tp their arms, to profess the Cath(}lic 1·eligion, or to quit the country. The truth is, their aid against pain wa no longer needed; they had built hand ome towns and villages; they had es- . tablished hundreds of plantations; they had filled the prairies with innumerable herds, and here was a tempting booty to the Iexican officers. The _pretext of putting down negro slavery is ridiculous, when we consider that African slavery was never introduced into :i\Iexico, becau e the Mexican civilized Indians have always been held in a state of ervitude more abject and more convenient. . Some great proprietors have as many a a thou and, and even two thou and, of this kind of enslaved peasantry, and they would have stocked Texas with them without delay. The whole of ew Spain, accord.inrr to Humboldt, contained five or six millions, with only si.x thousand Afri- cans, and their de cendants. Can we suppose that the Spaniards, the author of negro Javery in America, and who have so extensively intrcduced it in their islands, would have shown this strange anomily as respect l\lexico, from a conviction of the injustice of slavery 1 The subject de erves to be deeply pondered. This is a plain statement of the ca e. In addition to thi , it may be proper to mention, tbat the Mexicans, unrrrateful for the immense aid rendered by our countrymen, and the countenance of our government in recognizing their independence no sooner conceived themselves safe, than they began to indulge rr{ the most grossly illiberal feelinas to our -country and countrymen. The poor Texians were treated in the most shameful manner-their humble remonstrance and petitions were spurned, and the bearers o! them cast into prison. Was it in the nature of things for them to
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