459
PAPERS OF l\Il'RABEAU BUONAP.\RTE LA !AR
ernrnent, ceased its operations soon aft.er the advance of the enemy within our settlements, and the~· hnve not been resumed. The great importance cf in tituting the means of transmitting intelligence throughout the country, scarcely involves a question; and I doubt not, you will render an early attention to thi interesting subject. The want of such means has been seriously felt by the present adniin- i tration. It will be recollected, that the powers conferred on the government, '' ad interim'' were extraordinary: that they comprised the plenal attributes of sovereignty, the legislative and judicial functions excepted. The -circumstances under which that government ha been administered, ba-ve been equally extTaordinary. Sometime: when Texa was a mo,·ing ma s of fugitive , they have been without "a local habitation,'' and scattered to the cardinal points: again they have been on Galveston island, without a shelter, and almo t without subsis1ence · and never have they been in circumstance of comfort ·and convenience, suitable to the orderly conducting of the grave and momentou bu iness committed to their charge. That error should have been committed, and that duties should have been omitted, under such eircum tances, ;vill not surpri e those who have an honest con- sciousnes of their own fallibilitie . But that those extraordinai-y powers have not been pen·erted to any sinister purpo.se; to the dama"e of the country; to personal aggrandizement; or to t})e creation or advancement of a party; or to the ucces of a peculation; I a sert with a modest but a .firm and assured confidence. Soon after the ,)attle cf San Jacinto, the executive go, ernment commenced a treaty with the captive president of lexico. The ne- gociation was protracted to the 14th of May, when two treaties, one open, the other setJret, •were executed between this government and the president anta Anna. Copies of these treaties are herewith trans- mitted. ome stipulations of the treaty (regarding the negociation as one) have been complied with on the part of the :Mexican president; and this government as ayed to execute that engagement which relate to hi transportation to Vera Cruz. The treaty Wl¥i made in good faith, and was intended on the part of thi government, to be faithfully executed. But a highly exasperated popular -commotion, aided and sustained by the interpo ition of the army, imposed an ab~olute neces- sity upcn the government to uspend their compliance with that article of the treaty, and to remand the captive 'president to his confinement. General Santa Anna was subsequently confided to the custody of Capt. ·wm. II. Patton, who had been despatched by the army for the purpose of taking him in charge·: and from that period he has been regarded as the prisoner of the army. The civil government bas exercised no control over hi.m, and has felt no official responsibility in relation to hi person. The battle of San Jacinto is one of those illn trious events which not only throw a grace of intense interest, into the pages of history, but sometimes determine the fate of nations. It was a triumph not -only of arms, but of soul: not of mere animal po"~er, but of intel- lectual and moral impulse. The relative numbers of the combatants was of minor importance; for had the enemy posse sed three times
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