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TEX.AS ST.\TE LIBR.\RY
ex-president of :i\Iexico may really sicken and die is a most melancholy tmth; and unfortunately it applies with equal force to each one of us as to himself. Sir, we must all die. It is the lot of human nature, and I cannot see how the destiny can be averted by his going to Wash- ington City. I believe people die there as well as in the town of Orozimbo. His excellency's argument rises now to its climax, alarmed first for his captive's health, then for his comfort, he now adYances to the awful apprehension of murder; he asks may not some rash person (as has been attempted) take his life by violence 9 I answer by saying that such an event can be easily prevented by proper vig- ilance; there is no necessity for sending him out of the country to keep him from being assassinated, and that his safety can be rendered more certain by keepil1g him a prisoner than ·by turning him loose. Sir, I must say 'tl1at I am of the same opinion still, which is, that. Santa Anna should not be set at liberty at this particular crisis, that he should not be released until our independence is acknowledged, and then only by the advice and consent of the senate I These if I mistake not are the most prominent pcr11aps the only arguments urged by his excellency in his veto 11iessage in support of his project. That the prisoner is of no use to us, that it is very ex- pensive keeping him. That the climate does not agree with his con- stitution-that he might even get sick or die, or peradventure be killed by somebody, and therefore he requests that "the assembled wisdom of 'rexas (I quote his words) permit him to leave the coun- try," for if permitted says he "to depart to the City of Washington with an escort, those embarrassing considerations will :it once be ob- viated." ·what considerations 1 The very ones which I have jnst mentioned; if I mis-quote, or do injustice to his argument, I am liable to correction. Now, l\fr. president, I would respectfully ask if these are satisfac- tory arguments to make his excellency doubt which course he ought to pursue in reference to Santa Anna, Arc they of that nature whirh we had a right to expect from the source whence they emanated f or are the sentiments justified by the character of the tyrant in whose behalf they are uttered f If stronger considerations cannot be urged, his excellency will liave to gather proselytes by some other process than the eloquence of reasons he has had recourse to, he had better trust to /he dispcnsalwn of favors than to rely on his arguments. The supporters of his projected measures, however, hnYe ~one be- yond him in ingennity and invention, and as the ,,ie"·s t]1cy take of tho question are more comprehensive and rational. I must turn to their reflltatiou and ~xposure. "\Ve are told by the gentleman from Brazoria, \\'ho seems to be the president'R cl1ief champion on the q1H'stion and who has a wonderful facility in supplying all the lapse's in his excellency's arguments, that Santa Anna was once ours for vengennC<', but he is now ours for pol- icy. These I think arc his very words, and they convey when pi·operly scrutinized, a species of morality to which I cam1ot subscribe. He is neither ours for ve11gem1ee or for policy, he is our for justice only. Vengeance i.<: mine saith the lord. :!\Inn has 110 right to inflict pun- ishmeut upon that principle. ·when n ~uilty culprit is hefore 11s for comdcmnation, the sentence shoul<l be founded upon law and equity,
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