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PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
ing it thus early, and before we could formally invite you, fellow citizens, to concur with us in this important matter. ot only the threats of those petty tyrants here, who have so long trampled upon the rights of your brother Americans, but the official communi· cation of the government itself, now in our possession, prove that we were selected as the victims of destruction, and that a brutal soldiery were soon to be let loose upon us. Could we any longer hesitate what course to pursue 1 o, fellow citizens, you would have done the same! Your property taken without process~your liber- ties invaded-your persons violated at the point of the bayonet with- out eve[n] the forms of trial, [.................. . ..... ..... ] and extermination, as [we] have been [ ................. .... ........ ] planted the standard of your own security and protection. The same necessity has made it expedient for us, without delay, to make a conditional treaty with the Indians on our orth. This government it seems had made them verbal promises of grants, which, with them, are considered binding. They have under this fatal confidence, emigrated to the orth of this Province in great numbers. They, like many of us, have been treacherously deceive(l by this corrupt government, and have long since resolved to occupy the lands which were promised them. In this state of things, despairing of any chance for our rights and our liberties, and even of protection against an external foe, and finding it all important at thi portentous moment to our security, and to the establishment of that Independence which we have resolved to effect, and which we believe every reflecting man in the Province has looked forward to as an event inevitable sooner or later, we have been c·ompelled without delay to make such a conditional treaty 63 as has secured to the Americans the friendship of their Red brethern, and the sue- . cess of that cause which they have undertaken. In making this com- pact with the Indians, we had to de ignate a boundary line, both parties agreeing on their parts [to res]pect it. In this treaty, the ,·ights of every nian [ ............................ ) and are to be most [strictly] observed [ .... , ........................... ] short, is such a one, as we doubt not, when all things are understood, will be satisfactory to all. It was signed on the part of the Indians by Doctor John D. Hunter and Richard Fields, as the representatives of twenty three nations, and by sever.al other chiefs for their par- ticular tribes. Thus, fellow citizens, have we explained the causes and motives that have influenced us to rally round the standard of Liberty and fudependence, as well as the .attitude in which we now stand. Vv e have not yet made a formal declaration of our Independence, and· are only waiting for you to participate with us in this important and glorious cause. vVe propose that you and the people of every district in this Province should each appoint two delegates to meet • A copy of this .treaty, ·dated December' 21, 1826, is in the acogdoches Archives; it has been printed in Foote, H. S., Texas and the Texans, I, 263.
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