ourselves all hope of a formal recognition. By lelling him depart in time lo sustain his authority at home, we assure Lo ourselves a certainty thal our independence can be recognized and al least a probability that it will. It is due to the Government to slate that they never thought of abandonjng our unfortunate friends who are still prisoners with the Mexicans. It was stipulated that they should first be given up, and in order to ascertain that the interesting clause was complied with, Lhe vessel intended to convey the President Santa Anna and our commissioners lo Vera Cruz, was to touch at Copano and at Matamoras, where the Commissioners could learn all the relative facts and act accordingly. Those commissioners were the honorable Lorenzo de Zavala and the honorable Baily Hardiman, gentlemen of high character and worthy of all confidence. According to the best information the whole number of prisoners that have escaped the bmtal policy of our enemies and are still preserved among them, is about one hundred and fifty. Those who know even by report, the rigid severity and the rusgusting filthiness of a Mex:ican prison, can form some idea, of the anxiety of those brave but unfortunate defenders of Texas, to be released from their loathsome condition. By detaining Santa Anna, you necessarily protract their sufferings, and cause them to feel, in all the anguish of reaJization "that hope deferred makcth the heart sick." How long have these brave and generous spirits, the most of whom have voluntarily relinquished all the comforts of a plentiful home,, to aid us in the darkest hours of our struggle, and have nobly "rushed to the rescue" of Texas, languished under the torments of a loathsome imprisonmenl? Have their sufferings no claim upon the sympathies of the citizen soldiers of Texas? IL was the fond wish of the Government to terminate their sufferings, and to manifest the gratitude of Texas lo all those who have bared their bosoms to the storm in her defence. What benefit or what gratification can the detention of this redoubtable Santa Anna confer, that will cancel our obligations lo those gaUant men and compensate their protracted miseries? I have not yet been able to descry, in the future, one single advantage to result from keeping the President of l\'Jexico a prisoner of war. But, You citizen soldiers have recently visited the scene of his most vile atrocity.
117
Powered by FlippingBook