withdrawn. It seems they were mistaken. I have seen letters from some of them regreting the unintentional injury they had done him. Doct Archer is stilJ lying at Victoria. I understand he is on the mend.
Very Respectfully Your O ht Servt P, H, Bell.
[Addressed:] To Genl. Mirabeau B Lamar Brazoria Texas
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[4157] (BURNET to PUBLIC]
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To the People of Texas No. 1.
As a general mle, it may be considered objectionable for the Chief Magistrate of the Government to appear before his Constituents, in vindication of his public conduct, while he is still exercising the functions of office. But general rules admit of exceptions, and in the present instance. the exception is founded on so many extraordinary circumstances that I trust even the most fastidious advocate for political etiquette will admit the propriety of it. I will not offer a minute detail of these circumstances, one alone is sufficient. The fact that we have heretofore been deprived of the benefits of a Press, the great vehicle of truth and or error, is a prominent feature among the many difficulties and embarrassments that have compassed our path from the beginning, and I am persuaded it has contributed much to the censures that have been so liberally bestowed on the present Executive Government. In truth the whole condition of Texas is, and has been extraordinary. It was extraordinary that a people comprising about fifty thousand souls, should undertake to achieve an absolute independence of a country lying in a juxtaposition and containing a population of eight millions of souls. And it is still more extraordinary that they should have succeeded, as far as is already done, in an enterprise of so high import against such apparently fearful odds.
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