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entered inlo between General Houslon and General Santa Anna is ' established beyond disputation. The effect of lhal Armistice, il is my present purpose lo elucidate. Had the Mexican Chief, whose failhlcssnes.s and cruelty have been published lo the world in every variety of aspect and every shade of coloring, been hewn down on the battle ground by some gallant Texian, as were hundreds of his vassals, the world would have hailed the event as a just retribution for lhe many and wanton injuries we had sustained al his hands. But he escaped the dignity of such a fate. He was brought into camp a prisoner of war. Had the Commander-in-Chief of lhe Tcxian Army, even then, promptly pronounced his doom, and carried the stern decree into effect, by causing him lo atone with his own life, for the lives of the gallant Fa11nin and his brave companions, the world would have sanctioned the bloody sacrifice; and the humanity of lhe most humane,· would have discerned enough of miligalion, lo neutTalise every feeling of disgust. But Santa Anna was received a prisoner of war. Let it nol be imagined that I intend to censure ~eneral Houston for receiving his distinguished prisoner to the hospitality of his camp. So far from this is true, that I am persuaded, the magnanimity exhibited to a captive "whose war of extermination" had partaken largely of lhe spirit of Vandalism, will reflect a lustre on the moral character of Texas, thal will blend beautifully with its military fame. Before the advent of the blessed author of lhe Christian religion, even among the mosl enlightened barbarians of antiquity, lhe fate of a prisoner of war, was determined by the capricious and too often inhuman humors of the captor. But the meliorated morals, the refined humanity and the political wisdom of modern times, have smoothed the gruff visage of war, and softened its desultory and ungoverned cruelties, into something like rule. The usages of war are now clearly ascertained and their obligations recognized, by all the powers of Christendom. The laws of nations have been amplified, refined and systematized; and the people that now depart from their benignant precepts, incur certain odium, if not positive chastisement. And what are the usages of war, in relation to one, surrounded and received as a prisoner? That his life shall be preserved is the first and unequivocal axiom of those approved customs. It is the untutored savage only, who immolates his captives to the disembodied manes of his slaughtered friends.
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