To his benigned fancy, the spirits of the slain in battle rejoice in the sufferings and gambol amidst the dying agonies of captive enemies. But tJ1e light of Christianity has abolished these superstititions and barbarous rites, and has substituted a code of practice more congenial with humanity and more consonant to the Supreme wisdom and benevolence. If a prisoner of war is, a priori, assured of his life; what is the effect of an Armistice and a treaty entered into with such prisoner? He that reads can answer, for common sense and common justice dictate the reply. The Commander-in-Chief of the Texian Army, in presence of his Supreme Officer, the Secretary of War, djd enter into a treaty with General Santa Anna, and consequent to that treaty, an Armistice was established between the belligerent powers. Santa Anna issued his orders to his second in command, lo retreat with all his forces. Those Orders were remitted to the enemy's camp by General Houston, under a flag of truce. They were proudly obeyed. The enemy did retreat and the Texian Commander was relieved from the inquietudes incident lo the proximity of a hostile and numerically superior force. Who that is at all acquainted with the rudiments of international law, can doubt the import or the validity of the guarantee, arising from this .Military Convention, which assured lo Santa Anna protection to his person? A specific promise was not requisite. Tacit or constructive obligations, when clearly ascertained, are as obligatory as express ones, and the sanctity of covenants relates to the one aswell as the other. Suppose that General Houston had made no positive promise of protection to General Santa Anna: that in the occasional hallucinations of his intellect, he had made a mental reservation, that his captive should still ahidc the vengeance of an injured people: could this secret and disingenuous intention defeat the plain meaning and the humane principles of the laws of war? Assuredly not. The moral character of Texas, was deeply implicated, and a violation of the implied guarantee, would have entailed perpetual infamy on a people just emerging into nationality. Such was the condition of things when I arrived al the camp on Buffalo bayou. The members of the Cabinet were principally there. The worthy Vice President, Lorenzo de Zavala had preceded me some days. The Secretary of State elect, the Hon. Samuel P. Carson, had been compelled hy the infirmities of a
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