sentinel. On one point however, I am settled, the countTy shaU be saved, or I perish! You will communicate this the Col. Hill, with my best respects. Tell him I had not time to write him, for the fiends of destruction are on the alerl. He knows my situation and will excuse me....
Farewell, Henry Smith
[Major William Ward San Felipe]
[1713] [AUSTIN to AUSTIN]
Dear Henry-Mr Ware is 11ot in the city-he is somewhere in the stale of Mississippi-I will lcm·e your letter for him with Mr A. Hodge president of the Orleans Bank- There is great enlhusiasm in favor of Texas in this city, and all over the U.S.-a thousand fold more than I had any idea of- The universal opinion seems Lo be that, we ought to declare Independence im- mediately-it will give us the aid of men of capital and high standing and character who wish for a more extensive field, than a mere party war in Texas- My own feelings and impulses inclined me Lo this course long ago and especially when I left San Felipe- What I said to the provisional Govt. on the 30th. November and 2d December indicates my feelings plain enough- It was unfor- tunate that I came on by water- I should have arrived sooner by land, and I could not have gone to the lower country, where the warm and even violent feelings of some of my friends did at that time to a certain extent precipitate me into party feelings-a thing I have always tryed to avoid- I am now acting and in future shall act on my own impulses, for I have generally found them Lo be correct- I ~o for lndepenclence for I have no doubt we shall get aid, as much as we need and perhaps more-and what is of equal importance-the information from Mexico up to late in December says that the Federal party has united with Santa Anna against us, owing to what has alrcadv been said and done in Texas in favor of Indcpenclcncc so 'that our present position under the constitution of IU24 docs 11s no 2:ood with the Federalists, and is doi1w us ' .. "
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