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heart, that /ie would be exempt from the general destruction; for the delusion may be fatal to himself and pernicious to others. Let each one of us, then, fellow citizens of Texas, resolve for himself to lay aside all minor considerations; to bring every selfish and every party consideration into subjection, and, with a generous violence, to present them, as one grand and glorious sacrifice, at the altar of our country's good. Political parties are, perhaps, inseparable from all human societies; and they sometimes exert a salutary influence on the body politic. But, situated as we are, the intemperate and exclusive influence of party spirit is peculiarly dangerous. Our numbers are comparatively few, our character diversified, and our country richly replete with every attraction that is calculated to elicit the native cupidity of man. The picturesque beauty of her surface, the amenity of her climate, and the unexcelled fertility of her soil, present a thousand allurements, which the most chastened spirit of speculation would in vain assay to resist. The spirit of speculation has been actively and zealously engaged amongst us; and hence have arisen many discrepant interests, and a corresponding discordance of feeling. Let us be admonished, fellow citizens, by the concurrent testimony of all history, to avoid the disasters that are usually consequent upon disunion, and which are fearfully aggravated in circumstances like ours. Let us recollect that, while we are disputing about our little individual interests, and anxious to legalize our respective titles to the noble soil we occupy, and the common enemy is advancing upon us, and threatens with an insolence that will derive confidence from our disagreements, to confiscate all titles, and to exterminate all Americans in Texas. Gentlemen of the Convention, we have undertaken a great, glorious and hazardous enterprise; and each of us, and every citizen of Texas is deeply and irrevocably compromitted to its accomplishment. To effect this grand object will require the exercise of many and various virtues. The display of the most rare military prowess is not alone sufficient-we must also show by practical illustration, that we know how to exercise, and to appreciate the milder, less obtrusive, but more useful attributes of justice and truth, which render nations as well as individuals respectable under all the vicissitudes of Lime. We are about, as we trust, lo establish a name among the nations of the earth: and let
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