327
PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LA11rAR
public notoriety induced the Congress precipitately to adjourn, and in- definitely to postpone this and a mass of other matter. I have not as yet been advised that l\fr Ikin is an "English capitalist" as he is described in the Texian papers, nor have I found any per.son either here or in England disposed to pronounce him such. I think the information will be considered quit::i new altho' I would not pretend to judge of the private affairs of another. As to any acts or resolutions of the Congress of Texas as to my titles they were shewn to Mr Ikin and published with the other public acts of Congress, and he with others was left to judge of them; and as they were passed long after his purchase from me, they would not by any pretence justify his selling the_script to innocent emigrants for direct location; after the warnings he had received; and the subse• quent passage of the laws of Texas on this subject, I told him that all that I contemplated were equitable propositions to the Government of Texas, and to be guided by the result in sending out emigrants. At the time of his purchase of this script I told him that all that was intended was a compromise with the Government, and not an unqualified pretension to locate the script, and he expressly proposed to me to share proportionably in the compromise. T told him he must compromise on his own footing by holding out inducements to the government. But he obtained from me a paper that he should share proportionably in any compromise I might make with the government, provided it accorded with my own views of the compromise but that this must be left to my free discretion as I would not be bound to any thing of the kind, and he took a paper from me to this effect. Let him pro- duce this paper. What right had he, under this view alone, to sell to em'igrants, and send them out in the dark, for the purposes of location at this late period when script of this kind was a subject of public notoriety. He did not hear or see me pretending to send out emigrants after the first congress of Texas: and he has sworn by the affidavit above stated, that he took the script to be held and treated according to the laws and policy of Texas. How came he then in despite of those laws and that policy long since known and promulgated, and of which he had notice, to sell this script to those emigrants, and through them for his own purposes, raise a char.Iatan and revulsive scene in Texas, tending to the impression that that country is guided by partial impulse, against which innocence cannot guard, instead of the sedate and responsible motives and high respect to equal and impartial right which should in· spire and control the councils of a nation. Would not the encourage- ment of such effects deter the enlightened and prudent parts of man- kind from hazarding their peace, rights and property by passing within the ·confines of Texas. Would she not become a troubled and unnatural sea, where even the chart and compass would be useless. This will Texas be, if she forsakes mind. the bulwark of republics, and shift her power into weak or passionate hands. From the credulity or sinister motives of particular individuals she was near being led to the same error • in the case of passports, originating in untruth, and inflamed by aspiring weakness, which had nothing in it but disinterested usefulness, and no overcharging-or the obscurest shred of any thing objectionable, and which was twice fully explained to the then government. By any thing
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