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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
blood she drinks. Has she not made you the slaves of her slaves? And are you not now the tributary vassals of the voracious plunderers whom she has ordained to rule over you; governed by laws which you have no voice in enacting; and impoverished by the most unrighteous exactions, extorted for the aggrandizement of those who give you no thanks for the bounty and feel no Commisseration for your sufferings ? and now fellow citizens I would ask you-is it possible that a virtuous and chival- rous people can receive these indignities and outrages and feel no resent- ment? Have the citizens of Santa Fe been so bowed down and disunited by their long continued and accumulated wrongs, that they have lost all sense of shame, and deem it their duty to repay oppression and insult, with fealty and affection?' We cannot think it; we will not believe:- for it is not the nature of man to be enamored by degradation, and Spanial like to lick the foot that spurns him. In this matter, fellow citizens, we sincerely hope that you will take no counsel of your fears. When tyranny lords it over the land, and the liberties of the people are trampled in the dust, it is no time to shrink from danger, or to think of consequences. It becomes the duty of every individual to draw his sword and vindicate his rights, or give his life to vengeance. And if you, fellow citizens, have any desire to break the manacles that despotism has rivited upon you; and unite with us in the enjoyment of that freedom which our valor has established, you too may have to draw the sword as we have done, and trust the issue to the Goe! of Justice. We are ready to mingle with you in the contest, and make the destiny a common one, and if it be will of RI:M: who desides the fate, of Nations that we should seal our devotions to the cause of liberty with the blood of Martyrdom-then be it so.-We are prepared for the sacra- fice; for it is better to die like heroes than to live like slaves. But we will never go down in darkness. Each faithful sabre glowing with .the wrath, and brightening with the fame of its wearer will throw upon the pathway to death a gleam of its burning fires and lightnings. And who would not rather march to the grave by the lig-ht of his sword than sigh out a degraded existence in the darkness of slavery? The recreant minion of power may wear his masters collar as a lady does her lovers wreath of roses; and he may clank his chains and dance delighted to the music that they make; but the free born patriot, who is conscious of the nobility of his nature, will never acknowledge any master but God, and will wear no bonds but death. After all, however, it is due to you, to ourselves, and to the sacred cause in which we are engaged to state unreservedly that the propriety of the step which we advise you to take must depend entirely upon the moral condition of your population, and the degree of patriotic senti- ment that prevails amongst vou; and of this you must be yourselves the judges. If with one accord," you all detest oppression above any earthly bane, and unanimously regard liberty as the most -precious gift which heaven has bestowed on man; and fell f sic] that you are capable of draw- ing a fearless weapon against the things you hate, and for the things you love then we can have no possible misgiving as to the propriety of the course we recommend, or any distru~t of the beneficial consequences that will flow from it. But, on the other hand, if it should turn out, in oppo- sition to the high confidence which we have in vour firmness and patriot- ism, that you are an effeminate people who ~rnuld rather surrender a
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