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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1842
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Texians to surrender their private arms. The mask was thrown aside, and the monster of despotism displayed in all the habil- ments of loathsome detestation. Then was presented to the Tex- ians the alternative of tamely crouching to the tyrant's lash, or exalting themselves to the attributes of freemen. They chose the latter. To chastise them for their presumption, induced your advance upon T'exas with your boasted veteran army, a force in number nearly equal to the whole population of the country at that time. You besieged and took the Alamo-but under what circumstances? Not those, surely, which should characterize a general of the nineteenth century. You assailed one hundred and fifty men, destitute of every supply requisite for the defence of the place. Its brave defenders, worn down by vigilance and duty beyond the power of human nature to sustain, were at length overwhelmed by a force of nine thousand men, and the place taken. I ask you, Sir, what scenes followed? Were they such as should characterize an able general, a magnanimous warrior, and the president of a great nation, numbering eight millions of souls? No! - manliness and generosity would sicken at the recital of the scenes incident upon your success; and humanity herself would blush to class you among the chivalric spirits of the age of vandalism! This you have been pleased to class in the " succession of your victories," and, I presume, you would next include the massacre at Goliad. Your triumph there, if such you are pleased to term it, was not the triumph of arms; it was the success of perfidity ! Fannin and his brave companions had beaten back and defied your veteran soldiers. Although outnum- bered more than seven to one their valiant, hearty and in- domitable courage with holy devotion to the cause of freedom, foiled every·effort directed by your general to insure his success by arms. He had recourse to a flag of truce; and when the sur- render of the little patriot-band was secured by the most solemn treaty stir,ulations, what were the tragic scenes that ensued to Mexican perfidy? The conditions of their surrender were sub- mitted to you, and - though you have denied the facts - instead of restoring them to liberty, according to the conditions of the capitulation, you ordered them to be executed, contrary to every pledge given them, contrary to the rules of war, and contrary to every principle of humanity! Yet at this day you have the effrontery to animadvert upon the conduct of Texians relative to your captivity after the battle of San Jacinto. . . You have presumed to arraign the conduct of the then ex1stmg
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