WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1842
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any plan calculated to test the superiority of the two nations on the field of battle, and bring the war to a close by arbitration of arms. Her hostile demonstrations, thus far have consisted, ex- clusively, in the clandestine approach of small bands of rancheros from the valley of the Rio Grande, for plunder and theft, but sometimes associated with the fragments of the Mexican army, composed for the most part of convict soldiery, fit for nothing either honorable in enterprise, or magnanimous in conduct. The people of Texas being, for the most part, agriculturists, engaged in the tillage of the soil, the consequences of this predatory sys- tem of warfare have been to them extremely vexatious and harrassing, without in any degree hastening the adjustment of the difficulties existing between the parties. Entirely different is the character of the Mexican population. They are literally a nation of herdsmen, subsisting, in great measure, on the pro- ceeds of their flocks and herds. They can move about from place to place, and make their home wherever inclination or convenience may prompt, without detriment. Hitherto the conduct and disposition of the Government and people of Mexico have been diametrically opposed to those mani- fested by the people of Texas. While the one has been depredating upon the property and dwellings of our exposed and defenceless frontier, murdering the inhabitants in cold blood, or forcing them away into a loathsome, and too often fatal captivity; inciting the murderous tribes of hostile Indians, who reside along our north- ern border, to plunder our exposed settlements, stimulating to the most cruel and barbarous massacres and inhuman butcheries, even of our defenseless women and children, and to commit every excess of savage warfare - the other animated by the hope of a further resort to arms and their attendant calamities, for injuries received, returned forbearance. The President has sought to abstain from the effusion of blood, and in that aim has uniformly restrained the impetuosity and calmed the excitement of his countrymen, so often aroused by a course of conduct which violates every right both private and national, and a cruelty and depravity which would disgrace the darkest ages of feudal barbarism. The popular impulse might have been turned upon.the enemy, on their soil. The result might have proved that a free people, burning with vengeance long restrained, could levy a heavy retaliation.
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