51
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1842
To CoLoNEL BARRY GrLLESP1E 1
City of Houston, 16th May, 1842.
Dear Colonel :z Owing to the peculiar circumstances in which our country has been placed, at this epoch of her history, by a few disaffected and vindictive enemies--creatures of passion, who are using every exertion, not only at home, but abroad, to em- barrass the powers of the Government; I have concluded to ren- der you such information as I deem important. Of my motives and my actions, there has been no misapprehension here-nor were they "oracular." They are known to be such as comport with the necessities through which I have been struggling. But this has not prevented the most malicious misrepresentations. Meetings have been called, for no other purpose (in some instances) than to set at defiance the authorities of the country, and for the avowed intention of raising a force and advancing to the frontier in contempt of the Executive and under leaders of their own creation. But in this they have been rebuked and mortified by a most signal failure. The people are too wise to be gulled, and too patriotic to disregard the safety and honor of their country. These incendiaries would not, I presume, exceed twenty in number; but they are composed of men who have some smartness, some means, and possess all the attributes of mischief. Unemployed in the acquisition of honest gains, they wish to pro- duce a state of things in Texas, which will enable them to trample upon the rights of the people, and like Robespierre and Danton, cry out for the "will of the people," when in truth, they would, if it were in their power, reduce them to anarchy; and when the people would attempt to rise from its paroxysms, they would crush them to a condition of moral degradation. Who are these men? They are not men who have shared in the toils of the Revolution; nor have they stood shoulder to shoulder with those who have embraced the perils of a well- fought field. They are men who have no principle but self; and aside from that feel no affections. The plea for all their opposition is, that the Executive will now disclose his plans, and say when the advance shall be made upon Mexico. That they have not the gratification of the least success -although I do not regard it as an evidence of generalship-I will say to our friends in the United States, and to those who are fully preparecl to emigrate, I wish to see them at the rendezvous at Corpus Christi between the 20th and 28th of July. This an- nouncement is induced by letters from the United States, and,
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