526
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1847
be sanctioned and approved by an intelligent people, no matter by whom attempted. In the course of the remarks which have been indulged in on this floor, Texas has been alluded to-not only its original settle- ment, but its progress and various mutations up to the present moment. It was true that her history had been one of peculiar interest and of peculiar enterprise and peculiar vicissitudes; for though she may have enjoyed her sunny days, gloom and dark- ness have rested upon her, and calamities have impeded her progress. It had been said that the citizens of Texas had gone to that country to assail others' rights. They went there on the invitation of the Mexican Government, to live under a constitu- tion recognised by the world as free and republican-a constitu- tion assimilated to the one under which they had had the happi- ness to live. They went not as vagabonds. They went not to despoil Mexico of her territory, or to rob any portion of mankind of their rights. They went under a grant made to Moses Austin in the year 1821, which was confirmed to Stephen·F. Austin, his son. Three hudred families ·went under grants made by Mexico, for it was then the policy of the Mexican Government to colonize Texas by American citizens. No less than seven grants were made, some to inhabitants of Great Britain, and some to citizens of the United States. They were invited there, and for what pur- pose? Was it to receive a gracious boon, and to make no requital? ,vas it to wrest from Mexico her domain, and live regardless of law and constitution? No. They were to settle and populate a wilderness. A wilderness surrounded only by ordinary influences and inconveniences? Not so. The Indians had so pressed on the settlements of Mexico that towns which had been populous, towns which had consisted of fifteen or sixteen thousand souls, were reduced to mere hamlets. The Ii1dians were pressing on, on every side. They had no frontier, for every village was a frontier, encircled and surrounded by savage tribes, from the seaboard to the interior. They were pressed upon to such a degree, that after the Mexican revolution was well over, they were not in a situation to resist the pressure of the Indians, and became subject to their control. Mexico, in this dilemma, aware of the hardy and enter- prising character of the Anglo-American race, made the grants to those colonists, and guarantied all the rights, privileges, and immunities of their constitution. These were the inducements to the North American race to occupy the wilderness of Texas. They went there. War succeeded war, and the Indian tribes were
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