The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Volume VI

336

TEXAS STATE LIBRARY

establish our society solidly.- Let us lay the foundation of union order and liberty.-Let us unite ourselves in order to make impossibl~ tyranny and license.- Union is force and independence.- Thus we will establish firmly peace, justice and progress in the interior; thus we shall obtain sympathy and gain respectability from the ·great na- tions which today look upon us with disdain, pity or scorn.- Let us overlook what is small, futile, and ominous: let us consecrate ourselves to what is honorable, useful and great.- If patriotism, faith, liberty, noble ambition for knowledge and glory have given rise to all illus- trious people, to all heroes, and to all martyrs,- isolation, division, the miserly interest and unsocial egotism have not produced anything ex- cept barbarism, slavery and death.- Everything ought to tend to Central-American unity and harmony.- Not to recognize it is to condemn [ourselves] t? perish- 'l'hink of it and work for your wel- fare, [that] of your constituents, and of your brothers. When peoples and governments, closing their eyes to the rays of the true light, lose their way, when going around in a vicious circle they hold onto the worn out doctrines; when they do not succeed in emanci- pating themselves from their worn out and unsustainable traditions;- when they do not compre11end the changes which the marvellous work of the centuries has brought about; when they do not unite themselves to the generations which go forward, they throw themselves head-long and confound themselves, co-operating actively in the immortal work of humanity-the torrent of civilization carries them off like trifling pawns, a people stronger, happier and more intelligent places a dis- graceful seal on their foreheads, and the conqueror makes the con- quered people expiate their crimes with ignominy, slavery, and blood! Let us not deceive ourselves then, and reuniting all our physical and moral forces, let us save the nationality and the Central-American family from the ominous shipwreck which threatens it.- Let us trust in divine Providence, but let us never forget the precept- "God helps him who helps himself." Perhaps very soon it will be indispensable to make a new sacrifice strengthening the force which watches over our Western frontier; per- haps the time will not be long in coming when it will be indispensable .to unite our well proved arms with those of our brothers who at present are fighting for the. common cause.- If thus it happens, I hope, I trust fully that my summons will be attended immediately by you and by the good sons of Costa-rica. Then, as now and always, I shall not yield to anyone the most enviable of the glories, the consecrating my- self entirely to my country in peace as well as in war, as 'citizen or first magistrate,-that of shedding my blood if it should be necessary, in defence of the laws, of the honor, and of the independence of my Country. Ju.AN R. Moll.A :San Jose, Costa-rica, August 3, 1856. t Endorsed:] President Moras Message to Congress 1856.

Powered by