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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
desirable and must be had at all hazards, I would suggest the pro- priety of introducing a different discription, and from a climate more congenial to our own, and such as we know from past experi_ence can be instructed and when imtructcd are serviceable, and not so liable to become a public charge. This course howeYer, wo_uld be considered as making a direct assault on the abilition quacks. And I must admit that of all things wisdom is the most horrified and terrified with ~pi- demical fanaticism, because of all enemies it is that against which she is least able to furnish any kind of resource Old Setler SEAT OF GOVERNMENT I will mention one other provision which was certainly adopted by the convention and intended to be incorporated in the fundamental law which unfortunately does not now appear in the Constitution This provision pointed out the time and manner, or mode, for the perma- nent location of the seat of Government In making a few remarks on this subject, and those directly and incidentally connected with it, I do not aim at making an invidious attack on any man or set of men, save such as will not be mistaken in their application It has been truly said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance Prizing that above every other sublunary blessing I consider it my privilege to investigate the conduct of public men and public measures; as it is by their actions in a great measure that this precious boon is promoted deteriorated or finally lost Measures must be personified in some way or other to be properly understood · If in doing this my remarks should appear pointed or a little caustic the fault will not be mine; but should be refered back to the source from whence the fault or error originated, where it properly belongs As I am no aspirant have no ambitious views to gratify and well knowing that our public men are transitory and fleeting, whilst bad measures by growing into precedent may be- come desirable ;-the greater evil is the most desirable to correct. The lesser though the source and fountain from whence the evil originated is of so fleeting a character, that even whilst you are preparing to castigate, his time expires, he is out of office mixes among the common herd, and is, perhaps, lost sight of forever Our Constitution is the grand chart by which the vessel of state should be conducted. Any deviation from that chart, however slight, should immediately be cor- rected otherwise bad precedents may be established And it is this degenerate fondness for tricking short cuts on little fallacious pretexts that in so many parts of the . world have created governments with arbitrary powers To return from this apologetic digression which by the by, is not entirely irrelevant The provision above alluded to not being incorporated in the Constitution as it now stands, left the loca- tion of the seat of Government (as was the landed interests) entirely open to the legislative will The results anticipated by the Convention, have clearly followed. The first location was Columbia from thence, on a speculation, it was taken to Houston, that speculation completed- thence to Austin, joining the Government as a party, on a grand spec- ulation. The law defining it, to dupe the people, as the permanent location for the seat of Government A City was projected on a large scale, public buildings were erected at an immense expense ;-popu•
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