PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR 73 pletely his vassals and subject entirely to his controll. Other equally spurious .and speculative grants allready located in the east he expects also to acquire. The cherokee territory as empresario seemed to be his first aim, as a starting point to his ambition; its entirety with other advantages and emoluments is now his object These he can neither acquire from Texas or the United States. Our independence acknowl- edged or annexation to the united States would finally close the door to all his ambitious projects; - and as he has done, will secretly use all his energies to defeat either, The new and present positions 11c- quired both by him and Santana since our revolution, places him in a situation which accords with his predominant disposition; which strikes on certain latent qualities of his soul, and awakens them into action; and as the leaves of a flower gradually unfold to the sun, so shall all his true character open full to view. The Napoleon of the west and the Wellington of the East, with which heroic titles, they pleased to tickle each other; both being cast in the same mould, both governed by the same vile passions, and seeking similar objects; were easily and naturally assimilated to each other by courtisies and brotherly kindness. Our hero did not only cede to Santana, by his infamous treaty, the victory acquired by our troops at Sanjacinto, in which he compromised the independence and liberties of the Country which he certainly had no wish to acquire; but he furnished that base murderer with a safe escort to Washington City in the U. S. with a request to the executive of that Government to furnish him a safe convoy to his own country This as a matter of courtesy to the new republic was done These kind courtisies and attentions to the ciminal, cost our hero nothing, and was calculated, and intended to lay him under last- ing and never to be forgotten obligations of an individual character; but were not intended, nor were they viewed by the receiver, as per- taining to Nationality. When Santana arrived in Mexico he found himself in disgrace, and his power supplanted by Bustamenta Hence he had to commence his operations of mining and sapping to reestab- lish his supremacy, where I will leave him for the present and take up the thread of my narative It is well known to my readers that the nominal leader of the -army was made the first constitutional President. Santana not being in power to second his play, and his cherokee treaty, (as before ob- served known to but few,) and by them considered as defeated, was entirely lost sight of. He was too prudent to touch that string directly himself; but like a skillful engineer covertly and secretly continued his mining operations at the only remaining assailable point, with a hope that he would be able to indirectly coax the senate to a ratifica- tion of his treaty as an alternative, for ultimate security to the frontier. His favorite Cherokees was then in the Country and in the occupancy of the territory ceded by him in the treaty, and if they should become hostile would render the situation of the east precarious. He occa- sionally visited the east and his brotherinlaws visited him at the white- house. The indians took their cue and assumed a menacing atitude; murders were committed, the people became alarmed, he sent his agents among them ostensibly to keep them quiet, but more particularly that their reports could be laid before Congress, with a view to create capital for their benefit;- towards the close of his administration their dep- redations became more frequent, the indians more hostile, agents were
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