The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Volume IV, part 1

90

TEXAS STATE LIBR~RY

This is no time for wearing gloves, no time to occupy equivocal posi- tions, no time to stand mute, or extend unmerited courtesies, - the libertis of the Country are now at hazard and let every man run up his true colors I am no empiric, no quack, no demagogue, no disorganizer, no di~turber of the public pieces L sic] and seldom trouble the public by word or write, - seldom bark, and never up the wrong tree; and if I have not now tree'd the most base, the most villanous, the most unprincipled and blood stained, - the most lordly state criminal that modern times has produced; then let the old setler be arrested and punished by the laws of his Country for his audacity Allthough I appear under a feigned name, my true name is left with the editor, not for the purpose of gratifying idle curiosity however, but to be given up, on any lawful demand . His Excellency will know the old setler at sight, will be at no less to known from whence this thirst comes. He know~ that he bore the burden in the heat of the day, - was with him in six troubles and on the seventh did not disert him, - that he has ever acted on principle and in good faith; but never aided to put him in power and that with all his capacity, his powers of mind and in- tellect, with all his 'diplomatic blandishments, - he has ever viewed him as a man possessing too much vanity and art to be trusted And however light he may view the old setler, he might find his weight extremely in convenient on the last stretch of a well contested heat; and however impotent, he might find his dagger hard to parry on the last bulwark of liberty No man who is not inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself, that his single unsupported, desultory unsystematic en- deavors, are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united cabals of unprincipled and ambitious men. When bad men combine, as in this case, the good must associate ; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle Men cannot act with effect, who do not act in concert; men cannot act in concert who do not act with confidence; and men cannot act with confidence who are not bound together by common opinions, common affections, and com- mon interests. As liberty is dear to all, and a good to be improved, and not an evil to be lessened; it is confidently hoped that the citizens of Texas will adhere to their declaration, and on this subject be united and without dissention form one solid phalanx The people should recollect that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; and that procrastination is the thief of time, and has through every airr been the ruin of mankind What is done in this matter should be done promptly before we are compromitted with other governments; and before the besom of confusion is thrown among us, for desperate sit- uations produce desperate councils and desperate measures The citi- zens of thirty six particularly, can appreciate these remarks; they know, and felt, what happened then; let them with all others unite at once and prevent a recurrence of so great a calamity This unprincipled empiric, this incubus on the energies of his countrymen, has by his mystifications and quackery endeavored to influence the people to think that Texas cannot stand alone, and that her only hope for security is annexation to the united States, and that by his secret intrigues he has been acting in a way to compell that government to take us at all hazards; and that we are looking up to that as the forlorn hope, and should it fail, our National existence must terminate He has pur-

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