TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
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to pass it by altogether- This is about all I have in relation to these two subjects- And now pray, what are you about that you are in such haste? Are you writing for one joint publication, or on your own hook- You must not forestall us- If for the first, take care we do not conflict We must compare notes- I have finished nearly all I propose to furnish-have some few short documents to copy, and I shall be ready for the press-I think we ought to publish before long- it ought to go to our Legislature in good time to counteract his intrigues there I apprehend a strong effort will be made to get him nominated- William has been very sick and is still confined to his bed but I trust is convalescent- Present me to Mrs. Lamar-- Yours &c David G. Burnet No. 2497 1855, [CIVILIAN AND CITY?] GAZ[ETTE, GALVESTON, TEXAS] "LAFITTE AND HIS ASSOCIATES" 95 LAFITTE AND HIS ASSOCIATES GALVESTON ISLAND has suffered long under the imputation, made ·by three-legged Willie, of having been "the former stamping ground of Lafitte and his pirates." Lafitte, it is true, had a bad reputation at one time, but that was when he made his head-quarters at Bara taria. He redeemed his repu t ation by fighting for the Americans, and General Jackson gave him a new "charader." His suh,;equent opera tions were of the "patriotic" kind, or at least of the fillibustering de scription. In_ 1817, a numher of adventurers, claiming to act under · authority of the revolted Spanish colonies, undertook t0 wage war against Spain, and for this purpose planned an expedition against Florida, then a province of Spain. This enterprise was led by "Citi zen Gregor McGregor, Brigadier General of the armies of the United Provinces of New Grenada and Venemela, and General-in-Chief, em ployed to liberate the provinces of both the Floridas, commissioned by 1he Supreme Governments of Mexico and South America." So many "titles respectable" do not look like piracy. )IcGregor and his men took possession of Amelia island, at the mouth of the river St. Marys, near the boundary of the State of Georgia. This aroused the jealousy of Uncle 8am, who was chaffering for Florida himself; so President Monroe thought proper to give Citizen McGregor (whose citizenship appears to have been of that comprehensive character termed cosmopolitan) and his followers a bad name. In his first mes sage to Congress, Mr. Mo11roc said that Florida, being bounded on every side by the United States and the ocean, belonged to our coun try by a sort of manifest destiny; that the administration was then negotiating for it with Spain, "in exchange for territory (Texas) of equal value;" (we should think so;) that it excited the Executive sur prise that any countenance (he had an indifferent one) should be
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