"undisciplined, and without an effort to become so;" that there was not even "a roll call or a drill;" that there was no "regular encampment:-no authority nor obedience-with plundering parties for self emolument, robbing private individuals of their property." Unfeeling,-unprovoked misrepresentation! Did no tinge of shame mantle their cheeks-Did no pang of conscience arrest their hands, as they wrote such foul abuse against an army they never saw, and that never injured them-an army, which contains six or seven hundred of their own countrymen, of high-minded Kentuckians-a gallant army, which, for many months, suffered all the inclemencies of the season-exposed to the weather without tents-lying upon the bare ground-half naked-starving for many days-marching barefoot-and at last, with more than Spartan valor, meeting and triumphing over an emeny of more than double their numbers? But, to show al once their total recklessness of what they assert in this matter, and to make it evident that they have formed a picture drawn wholly from imagination, I will subjoin the following note from Capt. G. F. Lawrence, who is well known in Cincinnaiti as a gentleman of respectability and scrupulous veracity. Capt. Lawrence went out to Texas as first Lieutenant of Capt. Allen's company from Cincinnati a short time before the "Ladies Legion" marched from Lexington, and returned with a Captain's commission. He is now in this city with a fine company of
emigrants, and will shortly leave for Texas. [Lawrence to Chambers, September 17, 1836]
This letter shows conclusively, that their statements respecting the army are false; and it would seem that they knew them to be so at the time they made them; for it refers more particularly to that small portion of troops stationed on the Island, that came immediately under their personal observation. And who are they, who, in the wailing of these "minstrels returned from the wars," are pronounced to be "wholly incapable of a just idea of civil and political liberty?' Whence are they? Have they come from China? or did they emigrate from Turkey? As Messrs. Wilson and Postlethwaite seem to be wholly ignorant upon this subject, I will tell them who the Texians are. I will inform them that they are North Americans by their birth, their education, and their affections. Bold, ardent, and enterprising, they have left their native country to hunt for adventures, to improve their fortunes, or to give a wider scope to their energies. They love danger because it is their companion by day and their bed-fellow at night, and because it excites to daring and generous action. They are indifferent to wealth, because a genial climate, a soil of matchless
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