Messrs. Wilson and Postletrwaite, too, it would seem, have aimed at distinction, but such distinction as no philanthropic or honorable man could desire. Scared at the toils and dangers which every where beset the path to true glory, impatient at its length, and filled with rage at their first disappointment in the small consideration of petty precedence, they seize the incendiary torch of Erostratus and apply it to the temple of our liberties. Their intention entitles them to the renown; but the gratification which would have resulted from the mischief will not be theirs; for the foundations of the temple of our liberties have been laid deep in the principles of justice and natural right and they have been firmly cemented by the blood of many heroes; and the superstructure has been built of materials far too solid lo be affected by the torch of an incendiary. Yes, they are, indeed, likely to acquire a most unenviable celebrity, and there is but one path l_eft for them to take by which they may avoid it. I hope I have been mistaken in the motives which I have atrributed to them, and which seem certainly to be those by which they have been actuated in concocting their publication. I hope that they may have been mistaken in their impressions about the condition of Texas, and that they have not wilfully misrepresented a suffering people. If they feel conscious that this has not been their design, let them suspend their opinions and their publication, return to the country, explore it through the different neighborhoods, and examine it in person: let them study its past history, its present condition, and its fuhue prospects, and they will find they have been mistaken. Let them rejoin their former companions and aid in establishing its independence, or make amends for the injury they have done it by correcting their error, and they may yet avoid the infamy which will certainly cover them, by its being believed that they have wilfully and maliciously attempted to deprive a suffering and patriotic people, struggling for liberty and existence, of the aid and sympathy of the world. Let them do this; and let them show to the world a good account of the administration of the large bounty of a munificent public that sent them to defend an oppressed people, and then, perhaps the world will not believe that they have laid before it their publication, to calumniate and defame a whole people, for the purpose of gratifying the malignity of disappointed avarice and vanity, and of covering an inglorious retreat from the defence of a good cause, and a disgraceful abandonment of their companions in arms and the flag entn1sted to their honor and protection by the fair votaries of liberty. T. Jefferson Chambers.
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