N. B. Messrs. Wilson and Postlethwaite's assertion, that my authority is not recognized in Texas, and, that I derived it from the former Governor Smith, is as unfounded as the rest of their statements. My authority is recog11ized i11 Texas, and I do not derive it from the former Governor Smith. I derive my appointment and authority from a law of the land passed by the full Legislative power of Texas, and sanctioned by the Executive, and it was conferred upon me in the most flattering manner. The two parties, that divided that administration, united upon the question, and there was not one dissenting voice. I give, below, the preamble and the most relevant section of the law. [Council to Chambers, January 7, 1836] This law was ratified by our constitution, and my authority was expressly recognized under the new administration in a communication from the secretary of Stale, in which I was instructed to be unremitting in its exercise. AU the volunteer emigrants I have commissioned and sent out have been received; most of them have been heard from, and no complaints have been made either about lands or rank. Six Generals, I have been informed, have been commissioned, since my appointment and all but one or two of them were strangers in the country. If lo have encountered many of the toils, the privations, and the dangers of the early settlement of that country; if to have devoted my greatest exertions and much of my time lo its advancement and prosperity; if to have served it in several of the highest and most responsible offices of the State; if to have saved to it twenty millions of acres of land by a sacrifice of my own personal interest; if to have written and obtained the passage of laws to secure to a large portion of its inhabitants the titles to their lands; to prostrate the Mexican despotism at Bexar, to establish three political chieftancies and increase its representation in the Congress; to secure to it the blessings of the unmolested and free exercise of political and religious opinions, and of the trial by jury and a separate judiciary; if to have been the first to warn it of the designs of a despot to destroy the Constitution and its liberties, and to suffer impeachment and imprisonment for so doing; and finally, if to have employed more than twenty thousand dollars of my own means in its service, in the discharge of my present commission, and to have charged the Government nothing, would entitle me to equal consideration with strangers, then, these are some of the claims by which, on my return, I might urge a recognition of my rank and authority. But I did not receive my appointment either as a reward or as a favor: I accepted it as a means to render new services; nor is
124
Powered by FlippingBook