fore lH tho i11vita1ions and guar:1111ces under which the <'Olonists imi_;rated lo Texas. Lel us examine into the manner in which tlu-sc condi ions ha\·e heen complied with, and these f!altering prom:ses f11llilled. The clonatiun of 4,444 acres sou1:ds lar 5 ely a1 a clista:1ce. Considerin;;, however, all the circumslances, the clifficuhies of laking posse5sio11, &c. it will not be deemed an en- tire g;ra111i1y or magnificent bounty. 11 these lands had becu prC\'i<H1sly pioneered by the cntc1 prise of the Mexican g0\'ern- 111ent, and freed from the insccuriti ·s which hcsct a wildf:rncss, trod only l,y ~arngcs-if they ha,I h:wc been si1uated in the 11. .;rt of an i11lrnbi1ecl region, and ace essib'.c to the comfo11s and necessaries of life-if the gm•ernmcnt had have been clcri\'ing all' :>ctunl I C\'C1rne, and if il could hm•c realised a capilnl froin the sale of them-then we admit Jhat the dona1io11 would ha\'e been 1111exampled in the history of individual or national liberali- ty. But how lamentnuly difforent from all this \HIS the real stale of the case. The lands granted were in the occ11pancy of savages and situa- ted in a wilderness, of \I hich the go\·ernment had ne\·er taken po3sessio11, and of which it could nol with its own citizens ever ha\'Ci taken possession. They were n ,1 5ufficien1ly explored to obwin that knowledge of Ll:cir clrnracter and situation necessary to a sale of 1he111. Thry were sh11t 0111 from all c0m111ercial in- tercourse \\ iil1 the rest of tlic world, and inaccessible Lo 1l1e com- 111011cst comforts of life; nor were they l,rought into possession and cultiration by the colonists without much toil and pri\'alion, and patience nncl enlerprisc, and suffering and blood, and loss of lives from Indian hostilities, and other causes. Under the smiles of a be11ignm1t l:caven, l:oWC\'<'r, the umiring per~evcrance of the coloai5ts Lriumphed over all natural obstacles, expelled the sava- ges l,y whom the country was infested, reduced the forest into cnhivation, nil!! made the desert 5mile. From this it must ap- pear that the lnnds of Texas, ahh 1 H1gh n"minally g:\'en, were in fact really and dearly bought. It may lu~re l,e premised that a gift of land,; hy a nation to foreigners on condition of their imi- grating and becoming citizens, is immensely different from a gift by one individunl 10 another. In the case of individuals, the clo- nor loses all furtlic1· claim or ownership over the thing beslo\recJ. Ilut in our cnse, thl' government onlr garc wild lnnd~_, that they
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