interesling subject. The wanl of such means has been seriously felt by the present administralion. lt will be recoUected, Lhat the powers conferred on the governmenl, ..ad interim" were cxtraodinary: that they comprised the plenal attributes of sovereignty, the legislalive and judicial functions excepted. The circumstances under which that government has been administered, have been equally extroardinary. Sometimes, when Texas was a moving mass of fugivives, they have been without "a local habitation," and scallered to the cardinal points: again they have been on Galveston island, without a shelter, and almost without subsistence: and never have they been in circumstances of comfort and convenience, suitable to the orderly conducting of the grave and momentous business committed to their charge. That errors should have been committed, and that duties should have been omitted, under such circumstances, will not surprise those who have an honest consciousness of their own faUibilities. But that those ex lroardinary powers have not been perverted to any sinister purpose; to the damage of the country; to personal aggrandizement; or to the creation or advancement of a party; or ·the success of a speculation; I assert with a modest but a firm and assured confidence. Soon after the baltle of San Jacinto, the executive government commenced a treaty with the captive president of Mexico. The negociation was protracted to the 14th of May, when two lrealies, one open, the other secret, were executed belween this government and the president Santa Anna. Copies of these treaties are herewith transmitted. Some stipulations of the treaty (regarding the negociation as one) have been complied with on the part of the Mexican president; and this government assayed to execute that engagement which relates to his transportation to Vera Cruz. The trealy was made in good faith, and was intended on the part of this government, to be faithfuUy executed. But a highly exasperated popular commotion, aided and sustained by the interposition of the army, imposed an absolute necessity upon the government to suspend their compliance with that article of the treaty, and lo remand the captive president to his confinement. General Santa Anna was subsequently confided to Lhe custody of Capt. Wm. H. Patton, who had been despatched by the army for the purpose of taking him in charge: and from that period he has been regarded as the prisoner of the army. The civil government has exercised no control over him, and has felt no official responsibility in relation to his person.
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