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TEXAS.
A BRIEF ACCOUNT
OF THE
ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE
OF THE
COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS OF TEXAS;
TOGETHER WITH AN EXPOSITION OF THE CAUSES WHICH
HAVE INDUCED THE EXISTING
WAR WITH MEXICO.
Extracted from a work entitled "A Geographical, Statistical and
Historical account of Texas," now nearly ready for the press.
Some of these numbers have appeared in the New Orleans Bee
and Bulletin.
1836.
PREFACE.
It will be seen that the title of this little pamphlet implies more than
it contains. As war is now the order of the day, only a small portion of
the political part of the work on "Texas" is here presented. It is hoped
and believed that enough is unfolded to convince the most incredulous that
the colonists of Texas have been _forced_ into this contest with the
mother country, by persecutions and oppressions, as unremitting as they
have been unconstitutional. That it is not a war waged by them for cupidity
or conquest, but for the establishment of the blessings of liberty and good
government, without which life itself is a curse and man degraded to the
level of the brute. If the time-hallowed principle of the Declaration of
Independence, namely, "that governments are instituted for the protection
and happiness of mankind, and that whenever they become destructive of
these ends it is the right, nay it is the duty of the people to alter or
abolish them." If this sacred principle is recognised and acted upon, all
must admit that the colonists of Texas have a clear right to burst their
_fetters_, and have also a just claim for recognition as an independent
nation, upon every government not wholly inimical to the march of light and
liberty, and to the establishment of the unalienable rights of man.
CURTIUS.
TO AN IMPARTIAL WORLD.
No. I.
The unconstitutional oppression long and unremittingly practised upon the
colonists of Texas, having at length become insupportable, and having
impelled them to take up arms in defence of their rights and liberties, it
is due to the world that their motives, conduct and causes of complaint
should be fully made known. In order to do this it will be necessary to
explain the origin, progress and present state of the colonial settlements.
Without parade or useless preliminaries, I shall proceed to the subject,
as substance and not sound--matter and not manner are the objects of the
present discussion. It is known at least to the reading and inquiring
world, that on the dissolution of the connection between Mexico and Spain
in 1522, Don Augustin Iturbide, by corruption and violence, established
a short-lived, imperial government over Mexico, with himself at the head
under the title of Augustin I. On arriving at supreme power, Iturbide or
Augustin I. found that vast portion of the Mexican government, east of the
Rio Grande, known by the name of Texas, to be occupied by various tribes of
Indians, who committed incessant depredations on the Mexican citizens West
of the Rio Grande, and prevented the population of Texas. He ascertained
that the savages could not be subdued by the arms of Mexico, nor could
their friendship be purchased. He ascertained that the Mexicans, owing to
their natural dread of Indians, could not be induced to venture into the
wilderness of Texas. In addition to the dread of Indians, Texas held out no
inducements for Mexican emigrants. They were accustomed to a lazy pastoral
or mining life, in a healthy country. Texas was emphatically a land of
agriculture--the land of cotton and of sugar cane, with the culture of
which staples they were wholly unacquainted; and moreover, it abounded in
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