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54
THE WAR IN TEXAS.
they have ceased to give anxiety, to call the
attention, and to keep the rest of the Republic
in more or less alarm?
When this demonstration of facts is undeniable,
what right have these new-coming adventuirers
to try to subject the immense majority
of the nation to their caprices, or their good or
bad opinions? If they once formed part of
this nation, it was not by a natural right, but
by a generous gift, of this same nation. In
virtue of it they were received, and they were
received conditionally. It was told them,
'you will have a home, country, liberty to
work; we will give you lands to cultivate, and
their fruits you may enjoy; we will respect
your natural rights, and will concede you our
civil ones; but all on condition that you will
subject yourselves to our laws, obey the supreme
government, and will not disturb the
union and tranquillity of the people who foster
you.' Did they ever comply with so just, so
necessary a condition ? Soon they became
unworthy of the gift, and they deprived themselves
of rights that never were other than
eonditional.-Of any other department whatever,
notwithstanding the natural right of land
of which they were possessed, none have the
wish to subject others to their caprices; on
the contrary, only the obligation of yielding
to the National majority is expressed. What
appearance of reason and authority have these
aliens to give the slightest shade of legitimacy
to their revolt? ' The same right that had America
to create itself independent of Spain,' they
dare, with some other perverse revolutionaries,
to exclaim in its behalf! !! Ignorant and barbarous
beings! Let them assign in the
archives of nature, one alone of the irresistible
titles on which, was founded the right of emancipation
of the Americans. These were masters
of their land, because on it they were born,
and to it,hey were destined by the supreme
arbiter of'the whole Universe: mastei, because
they inherited it from their mothers and grandmothers;
master8, because from their cradle
they have cultivated it with their hands, water-ed
it with their tears and sweat, making it fertile
and productive; masters, even through respect
to their parents, since they had arrived
at the age of virility; masters, aboie all, of the
soil and of themselves, because the infallible finger
of Nature had marked the indestructible
limits of separation, interposing between the
Metropolis and the Colony two thousand
leagues of ocean, and making by the same, incompatible
with union and dependence, the
felicity and well being of this immense people.
This is the primordial object of all human societies,
to which ought to be directed all
means, and from which removed all obstacles.
Where are in the Colonists of Texas these
natural titles to the right of soil that our innocent
generosity gave them? Where the im.
possibility of being happy? But why tire ourselves
in parrying revolutionary phrases that
could only be derived from the greatest igno
rance,
or more surely from undissimulated bad
faith, desirous only of sedtcing aad dazzling.
There is no less temerity and falsehood in
the calculation of the resources in which they
confide, and of the support on which these new
comers appear to pride themselves. They
boast of being countenanced by the govern.
ment and respectible people of the United
States of North America, and publicly divulge
that they patronize their revolution and their
views: atrocious injury to a nation reputed to
be just, wise, and that proves how to calculate
its proper interests. How can it be possible
that this circumspect republic trampling on the'
faith of treaties and all the principles acknowledged
as sacred by the right of nations should
lend its hand to revolutionary subjects to assassinate
their faithful friends? In spite of our
situation having been identical to their own,
and our contest with Spain in every light just,
with what cautious prudence, with what impartiality,
in fact, did this nation not act towards
us ? What help did it give us ? What
succour either of arms or men, or of any other
kind? They contented themselves with forming
secret votes .in their hearts in favor of our
liberty and justice, but respecting their treaties
of amity with Spain, and still more the inviolable
principles of the rights of nations, they
saw us combat, and they left us to fight alone.
They desired our triumph, but they knew that
no nation is entitled to create itself an arbiter,
or to meddle in the domestic dissentions of
others: that to violate this principle, or any
other of those of eternal justice, is to endanger
their own existence, renouncing the right of
its conservation and authorising others to revo.
lutionize their subjects, and introduce amongst
them the cancer of disunion, the infallible precursor
of death. She knew, that h/mn could
only be done to the enemys and even that to a
certain degree either to indemnify or place her
on her guard and no more; but to act so towards
friends, is the blackest of infamy. It is
a crime that heaven never leaves unpunished.
They knew that the violation of treaties and
every other injustice, was always punished
sooner or later by nations; and if the shortness
of man's life is such that visible chastisement
finds him already in the tomb, and that the
sword strikes oh the stone, the loni life of nations,
oa the contrary, more certainly invites
retribution for the bitter evils they have caused.
How then, could they even imagine that this
nation, so circumspect in those times ia which
they could have been disculpated in acting in
conformity to their just wishes, would now aid
the factious and encourage the wicked, in violation
of the solemns treaties of friendship which
unite them to us?
Could it, besides, have so little foresight in
its politics, not to perceive the alarm of other
nations, in the concession of an intent which
so greatly injures its commerce, and threatens
its peace and its existence? If at some day
(which is the delirious calculation of the re