The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 Volume 1 Page: 399
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Laws and Decrees of Coahuila and Texas.
289
( 399 )
der the pretext of having issued laws on religious and other reforms, con-
sidered contrary to the federal and state constitutions. If this alone
caused a general and simultaneous movement throughout the republic,
what may be expected from the violent reforms, that now occupy the at-
tention of your honorable body?
The manner they are attempted has justly attracted the attention of
this legislature The subject is of great importance, besides, this body,
representing the people, proud of having always sustained the immutabil-
ity of the fundamental principles of the constitution, would be wanting
in its most sacred duty, were it to refrain from manifesting to your hon-
orable body its ardent desires for their preservation, and its determina-
tion firmly to sustain them. If at all times, and in all places, reforms
have been dangerous for Coahuila and Texas they would be more so now
than ever. Bordering on a powerful and flourishing republic, and a con-
siderable portion of its territory already settled with thousands of inhabi-
tants, whom the spirit of change does not suit, and who cannot conform
to such inconstancy in the most essential acts of the public administra-
tion, the contemplated. reforms would highly compromit, not only the
internal order and tranquillity, but also the very integrity of the national
territory. For effecting these reforms, ideas and opinions have been ad-
vanced in your honorable body, as unreasonable as if the present general
congress considered itself possessed of unlimited power to alter the con-
stitution. It is not conceived how a national representation, owing its
origin to an existing fundamental pact, can have power to re-reform or
change it as it may think proper. Upon what principle of constitutional
right can it be founded? What former acts for its organization could
have conferred upon it so extraordinary a prerogative? The electoral
acts, from which source its authority was received,—were they not per-
formed according to the same constitution? Then, the present national
congress neither does or should possess more powers than those intrusted
in articles 47, 48, 49 and 50 of the federal constitution, as the people, in
constituting the same, have exercised no other acts or forms than those
prescribed by the same constitution, and in the manner therein provided.
Therefore, the State of Coahuila and Texas, lawfully represented by its
legislature, protests in the most solemn manner, that having joined in
the confederacy by virtue of the fundamental pact, and and on the basis
therein established, it neither does, or ever will, recognize the acts and
measures emanating from the general congress, should they not conform
to the plain meaning of the aforementioned articles. It will admit no
other amendments of the constitution than .those effected conformably
to the steps and requisites provided in the same; on the contrary, it will
regard any measure, transcending these legal provisions, as a violation
of its sovereignty. A fatality, ever to be regreted, has inclined
us to endeavor to repair one evil by means of another. When a
revolution is breaking out in the south of the state of Mexico, the mo-
mentous and exciting question of reform is introduced and dis-
cussed with warmth in the general congress; some laws are repealed
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Gammel, Hans Peter Mareus Neilsen. The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 Volume 1, book, 1898; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth5872/m1/407/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .