The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 Volume 1 Page: 68
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68
Constitutive Acts
know, Mexicans, the discussions which have taken place
as well as their results.
Your representatives cannot accuse themselves
on this subject,
should enter upon the examination, not only of the form of government,
but likewise of the general existence of a desire to create one. You
of having hurried on the march of events, nor of having given an im-
pulse to the revolution. On the contrary, the nation being dissolved and
disorganised, as well as exposed to be the sport of passions and parties,
the General Congress, smoothing the difficulties, and sacrificing even
their own reputation, lends its aid to arrest the genius of discord' and
disorder, restores peace and tranquillity, and pursues calmly its delibera-
tions.
The division of the States, the installation of its respective legisla-
tures, and the construction of a multitude of establishments, which have
arisen in the short period of eleven months, furnish evidence that Con-
gress has fulfilled in a great degree the hopes of the people, without pre-
tending on this account to attribute to itself all the glory of such pros-
perous principles, and still less the original invention of the institutions
which it has dictated. It had, fortunately, to do with a people obedient
to the voice of duty, and a model to imitate in the flourishing republic
of our neighbors to the North. It knew, fortunately, that the Mexican
nation only intended to shake off passive obedience, and to enter on the
discussion of their duties, interests, and obligations. It was fortunately
penetrated with the desires and necessities of its constituents, and en-
deavored to fix their destinies, by giving to the public spirit a direction,
conformable to an opinion formed by circumstances truly extraordinary,
which had involved in a most disastrous revolution another people be-
yond the limits of Mexico.
The Federal Republic has been, and was the necessary fruit of these
discussions. The systematic tyranny of the Spanish mandarins could
alone induce them to govern so immense a territory by the same laws,
considering the enormous differences of its climates, dispositions of its
inhabitants, and their consequent influence. What relations of con-
venience or uniformity could possibly exist between the burning soil of
Vera Cruz and the frozen mountains of New Mexico? How could the
same institutions govern the inhabitants of California and Sonora and
those of Yucatan and Tamaulipas? The innocence and candor of the
interior populations, have no occasion for laws relative to crimes and in-
trigues which are entirely unknown to them. The inhabitants of Ta-
maulipas and Coahuilas will reduce their code to a hundred articles,
while the inhabitants of Mexico and Jalisco will be on a level with the
great nations which have advanced in the career of social order. These
are the advantages of the federal system: It gives each people the
right of selecting for itself laws, analogous to its customs, locality, and
other circumstances; to dedicate itself without impediment to the crea-
tion and improvement of those branches of industry which it may deem
best calculated to promote its prosperity; to give to its labors all the im-
pulse of which they are susceptible, without the difficulties created by
the colonial system, or any other which, being at enormous distances,
would lose sight of the interests of those it governed; to provide for its
necessities in proportion to its progress; to place at the head of its ad-
ministration, individuals attached to the country, and possessing at the
same time sufficient knowledge to discharge their duties efficiently; to
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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/m1/76/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .