Texas in 1850. By Melinda Rankin. Page: 62 of 196

TEXAS IN 1850.

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nity on which their operation is most fatal. If such
causes are permitted to exist in Texas, however much
the good sense and virtue of the people may retard
their operation awhile, they will ultimately produce
their deleterious effects.
Timely precaution will save this interesting State
from the sad influences of an indiscreet management of
those affairs in which is suspended her future destiny.
With such precaution, Texas may be seen rising into
a mighty fabric of social, political and religious order,
soaring by degrees to eminence and distinction, diffusing
her benign influence abroad, and descending with
increasing improvements down through future generations.
How is such a mighty work to be accomplished ?
It is evidently not a work that can be performed in a
day, nor can it be matured by one individual. It is to
be the result of an extended and comprehensive system
of arrangements, like a piece of machinery, with wheel
joined to wheel, and each one necessary to secure the
successful operation of the whole.
A concentration of minds is necessary, minds formed
for action
minds that know what human nature is and
how it is to be operated upon -minds that can lay
plans for the accomplishment of purposes, and that can
devise mrans for their execution. "The children of
this world" should not be permitted to be " wiser in
their generation than the children of light." With the
immense advantages which Texas possesses, imagination
finds no difficulty in viewing her in the course of a few
years, with her fertile lands in a high state of cultiva6*