of freedom, and those ideas of self-government in which, from their birth,
they had been educated and practised. In short, and more than all, inasmuch
as it stamps the Mexican government with the foul blot of ingratitude,
it was closed upon a people who generously and heroically aided them in
their revolutionary struggle, and who were first and foremost to recognize
and rejoice at the consummation of their independence. Nothing but envy,
jealousy, and a predetermination to destroy the colonial settlements, could
have prompted the passage of this most iniquitous law. Simultaneous with
it, all parts of Texas were deluged with garrisons in a time of profound
peace. These garrisons extorted and consumed the substance of the land,
and paid for their supplies in drafts on a faithless and almost bankrupt
government. In their presence and vicinity the civil arm was paralyzed
and powerless. They imprisoned our citizens without cause, and detained
them without trial, and in every respect trampled upon our rights and
privileges. They could not have been sent to Texas for our protection,
for when they came we had expelled the savages, and were able to protect
ourselves; and at the commencement of the colonial settlements, when we
were few and weak, and scattered, and defenceless, not a garrison--no! not
a soldier came to our assistance.

As another evidence of the hostility of the Mexicans to the Colonists, I
will instance the following:

On the 7th of May, 1824, when the Republic was divided into States by the
constituent Congress, the territory called Texas, not being sufficiently
populous for a Slate, was united to Coahuila, but it was specially decreed
by Congress that whenever Texas was sufficiently populous to figure as a
State, she should make it known and be admitted. In 1833, the people of
Texas, knowing that their numbers exceeded those of several of the old
States, in solemn convention formed a constitution, and sent on a delegate