economy--and one that has been corroborated by experience in every corner
of the earth, that miserable is the servitude and horrible the condition
of that people whose laws are either uncertain or unknown. I ask, with
a defiance of contradiction, if ours is not and has not always been, in
Texas, the unhappy condition and miserable bondage spoken of in this
maxim? Who of us knows or can by possibility arrive at a knowledge of the
laws that govern our property and lives? Who of us is able to read and
understand and be entirely confident of the validity of his title to the
land he lives on, and which he has redeemed from a state of nature by the
most indefatigable industry and perseverance? Who knows whether he has paid
on his land all that government exacts, or whether he has not paid ten
times as much? Look at the mere mockery of all law and justice which has
always prevailed in place of an able and learned judiciary. Alcaldes, most
of them unlearned in any system of jurisprudence, and unconversant with
legal proceedings of any description, have been elected to administer a
code, scattered through hundreds of volumes and written in languages of
which they did not understand one word.

Who among us is able to confer with his rulers; to represent his wants
and grievances; to ask advice, or recommend salutary changes? Have we had
more than one or two organs of communication with the government, and must
not they have been omniscient to have always understood the wishes of the
people, and incorruptible to have always correctly represented them? Who
of us feels or ever has felt any reliance or can place any confidence in
governmental matters, or can predict with any sort of certainty what in
this respect a day may bring forth? There are thousands of other evils
growing out of our present situation, too hourly, universally and bitterly
felt to require to be mentioned. Who will say that these things do not
exist? Who will say that we have not suffered the harassing uncertainty and
miserable bondage here represented?