Produced by William Flis, Stan Goodman, Charles Franks and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
Extracted from a work entitled "A Geographical, Statistical and
Historical account of Texas," now nearly ready for the press.
Some of these numbers have appeared in the New Orleans Bee
and Bulletin.
1836.
It will be seen that the title of this little pamphlet implies more thanit contains. As war is now the order of the day, only a small portion ofthe political part of the work on "Texas" is here presented. It is hopedand believed that enough is unfolded to convince the most incredulous thatthe colonists of Texas have been forced into this contest with themother country, by persecutions and oppressions, as unremitting as theyhave been unconstitutional. That it is not a war waged by them for cupidityor conquest, but for the establishment of the blessings of liberty and goodgovernment, without which life itself is a curse and man degraded to thelevel of the brute. If the time-hallowed principle of the Declaration ofIndependence, namely, "that governments are instituted for the protectionand happiness of mankind, and that whenever they become destructive ofthese ends it is the right, nay it is the duty of the people to alter orabolish them." If this sacred principle is recognised and acted upon, allmust admit that the colonists of Texas have a clear right to burst theirfetters, and have also a just claim for recognition as an independentnation, upon every government not wholly inimical to the march of light andliberty, and to the establishment of the unalienable rights of man.
No. I.
The unconstitutional oppression long and unremittingly practised upon thecolonists of Texas, having at length become insupportable, and havingimpelled them to take up arms in defence of their rights and liberties, itis due to the world that their motives, conduct and causes of complaintshould be fully made known. In order to do this it will be necessary toexplain the origin, progress and present state of the colonial settlements.Without parade or useless preliminaries, I shall proceed to the subject,as substance and not sound—matter and not manner are the objects of thepresent discussion. It is known at least to the reading and inquiringworld, that on the dissolution of the connection between Mexico and Spainin 1822, Don Augustin Iturbide, by corruption and violence, establisheda short-lived, imperial government over Mexico, with himself at the headunder the title of Augustin I. On arriving at supreme power, Iturbide orAugustin I. found that vast portion of the Mexican government, east of theRio Grande, known by the name of Texas, to be occupied by various tribes of