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ghts and constitutional liberty. They were
promised the shield of the Constitution of 1824, adopted by Mexico.
Confiding in this pledge, they removed to the country to encounter all
the privations of a wilderness, under the alluring promises of free
institutions. Other reasons operated also. Citizens of the United
States had engaged in the revolution of Mexico, in 1812. They fought
gallantly in the achievement of Mexican independence, and many of them
survive, and to this day occupy the soil which their privations and
valor assisted in achieving. On their removal here, they brought with
them no aspirations or projects but such as were loyal to the
Constitution of Mexico. They repelled the Indian savages; they
encountered every discomfort; they subdued the wilderness, and
converted into cultivated fields the idle waste of this now prolific
territory. Their courage and enterprise achieved that which the
imbecility of your countrymen had either neglected, or left for
centuries unaccomplished. Their situation, however, was not
disregarded by Mexico, though she did not, as might have been
expected, extend to them a protecting and fostering care, but viewed
them as objects of cupidity, rapacity, and at last jealousy.

The Texans, enduring the annoyances and oppressions inflicted upon
them, remained faithful to the Constitution of Mexico. In 1832, when
an attempt was made to destroy that Constitution, and when you, sir,
threw yourself forward as its avowed champion, you were sustained with
all the fidelity and valor that freemen could contribute. On the
avowal of your principles, and in accordance with them, the people put
down the serviles of despotism at Anahuac, Velasco, and Nacogdoches.
They treated the captives of that struggle with humanity, and sent
them to Mexico subject to your orders. They regarded you as the friend
of liberty and free institutions; they hailed you as a benefactor of
mankind; your name and your actions were lauded, and the
manifestations you had given in behalf of the nation were themes of
satisfaction and delight to the Texan patriots.

You can well imagine the transition of feeling which ensued on your
accession to power. Your subversion of the Constitution of 1824, your
establishment of centralism, your conquest of Zacatecas, characterized
by every act of violence, cruelty, and rapine, inflicted upon us the
profoundest astonishment. We realized all the uncertainty of men
awakening to reality from the unconsciousness of delirium. In
succession came your orders for the Texans to surrender their private
arms. The mask was thrown aside and the monster of despotism displayed
in all the habiliments of loathsome detestation.

There was presented to Texans the alternative of tamely crouching to
the tyrant's lash, or exalting themselves to the attributes of
freemen. They chose the latter. To chastise them for their presumption
induced your advance upon Texas, with your boasted veteran army,
mustering a force nearly equal to the whole population of this country
at that time. You besieged and took the Alamo: but under what
circumstances? Not those, surely, which should characterize a general
of the nineteenth century. You assailed one hundred and fifty men,
destitute of every supply requisite for the defence of that place. Its
brave defenders, worn by vigilance and duty beyond the power of human
nature to sustain, were at length overwhelmed by a force of nine
thousand men, and the place taken. I ask you, sir, what scenes
followed? Were they such as should characterize an able general, a
magnanimous warrior, and the President of a great nation numbering
eight millions of souls? No. Manliness and generosity would sicken at
the recital of the scenes incident to your success, and humanity
itself would blush to class you among the chivalric spirits of the age
of vandalism.[10] This you have been pleased to class as in the
"succession of your victories;" and I presume you would next include
the massacre at Goliad.

Your triumph there, if such you are pleased to term it, was not the
triumph of arms--it was the success of perfidy. Fannin and his brave
companions had beaten back and defied your veteran soldiers. Although
outnumbered more than seven to one, their valiant, hearty, and
indomitable courage, with holy devotion to the cause of freedom,
foiled every effort directed by your general to insure his success by
arms. He had recourse to a flag of truce; and when the surrender of
the little patriot band was secured by the most solemn treaty
stipulations, what were the tragic scenes that ensued to Mexican
perfidy? The conditions of surrender were submitted to you; and,
though you have denied the facts, instead of restoring them to
liberty, according to the capitulation, you ordered them to be
executed contrary to every pledge given them, contrary to the rules of
war, and contrary to every principle of humanity.

BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO.

(_From General Houston's Report to Hon. D. G. Burnet, Provisional
President of the Republic of Texas, April 25, 1836._)

I have the honor to inform you that on the evening of the eighteenth
instant, after a forced march of fifty-five miles, which was effected
in two days and a half, the army arrived opposite Harrisburg. That
evening a courier of the enemy was taken, from whom I learned that
General Santa Anna, with one division of his choice troops, had
marched in the direction of Lynch's Ferry, on the San Jacinto, burning
Harrisburg as he passed down. The army was ordered to be in readiness
to march early on the next morning. The main body effected a crossing
over Buffalo Bayou, below Harrisburg, on the morning of the 19th,
having left the baggage, the sick, and a sufficient camp guard in the
rear. We continued the march throughout the night, making but one halt
in the prairie for a short time, and without refreshment.

At daylight we resumed the line of march, and in a short distance our
scouts encountered those of the enemy, and we received information
that General Santa Anna was at New Washington, and would that day take
up the line of march for Anahuac, crossing at Lynch's Ferry. The Texan
army halted within half a mile of the ferry in some timber, and were
engaged in slaughtering beeves, when the army of Santa Anna was
discovered to be approaching in battle array, having been encamped at
Clopper's Point, eight miles below. Disposition was immediately made
of our forces, and preparation for his reception. He took a position
with his infantry and artillery in the centre, occupying an island of
timber, his cavalry covering the left flank.

The artillery, consisting of one double fortified medium brass
twelve-pounder, then opened on our encampment. The infantry in column
advanced with the design of charging our lines, but were repulsed by a
discharge of grape and canister from our artillery, consisting of two
six-pounders, [called "The Twin Sisters."] The enemy had occupied a
piece of timber within rifle-shot of the left wing of o

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