The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 16, July 1912 - April, 1913 Page: 78
464 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
and as He has been accustomed to the elaborate comforts and lux-
uries of an Indian Wigwam, I presume he must be living in a
commodious excavation.
Meditating on the situation and prospect of this Country, and
other interests connected with it, I cannot help lamenting more
and more that free labor has not been its foundation Stone. The
advantages to the Country itself would have been vast indeed, not
merely on the results springing from Men's sense that they were
laboring for their own and their Childrens' advantage, not merely
in beginning upon sound, instead of rotten principles, not merely
in drawing to the land much larger proportions of the orderly and
enterprizing settlers from the free States of the American Union
rather than the reckless people of the South, but because imme-
diately considered it would have left Texas clear of a very dan-
gerous state of circumstances, if the Mexicans do invade the Coun-
try, and indeed I cannot but think that to have made Texas a fine
State, would have been at once to disarm the hostility of Mexico
against it's consolidation, and advancement.
Texas, with a free population would of course have been an
object of great dislike and suspicion to the South Western States
of America, and therefore an effectual barrier between them and
Mexico. And it is manifestly the permanent interest of this
Country to cultivate more intimate and friendly relations with the
people and things Westward of the Rio Grande, than with those
East of the Sabine. If wise Councils could be heard here, I think
they point to a course which it may not yet be too late to pursue,
and which I do fairly believe would be attended with vast advan-
tages to this Country, to our own substantial concernment, and to
the great interests of humanity. My scheme supposes another
Convention in this Country. Slavery to be abolished, the entire
abolition of political disabilities upon people of Colour, perfectly
free trade to be declared to be a fundamental principle; the right
of voting to depend upon a knowledge of reading and writing, and
a pretty high money contribution to the State, with the payment
charge to be made in advance, Congress to have power to lower
the rate from time to time according to the state of the public
necessities; stringent legislation against squatting, in the form of
a land tax and otherwise, improvements upon the well established
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 16, July 1912 - April, 1913, periodical, 1913; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101058/m1/84/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.