The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 Volume 1 Page: 488
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Proceedings of the Convention of Texas.
14
“The mass of Europeans are here alluded to.—Many Republicans among
them are brilliant exceptions to these remarks.
( 488 )
The passage of this law, was a mortifying and melancholy occurrence
for Texas. It -was mortifying to us, because it must have been founded
on a suspicion that we were disposed to rebel: such suspicions did us great
injustice—for we had uniformly exhibited strong proofs of our attach-
ment to the Constitution.—It was a melancholy event for us, for it blasted
all our hopes, and was enough to dishearten, all our enterprize.
It was peculiarly mortifying, because it admitted into Texas all other
nations, except our friends and countrymen of the United States of the
North: except the fathers and brothers of many of us, for whom we had
emigrated to prepare comforts and homes, and whose presence, to glad-
den our firesides, we were hourly anticipating. Yes! this law closed the
door of emigration on the only sister Republic, -worthy of the name, which
Mexico can boast of, in this New World. It closed the door on a people,
•among whom, the knowledge and foundations of National Liberty, are
more deeply laid, than among any other on the habitable Globe.—It
closed the door upon a people who would have brought with them to
Texas, those ideas of Republican Government, in which, from birth,
they had been educated and practised.—In short, it closed the door upon
a people who, generously and heroically, aided Mexico in her revolution-
ary struggle; and who were the first and foremost to recognize, and re-
joice at the obtainment of her Independence.—-Is it for a moment to be
supposed, that the European parasites of power, to whom, now alone, the
door of emigration is left open*—that those who have been taught from
infancy to disbelieve in the natural equality of mankind—who are un-
acquainted with Constitutions, even in name—who, politically speaking,
have never been accustomed to think or legislate for themselves—who
reverence the arm of Monarchical rule—who pay adulation at the feet
of an hereditary nobility—and who have contemplated Republics, only
in theory, and at a distance—is it, we repeat, to be supposed, that immi-
grants of this description, will contribute more to the advancement of
liberty, and the welfare of the Republic, than emigrants from that land
of liberal sentiments, that Cradle of Freedom, that Mother of Constitu-
tional Heroes, the United States of the North? If such be the fact, habit
and education must go for nothing, and all experience is set at naught,
and contradicted.
Your memorialists having, as they trust, and respectfully conceive,
-hown to your Honorable Bodies, that their conduct, up to the passage
of the Law of the 6th of April, was orderly and patriotic, -will now turn
your attention, to their conduct since that period.
This law was sufficient to goad us on to madness, in as much as it
blasted all our hopes, and defeated all our calculations; in as much as it
showed to us, that we were to remain scattered, and isolated, and un-
happy ' tenants of the wilderness of Texas, compelled to gaze upon the
resources of a lovely and fertile region, undeveloped for want of popula-
tion, and cut off from the society of fathers and friends in the U. S. of
the North—to prepare homes and comforts suited to whose age and in-
firmities, many of us had -patiently submitted to every species of priva-
tion. But what was our conduct? As peaceful citizens, we submitted.
The wheels of Government were not retarded in their operation by us.
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Gammel, Hans Peter Mareus Neilsen. The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 Volume 1, book, 1898; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth5872/m1/496/?rotate=270: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .