The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 Volume 1 Page: 489

Proceedings of the Convention of Texas.
15
(489 )
_Not a voice, nor an arm was uplifted. We had confidence in the correct
intentions of Government, and we believed and hoped, that when the
momentary excitement of the day had subsided, a returning sense of jus-
bice and liberality, would give this obnoxious law, a brief duration. For
more than two years we have remained in this peaceful—this unmurmur-
ing attitude. About this time, the heroic and patriotic Gen. Santa Ana
arose, as the vindicator of Liberty and the. Constitution. We had confi-
dence in the purity of his motives. We believed that the evils which he
battled to redress, were of an alarming and crying magnitude, of no less
a magnitude, than an utter disregard of the Constitution, on the part of
the vice-president and his ministers—with Gen. Santa Ana we united, as
fellow labourers in the same sacred cause, prefering rather to perish in
defence of the violated charter of our rights, than to live in acquiescence
to acts of arbitrary and unconstitutional power. What we have done in
this matter, is known to government and to the world. It was all in de-
fence of rights, liberties and guaranties that were spumed and tram-
pled upon.
Here, we would ask, what was there in all this, to induce a suspicion of
our disloyalty to the Constitution? Was it our remaining quiet for more
than two years after the passage of the Law of the 6th of April? Was it
in declaring for the Constitution, and in hazarding all we held dear, in
its defence? Would it not have been as easy to have taken advantage of
the troubles of the interior, and to have declared, and battled for, inde-
pendence? Was ever a time more opportune and inviting? Why did
we not then declare for independence? Because, in the honest sincerity
of our hearts, we assure you, and we call Almighty God to witness the
truth of the assertion, that we did not then, that we do not now wish for
independence. No! there is not an Anglo-American, in Texas, whose
heart does not beat high for the prosperity of the Mexican Republic; who
does not cordially and devoutly pray, that all parts of her territory will
remain united to the end of time; and that she will steadily and rapidly
advance, in arts, and in arms, and in agriculture, and in commerce, and
in manufactures, and in learning, and in virtue, and in freedom, and in all
that can add to the splendour and happiness of a great nation. As an
evidence that we wished not for independence, nor for a coalescence with
the United States of the North, your memorialists would respectfully
.refer your Honorable Bodies to the. following fact:
A short time since, it was rumoured amongst us, that the President of
the United States of the North, expressed a determination to make the
Naches, instead of the Sabine river, the line between the two Republics.—
This, hitherto unheard of claim, provoked the indignation of every in-
habitant of Texas, and our constituents have, with one voice, called upon
us to memorialize your Honorable Bodies, on the subject of the injustice
of such a demand. May it please your Honorable Bodies, your memor-
ialists trust that they have conclusively shown, that the whole tenor of
their conduct has been characterized by good order and patriotism.
The destroying influence of the Law of the 6th of April, 1830, upon
the prospects of Texas, has been only incidentally attended to—that ef-
fect of the law, being too obvious to require expatiation or argument.
This law is, likewise, as injurious to the National Revenue at large, as to
us individually: for it is evident that the greatness, the power, the wealth,