The Texas Almanac for 1861 Page: 37
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HISTORY OF TEXAS. 37
ARTICLE 6.--This instrument being obligatory on one part, as well as on the
other, will be signed in duplicate, remaining folded and sealed until the negotia-
tions shall have been concluded, when it will be restored to His Excellency General
Santa Anna-no use of it to be made before that time, unless there should be an
infraction by either of the contracting parties.
ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA.
DAVID G. BURNET.
JAMES COLLINGSWORTH, Secretary of State.
BAILEY HARDEMAN, Secretary of the Treasury.
P. W. GRAYSON, Attorney-General.
As the proper understanding of that Treaty, which excited a deeper feeling of
indignation among citizens and soldiers than any other event in that eventful
period, is essential to the philosophical appreciation of our history, we hope to be
excused for quoting largely from the cotemporaneous Addresses of Mr. Burnet.
In No. 2, he says: " The executive government have been ignorantly charged with
reposing an undue confidence in the promises of Santa Anna: whereas our rule of
action has been that no confidence could be safely reposed in .Mexicans. We
acted under a firm persuasion, which nothing that has since transpired has shaken
in my mind, that Santa Anna was fully and deeply convinced, by evidence which
no after-suggestions of his own vanity, and no pompous sophistry of his less ex-
perienced compatriots in Mexico could disturb, that his own highest political inter-
ests, and the best interests of Mexico, too, would be advanced by a prompt and
decisive ratification of the treaty. We were, therefore, confident that, so far as
he was personally concerned, there was little reason to apprehend a breach of
promise. But we did apprehend that the general faithlessness of the Mexican
character would present some formidable obstacles to the completion of the treaty.
Much has been said of the individual faithlessness of Santa Anna; but we took a
broader ground, and acted on the national characteristic of Mexicans. We did
not fear that Santa Anna would be faithless to himself and his own ambition; but
we did believe that his late political friends and dependents in Mexico would soon
prove apostate to him, for we knew the faithlessness of Mexicans was less exclu-
sive than that of Turks, and comprehended their own kindred and nation. We
believed that so soon as the captivity of Santa Anna was known in Mexico, new
factions and new chieftains would rise up, and a new revolution ensue; and that
the vaunted 'Idol,' being a prisoner abroad, would soon be discarded and power-
less at home. That a new dynasty would be established, 'with whom it might be
an affair of malignant gratification or of party politics to denounce every act of
Santa Anna, and to build up their own popularity on promises to retrieve the dis-
asters of his campaign. The reputed faithlessness of Mexicans does not preclude
them from a large share of national vanity. This feature of their character is as
distinct and prominent as the other: the only difference is, the one is ridiculous,
the other detestable. The vanity of the new chieftain would prompt him to attri-
bute the failure of Santa Anna to defect of skill or of courage, and to assume,
with all the confidence of an untried hero, that he could easily effect the conquest
of 'the bandits of Texas,' notwithstanding the misadventures of his predecessor,
and thus establish a factitious and transitory fame on the ruins of Santa Anna's
boasted invincibility."
In pursuance of the treaty, the Mexican Chief, with his suite, was embarked on
the armed schooner Invincible, Captain Jeremiah Brown, on the first day of June,
1836. A short time previous to leaving his little tenement on shore, he presented
for distribution the following address, in MS. to his late victors.
FAREWELL OF GENERAL BANTA ANNA TO THE TEXIAN ARMY.
VELASCO, June 1, 1836.
MY FaRIENDs: I have been a witness of your courage in the field of battle, and
know you to be generous. Rely with confidence on my sincerity, and you shall
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The Texas Almanac for 1861, book, 1860; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123767/m1/37/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.