USA > Texas > The history of the republic of Texas, from the discovery of the country to the present time; and the cause of her separation from the republic of Mexico > Part 37
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The United States are now pouring supplies into Texas, in order that the latter country may be able to fulfil her engage- ments with the Federalists ; and if Texas can only get sufficient slave labour to develope her resources, the Federalists minst succeed eventually, when we shall see slavery revived and per- petuated, and other institutions still more injurious to our interests and repugnant to our national prejudices, established throughout Mexico, whose dismemberment at this or any future period must prove most ruinous to British interests in that quarter.
The recent alterations which have been made with regard to the western boundary of Texas are also worthy of your lordship's attention. Up to the month of May, 1840, the republic of Texas claimned the whole territory lying between the Sabine river, which divides Texas from the United States on the east, to the Rio Grande, or Rio del Norte, on the west ; but at the period above mentioned, the republic of Texas ceded the territory lying between the Rio Grande and the Rio Nueces (in Western Texas) to the new republic of Rio Grande ; the Nueces being the eastern
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boundary of the state of Coahuila, which separated it from the province of Texas, as laid down by the council of the eastern internal provinces or states of Mexico, established under the Mexican federal constitution of 1821. Should the Federalists fail in their attempt to establish the independence of the republic of Rio Grande, Texas will doubtless lay claim again to the terri- tory in question.
* I have the honour to be, Your Lordship's very humble, obedient servant, N. DORAN MAILLARD.
To the Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, M.P. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
DECLARATION OF AMERICAN CONSUL.
To all whom it may concern in the kingdom of Great Britain, United States, republic of Texas, and elsewhere, be it known, that from information just received, I Stewart Newell have good reasons to apprehend that a certain person, named - -, now or late a resident of the city of London, in the kingdom of Great Britain, has been using my name in reference to the validity of title in certain documents called Serip, of the Gal- veston Bay and Texas Land Company of New York, purporting to be titles to land in Texas. And I am further informed that said ---- -- represents his having a certificate or affidavit, with my name attached thereto, and sworn to before a magistrate or other publie officer, wherein I have deposed to the truth and validity of said titles.
Therefore I do now make known that all serip for titles to land in Texas, such as referred to, or any serip purporting to convey the right of said Company, or any other of similar character, to be, in my opinion, a base fraul, and unauthorized by any law of Mexico or Texas ; and that no land can be obtained upon such scrip being presented at any of the land-offices in the republic of Texas, as experience has proved to me and others who purchased scrip of similar character, and as will fully appear by reference to the laws of Coahuila and Texas, and the republic of Texas, the latter having made provision tor the settlement of claims of any and all empresarios, but not of those who claim under them. And I do further declare that said ----- , nor has any other per- son ever received from me any letter, document, or writing, or assurance whatever, of the validity of such titles ; but if any such
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are in his, or other persons' possession, they are forged, and should be treated accordingly.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and private seal, this 30th day of May, A.D. 1840, at the city of Galveston, republic of Texas.
Witnesses present.
STEWART NEWELL.
I, A. A. M. Jackson, Collector of the port of Galvestou, re- public of Texas, do certify that the above-named Stewart Newell, Esq., consul for the United States to Velasco, did sign and acknowledge the above written instrument to be his act and deed, before me, this 30th day of May, A.D. 1840, at the city of Galveston aforesaid,
ALDEN A. M. JACKSON,
Collector, District and Port of Galveston.
Extracted from the Morning Chronicle of 25th February, 1840, taken from the United States papers.
A very important event to English emigrants to Texas has recently taken place. My authority for naming it is the Mobile Chronicle. It appears that the Agnes, a British vessel, arrived at Galveston, Texas, a few weeks since. John Woodward, the Texan consul at New York, had sold to a Mr. Ikin, an English- man, large quantities of Texan lands, to which he "had not," says the Mobile Chronicle, " the shadow of title." The emigrants in question had purchased their lands of Ikin, who is not to blame; and the bitterness of their disappointment may be ima- gined on finding, when they arrived at Texas, that they had not a single acre of land, and that their titles were blank papers. This is (assuming the accounts to be correct in every particular) one of the most cruel and infamous cases I ever heard of. The people of Galveston acted in a very proper spirit on the occasion. They convened a public meeting, with General Hunter, as pre- sident, to express their opinion of Woodward's conduct. They recommended his immediate discharge ; and it is said that the Texan congress will grant donations of land to the unfortunate emigrantes, in addition to their head rights. Persons in Europe cannot be too cautious in buying serip on so called titles to Texas lands.
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TABLE OF MEASURES.
Mexican.
1 foot
is equal to
1 yard or vara
"
108 varas
1000 varas
"
English. 114 inches 334 do. 100 yards. $ 925-2259 1000g or 925 yards, or 2 feet 93 inches.
1000 varas square, or 1 million square varas is one labor,
5000 varas square, is one league,
1771355 acres, or about 1774 acres, equal to about 17,7253 rods 4629 yards, 1 foot, 103 inches, or 2,632, miles, or 2 miles, 201 rods 12 fret, 43 inches.
1 league square, or 25 million square varas is 1 sitio,
"
1428445% acres.
A township of 4 sitios is 17,713-643, acres English. An American township of six miles square, is 22,010 acres. To bring Mexican measure into English. deduct 7165 per cent. To bring English measure into Mexican, add 8 per cent.
4,840 yards make an acre English ; 5,714255, varas make an acre English.
SLAVERY IN TEXAS.
TO DANIEL O'CONNELL, ESQ., M.P.
SIR, -- Being fully impressed with the vast importance of the question which you propose to bring before Parliament on the 18th inst., viz. slavery in Texas, penait me to address you on that subject, and to draw your attention to some of the most important points which are immediately and deeply involved in that question.
The history, Sir, of the various revolutions that have occurred in Mexico within the last thirty years, are, like the annals of all civil wars, written in letters of blood; bat at the conclusion of every Mexican revolution we find something to compensate the lovers of freedom, humanity, and justice, for the effusion of human blood on those occasions.
The Revolution of 1810 under Hidalgo, ended in the total destruction of the Inquisition. The subsequent establishment of the independence of Mexico, by the short-lived emperor Iturbide, placed the people of colour, commonly called " castes," on a level with their fellow-men ; and the degradation of being a mulatto, which is to be attributed, wherever that caste is seen, to the gross
* The above table was prepared by Joseph F. Bridges, surveyor, 173, Green- street, New York ; and is a correct comparison of English and Mexican measure.
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depravity of the African's oppressor, was buried in oblivion. The introduction of republican institutions by the illustrious champion of true Republicanism, Santa Anna, on the abdication of the emperor Iturbide, was speedily followed by the total abolition of slavery ; and all traffic in African blood was for ever pro- hibited in Mexico (1821.) Hence it is difficult, Sir, to imagine the magnitude of the domestic importance of these revolutions to Mexico, while to illustrate the profound impression which their glorious termination made on foreign powers, I have merely to add that the British government of 1825 seized the abolition of slavery (an act which bespoke an honest determination of purpose worthy of the leader of a republican people) by Mexico as the medium of opening our intercourse, and made it the ostensible basis on which our future relationship should exist, and on that basis our relationship with Mexico rests at this moment.
But vast as these revolutions were, they appear nothing when we consider the great political revolutions going forward in Mexico at the present day-the dismemberment of an old, and the creation of a new country. In the former, we are necessarily led to look for the destruction of all that is good and great, and here we have the climax of a nation's calamities ; while the ad- vantages to be derived from the latter by a Christian and humane community, are nothing more than speculative and problematical ; yet how unenviable is the situation of the statesman, whose pro- vince it is to weigh the importance of this subject. But in the discharge of this duty I would not have any man led by any political feeling, as the question is one of humanity between mau and man, in which. the feelings of a brother, a husband, a father, and an Englishman, may be allowed to take their full scope ; and in the absence of these feelings justice cannot be done in this cause.
The sufferings of the slaves in Texas, Sir, are ouly equalled in the annals of human misery by the sufferings of the children of the wilderness-the Indians of that country. These people were invited into Texas by General Madero, a commissioner sent expressly by the council of the eastern internal provinces of Mexico to get the Indians to accept lands in Texas ; and there are persons now in London who were present at the " talks " which took place between this comnaissioner and the Indian chiefs at Nacogdoches in the year 1831. The lands occupied previously by, and offered at this time to the Indians, without distinction, were secured to them by the general colonization law passed by the Mexican congress, tempus 1821, and every Indian now in Texas is entitled to a league and labor of land (1,605 acres Eng- lishy under that law ; and now, forsooth, we are told by the presi- dent of Texas that these Indians are driven from their lands -- that their lands* are available, and can now be sold, to support
* Vide the Morning Post of the 17th December, 1810, containing the President's Message to Congress,
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a government which tramples in the dust one race of men, the Africans, while their arms are employed butchering another, a brave and hospitable race, the Indians.
Previous to the recognition of the independence of Texas, the extermination of the Indians, and the establishment of perpetual slavery in Texas were looked upon by Mexico, and, indeed, the Texans themselves, as a work which they could never hope to accomplish. The Indians have an indisputable right to their lands, and the negroes in Texas to their freedom, under the fun- damental laws of Mexico, which were in existence when their independence was recognised by England, and those laws are still in force ; but the recognition of Texas by England approves, and so gives a moral force to the laws passed by the Texan con- gress both to disinherit the Indians, and to perpetuate the slavery of the negro ; hence the gross injustice, inconsistency, and iniquity of that measure.
The advocates of our treaty with Texas state that our com- mercial operations with Mexico are so insignificant, that they ought not for a moment to be weighed in the scale with the im- mense advantages to be derived from the commercial treaty with Texas. That our commercial operations with Mexico are small, I will admit. But does not that fact alone speak volumes in favour of the commercial enterprise of the Mexicans, whose shores might be blockaded for twenty years without their feeling the least inconvenience ; and it will scarcely be believed, that among these people, who have arrived at this happy state of perfection, i. e. possessing every thing within themselves, scarcely a trace of pure European blood is to be found-two-thirds of the population of Mexico being of pure Indian blood, and the remainder castes or mulattoes.
Although small our commercial operations with Mexico, yet the vast amount, the millions of British capital employed at this moment in the mines of Mexico, and invested in Mexican bonds, should be duly and seriously considered. These our national interests, created in a legitimate way, are immediately and inju- riously affected by the internal commotion of the country whence they occur; but how much more must the British capitalist suffer when the act of his government sanctions a daring and injusti- fiable aggression of a foreign power on a territory, the soil of which is pledged or mortgaged to the capitalist for the principal of his money, while the interest is charged on the external revenue of the country, whose fiscal arrangements are about to be com- pletely overthrown by our entering into a commercial treaty with a people just merging from a miserable oblivion, and whose every com- mercial or rather peddling transaction is contined to the art of fraud.
I do not here presume, Sir, for a moment to suppose that her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has wilfully aimed such a destructive blow at the interests of British capi-
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talists in Mexico ; on the contrary, I think his Lordship, in his anxiety to do justice to all parties, has lent an attentive ear to, and has been grossly deceived by, the paid advocates of Texas in this country. The Mexicans, whose character has, as it were, resolved itself into that of one individual, namely, Santa Anna, a man who committed but one mistake in the course of a long and brilliant career, and that was in the choice of the form of government best suited to the people at the period 1824, at which he was called upon to make the choice. Whether he gave this subject or not the mature consideration it required is difficult to say ; however, in the above year he introduced into Mexico a federal democratic republican constitution, which bestowed on each of the many States into which Mexico is divided, and which formed the Mexican Confederation, the entire control of its own internal affairs. Each State had its own legislative body, which which was held responsible by a general congress of the nation for the administration of justice and maintenance of the consti- tutional rights of the citizen. Under this form of government the position of Mexico soon became critical and extraordinary, and, indeed, almost indescribable. The laws of no two of the States' legislature were alike, conflicting on all points so essen- tially that everything which emanated from the law of one must needs differ in form and tenor from that of another. Thus the entire jurisprudence of the country fell to pieces. In one State a simple assault was punished by death ; while in the next mur- ders were committed daily with impunity. Justice was lost sight of. Peculation and fraud in every department of the States' government was the order of the day.
To remedy this state of things was a task imposed by a large majority of the States on Santa Anna (1834), who, having had ten years' practical experience of the working of the federal sys- tem, did not shrink from the arduous undertaking, but with his usual and peculiar tact and extraordinary talent, he soon brought about a total reformation, abolishing at once the federal, and establishing in its place a central form of government, which was done without disturbing or depriving the people of any one of the great principles of republicanism, and with little or no bloodshed.
Under the central system, the legislative bodies of the States was abolished, and all the legislative and executive power vested in one constitutional congress, of which each State formed a part : and thus the congress became responsible to its constituency for the due exercise of the legislative and executive power, instead of its former constituency (the legislative bodies of the States) being responsible to that body which under the federal system enjoyed sovereign power. Hence, Sir, the simplicity of the central, and the complexity of the federal system, may be readily seen. The former easily defined and to be understood by any people of common understanding, which is precisely what Mexico
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wanted; the latter, a ponderous mass of complicated state ma- chinery, difficult to put in motion, and requiring (to keep up the legitimate action of all its parts) universal intelligence and energy of character, which the Mexicans do not possess.
All the petty factions which existed at one time in Mexico have also resolved themselves into two parties-Centralists and Federalists. The first (now in power) consists of all the patriotic, honest, and intelligent men of the country. These may justly be styled the peace party. The Federalists are but few in num- ber, consisting chiefly of renegade Mexicans, led by Anglo- American refugees from justice. These are now in arms in the northern and eastern provinces of Mexico, and, therefore, may be called the war party ; and I am of opinion that if they get into power, slavery will be established again in that country. That the Centralists possess sufficient strength and energy to put down the Federalists and to drive the Texan slavery banner off their soil, no one can doubt, and that this has not been done before, I attribute entirely to the anxious desire of the Central party to preserve peace : but, how difficult is the task to devise a plan that can at once advance the cause of humanity and jus- tice, and purge the Anglo-American Texan system of civilization of its inhuman depravity without bloodshed ? If the Texans are left unmolested, 80,000 souls are at once given up as a sacri- fice to be offered up on the shrine of Texan liberty, and the bare backs of 10,000 Africans will be kept under the merciless lash of their sanguinary oppressors, in a land where every African was once free, but where a British subject of African descent dare not now set his foot without being taken and sold as a slave for life.
If, Sir, this state of things (and I trust that the historical facts which I have herein brought before you will enable you to take a correct view of them) is to be extended from the Sabine to the Rio del Norte, permit me most respectfully to ask, if it is to be suffered to extend west of that river ? This, Sir, is a question of vast importance indeed, and it would be well to know from the Noble Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether our Govern- ment is about to take steps to prevent it, to secure the independ- ence of Mexico-to check the pollution of the institutions of her free people -- to secure their territory from further piratical aggres- sion -- to define the boundary within which slavery is henceforth to be looked for, and tolerated by this country-and, lastly, to stop the outrageous effusion of the innocent blood of the Indians of Texas.
This, Sir, can only be done (here I speak from personal obser- vation, and with a perfect knowledge of the character of the Texan people,) by England's entering into a treaty with Mexico, guaranteeing the existence of the present form of government [central ] established in Mexico, for a definite period, allowing time for its laws and institutions to become consolidated and habitual to
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the people, and defining the eastern boundary of the Mexican republic, By entering also into a separate treaty, in which the government of England shall pledge itself to co-operate with the government of Mexico, in the suppression of foreign and domes- tic slavery,* and also to co-operate with Mexico in the establish- ment of a commission, to be composed of one commissioner on the part of England, another on the part of Mexico, and one on the part of Texas [when her independence is recognized,] to adjust the claims, and to protect the lives and property of the Indian tribes of Texas.
If this course, Sir, is pursued by her Majesty's government, it will give stability to the government of Mexico. It will unite the people, and so retard the dismemberment of that country, and thus British interests and influence will be secured and pro- inoted, the progress of slavery effectually checked, consistency preserved as far as existing circumstances will admit, and, by stopping the inhuman butchery of the Indians, the cause of humanity and justice will be advanced ; and to Him who works out these landable objects, honour and credit must and will re- dound ; and that these objects, at least, may speedily be secured, you may rest assured, must be the constant prayer of a just, merciful, and Christian people.
I have the honour to be, Sir, Your very humble obedient Servant, London, Feb. 8, 1841.
N. DORAN MAILLARD.
Slavery Laws of Mexico. i.
By Article 30 of the law of the Mex- ican goverment, of the 4th of January, 1323, after the publication of said laws, there be no sale or purchase of slaves, which may be introduced into the cin- pire. The children of slaves, born in the empire, shall be free at fourtren years of age. By the laws of Coahuila and Texas, passed the 24th of March, 1824, (Article 46,) new settlers, as re- gards the introduction of slaves, shall subject themselves to the existing laws, and those which may hereafter be esta- blished. And by a law of the congress of Coahuila and Texas, passed the 23td of March, 1831, there shall be formed in each town a register of the slaves, with a statement of their ages, d'une's, and sexes.
From the Constitution of Texas.
Sec. 9. All persons of colour, who were slaves for life previous to their cmigration to Texas, and who are now held in bondage, shall remain in the like state of servitude: Provided the said slave shall be the bones file property of the person so holding said slave as aforesaid. Congress shall pass no laws to prohibit cangrants from bringing their slaves into the republic with them, and holding them by the same tenure by which such slaves were held in the United States; nor shall congress hare power to emancipate slaves ; nor shall any share holder be allowed to emancipate his er her slave or shares without the consent of congress, undess he or she shall send his or her slave or sluces without the limits of the republic. No free person of
" When I say " domestic slavery," I pican the slavery introduced iuto Texas by the Anglo- Americans.
t See page 299. : Vide Kennedy's Appendix, vol. ii, p. 461.
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ART. 2. A register shall be kept of the birth of children of slave parents, since the publication of the Constitu- tion, giving an account thereof to the government every three months. And in like manner an account of the death of slaves.
ART. 4. Importers of slaves, after the expiration of the time mentioned in the 13th Article of the Constitution, (11th of September, 1827,) will be subject to the penalties established by the general law of the 13th of July, 1824.
ART. 5. Slaves are free on the death of their owner, who has no lineal heirs, (except owners are poisoned or assassi- nated by one of the slaves.) And in case descent by lineal heirs, one-tenth are free ; to be determined by lot.
ART. 9. The free children of slaves shall receive a good education, and be bound out to trades by the ayuntamicu- tos; and by Article 10, a fine of 500 dollars is imposed on the ayuntamiento which neglects to see the law enforced.
ART. 10. Of the general law of the Mexican republic, of the 6th of April 1830, no change can be made with respect to colonies already established, nor slaves they contain, but the preven- tion of the further admission of slaves shall be exacted under the strictest re- sponsibilities.
African desrent, either in whole or in part. shall be permitted to resile perma- menily in the republic, without the con- sent of congress ; and the importation or admission of Africans or negroes into this republic, excepting from the United States of America, is for ever prohibited, and declared to be piracy.
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Src. 10. All persons, (Africans, the descendants of Africans, and Indians ex- cepted,) who were residing in Texas on the day of the declaration of independ- ence, shall be considered citizens of the republic, and entitled to all the pri- vileges of such.
An act to authorize Wiley Martin to emancipate his slave Peter. Ap- proved the ard of January, 1840.
An act to authorize Carey, a free man of colour, to remain within the republic of Texas. Approved January the 25th, 1840.
An ordinance and decree to prevent the importation and emigration of free negroes and mulattoes into Texas.
Extract from the City article of the Morning Herald of the 6th of August, 1841 :-
TEXAS papers recently received to the end of May give some curious details of the working of republican slavery principles. In justice, however, it may be remarked, that a peremptory de- nial is given to certain allegations made in this country respecting slave importation from the coast of Africa. The Galveston Ga- zette observes, on this head, that " Sir Fowell Buxton, the English abolitionist, states, in one of his publications, that he has it from high authority, which he cannot doubt, that 15,000 were imported into Texas from Africa during the years 1837-8. Now, the whole number of slaves in the country last year, as ap- pears from returns of the assessors, is only 11,323, and of this number we do not believe a single one was ever imported directly from Africa." These remarks would seem to evidence a laudable desire on the part of Texas to bleach herself white of the reproach of slavery with time, if not presently, but they contrast strangely
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with the tenour of legislative enactment in the same paper, en- titled, an " Act concerning Free Persons of Colour." By the first section of this Act, it is ordained " that it shall not be lawful for any free person of colour to emigrate to this republic."-By sec- tion 2, it is ordered that the sheriff, or any constable of the county in which such free person of colour shall be found to have emigrated, to arrest him, after ten days' previous notice, and take him before the chief justice of the county, or judge of the district, whose duty it shall be to receive the bond of the prisoner in 1000 dollars, with the approved security of a citizen, for his instant departure from the territories of the republic .--- Section 3 pro- vides, that if the person of colour shall not be able to give the bond of security provided, he shall then be committed to the public gaol, with an order to the sheriff to expose him for public sale to the highest bidder, with four weeks' previous notice in the journals, and sale him into slavery for the space of one year. If at the expiration of the term he be able to give the bond security, he may be discharged ; but if unable, he must be re-delivered to the sheriff, who shall again advertise him for sale into slavery for life .- Two years are allowed for the emigration of all free persons of colour actually in the republic at the passing of the Act. But if any master of a vessel, or other person or persons, be accessary to the introduction of any free person of colour into Texas, they shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, finable, for not less than one, nor more than ten thousand dollars; cooks or other bands on board vessels not being considered to come within the provisions of the Act .- It is quite clear, from this specimen of Texan legislation, that there is at least no im - mediate intention to provide for the gradual extinction of slavery, or to mitigate the severity of the servile condition.
Note on the Indian population of Texas. See page 224.
Valdes reports the Indian population of Texas, in 1831, to be 77,795, to which must be added the Cherokees, and other tribes that have entered Texas subsequent to the census of 1831.
INDIANS.
Note to page 233.
By Art. 19, of the Law of Coahuila and Texas, of the 21th of March, 1825, Indians of all nations, bordering on the state, as well as wandering tribes within its limits, shall be received in the market, without paying any duties on the products of the country ; and if they declare in favour of our religion and institutions, they shall be entitled to the same quantity of land as spoken of in the 1 1th and 15th Articles, always preferring native Indians to strangers.
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LETTER TO LORD ABERDEEN.
London, Sept. 21, 1841.
MY LORD,-Permit me with every sentiment of respect to address your Lordship briefly on a highly important subject, which has doubtless been urged on your consideration before this, viz., the Treaty between Great Britain and the Republic of Texas. This, my Lord, is a question on which the interests of a class of her Majesty's subjects, as numerous (commercial and monetary) as the present Anglo-American population of Texas, are deeply involved; in which the rights and laws of nations are threatened with immediate subversion, in order that a boundary suited to the acquisitive views of the Anglo-Americans may be satisfactorily laid down. But without looking to what may be deemed points unalter- able, how stand the facts ? Why, that England has subscribed to a treaty of amity and commerce with the Republic of Texas, dated the 13th of November, 1840 ; and this treaty was forwarded from England to Texas for ratification in the same month. Whereas your Lordship will find in the archives of the Foreign Office a despatch from the Texan envoy, dated the 5th of No- vember, 1840, eight days previous to the signing of the treaty by the accredited ministers of the two contracting powers, in which General Hamilton (a slave-holding and a bona fide citizen of the United States) craves the mediation of Great Britain with Mex- ico, for the suspension of hostilities between the latter country and her rebellious Anglo-American colonies in Texas, whose inde- pendence, de facto, depends on the issue of the pending hostili- ties. These facts, my Lord, are fully established in the Texan envoy's despatch, which, however, it would appear, had been totally overlooked before the treaty was signed, but subsequently accepted by Lord Palmerston, as the basis of a " Convention " between England and Texas, dated the 14th of November, 1840, one day after the recognition of the independence of Texas by England ; and this " Convention" simply confirms what the Texan envoy avows, namely, the existence of hostilities between the colony of Texas and the mother country. Here, my Lord, I would have her Majesty's Government pause.
The dangers and injuries that have been and may be felt by a mother country from the interference of a foreign power, in dis- putes between a parent state and her colonies, is nowhere more distinctly exhibited than in the colonial history of Great Britain ; and while we at all times repudiate such interference, and stig- matize it as unpardonable, and therefore are the first to demand the most ample atonement, let it not be said that England has
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prematurely and unjustly interfered in this case, which may be speedily cited by the Anglo-Americans as a case in point. In a word, my Lord, the republic of Mexico in the west is to England what Turkey is in the east ; while the United States in the Gulf of Mexico is to the North and South Americas, what Russia is to Europe in the Black Sea.
But the late government, throughout the discussion of the Texan question, were led to draw erroneous inferences from the gross misrepresentations of the paid advocates of Texas ; and these, my Lord, have been substantially confirmed by an anti- Anglo work, recently issued from the press, the obvious tendency of which is to delude the British government still further, and to get people to emigrate from this country to the swamps of Texas, where they are to be arrayed in arms against Mexico. To coun- teract this awful tendency, I have reluctantly taken upon myself the task of writing a work on Texas, from personal observation, having spent five months in exploring the interior of the country, and collecting every information as to the social condition and general resources of the people. I therefore entreat your Lord- ship to suspend your opinion of the Texan question until further facts are made known, both to the government and people of this country, who may be speedily called upon to exercise the utmost vigilance, and thereby involved in a considerable expense, for the suppression of a wholesale traffic in slaves between the French colonies in the West Indies and Texas. The French government have secured to the colonial subjects of France, in the 18th article of the treaty between France and Texas, all the rights and privileges enjoyed by the most favoured nation, namely, the United States, whose citizens, ander the constitution of Texas, have secured to themselves the right of introducing slaves into the young republic.
The atrocities alluded to, my Lord, in the Texan envoy's despatch of the 5th of November, 1810, I am prepared to prove from historical records, are the unprovoked massacre of Mexican prisoners of war-Native Indian tribes, (men, women, and chil- dren,) and negroes, by the Texans. The Texan representative was nevertheless perfectly correct in stating, that the violations of certain contracts between Mexico and the Texans were ac- companied by "atrocities, which rather belonged to the dark ages than the era in which we live."
I have the honour to be, my Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient and very humble servant, N. DORAN MAILLARD.
W. Tyler. Printer, Bolt court, Fleet-street.
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