To the Citizens of the United States of the North.
The general council of all Texas, by a resolution unanimously adopted, have determined to address you in behalf of suffering Texas, and to invoke your assistance.
A few plain facts will suffice to explain to you the political condition in which we are placed, and to satisfy you that we are engaged in a contest just and honorable and one which should command universal admiration and sympathy.
Our citizens were invited to settle Texas by a government of a federal republican character, having for its model that of the government of the United States of the North. Under that invitation, and that promise of protection to our lives, persons and property, thousands emigrated here, and have subdued a vast and extended wilderness to the purposes of agriculture, and in place of the solitary region inhabited hitherto only by the savage and the beast, now present a country prosperous in the highest degree, with a population varying between sixty and one hundred thousand inhabitants, and having on its whole face inscribed one universal assurance of its future greatness and prosperity.
Under this form of government and this invitation, thousands have brought their property to this country, and invested thousands upon thousands of dollars in land. They have expatriated themselves from their native country, torn themselves from connexions dear, given up the conveniences and luxuries of life, and encountered for years back toils and dangers and privations of every sort.
They have given security to the Mexican frontiers from Indian depredations, and made the mountains the boundary of the savage. And now, when we have accomplished all this, when we had just fairly established ourselves in peace and plenty, just brought around us our families and friends, the form of government under which we had been born and educated, and the one only to which we would have sworn allegiance, is destroyed by the usurper, Santa Anna, and a military central government established in its stead.
To this new form of government the people of Texas have refused to submit. They ground their opposition upon the facts that they have sworn to support the republican federative government of Mexico, and that their duty requires them now to stand out in opposition.
Texas was one of the units that composed the government by the national constituent congress of 1824. She was acknowledged a sovereign and independent member of the confederacy. As a sovereign member she voluntarily united in the confederacy that forms the government, and upon the breaking up of that government she has unquestionably the right to accede or to reject the new one that may be proposed.
The one now proposed is in opposition to her wishes, interests, and the education of the people. It protects only the interests of the military and the clergy, securing privileges to the one and intolerance of religion to the other. Such being its character, and our rights undoubted, the people of Texas, with one united voice, have rejected the new form of government, and have resolved to abide by their oaths to sustain the constitution. Public sentiment has already declared that Texas should be organized as a state government, under the constitution of 1824, or such other form of government as circumstances may require.
Members to a convention have already been elected, and were to have met on the 15th of the present month. The invasion of the country by General Cos has, however, thus far prevented their meeting, as nearly every member is now in the field of war. At this time our army is besieging General Cos in San Antonio, but he is hourly expecting a reinforcement, and the people of Texas want aid of their own fellow-citizens, friends, and relations, of the United States of the North.
What number of mercenary soldiers will invade our country we know not, but this much we do know, that the whole force of the nation that can possibly be spared will be sent to Texas, and we believe we have to fight superior numbers. But one sentiment animates every bosom, and every one is determined on “victory or death.”
Citizens of the United States of the North, we are but one people. Our fathers, side by side, fought the battles of the revolution. We side by side, fought the battles of the war of 1812 and 1815. We were born under the same government—taught the same political creed, and we have wandered where danger and tyranny threaten us. You are united to us by all the sacred ties that can bind one people to another. You are, many of you, our fathers and brother—among you dwell our sisters and mothers—we are aliens to you only in country; our principles both moral and political are the same—our interest is one, and we require and ask your aid, and we earnestly appeal to your patriotism and generosity. We invite you to our country—we have land in abundance, and it shall be liberally bestowed on you. We have the finest country on the face of the globe. We invite you to enjoy it with us, and we pledge to you, as we are authorized to do, the lands of Texas and the honor and faith of the people, that every volunteer in our cause shall not only justly but generously be rewarded.
The cause of Texas is plainly marked out. She will drive every Mexican soldier beyond her limits, or the people of Texas will leave before San Antonio the bones of their bodies. We will secure on a firm and solid basis our constitutional rights and privileges, or we will leave Texas a howling wilderness.
We know that right is on our side, and we are now marching to the field of battle, reiterating our fathers' motto, “to live free or die.” And to the people of the United States of the North we send this assurance, that though numbers may overwhelm us, no other feeling than that of the genuine American glowed in our bosoms, and though danger and destruction await us, no friend of theirs proved recreant to his country.
Done in the council hall on the 26th day of October, 1835.
A. Houston, Secretary. R. R. Royall, President.
Niles' Register, XLIX 234-235, reprinted from the Red River Herald—extra—November 6, 1835.
