The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1842-04-02
CHARLESTON, Is. c. March 81.
y - H1NN~IFDIISy
Don AWUn;u Lopez de Santa Anna,


receive in manuscript, the letter. which you ad-
10 'sett to ne, through the gazettes of Mexico,
under ;ho date of the 18Th February, feel too
Ha1sihIy this distinction not tonlake my ac-
'row!cl rcnents through similar medium.
However gross the violation of confidence,
at which your Excclency has been guilty, in
publishing letter ,narke confidential, (Which
seal YOU Yourself have recognizeh); shall take
70 exception to your employing the occasion of
wanting your own honesty, and catering for a
popularity Of which you may stand greatly in
aced. 7
When offered YOU an indemnify of five mil
lions o! dollars, for n pacifcation and boundary,
between the Republics of Texas and Mexico. I
accd under commission, which was unrevo-
icd by the Government of the former, and un-
der whic!. hal negotiated treaty of media
ton with the Government of her Brtanic Ma
jes:y, providing for the payment of this sum,
Tor lie SINE objects.
the supplementary offer of two hundred
Thousand thousand dollars for contingencies a,
secret service, were 10 deiray the cost of run
ming the boundary line, the expense of the res
pection legations, and for secret serrice.
You are too disciplined veteran in the poll
tics ssof your own country, not to know the ne
ccssity ard ralue of this last item. Yet YOU
t-H'S IL appCalS, W 1UuI
the compliment of supposng that designed
that this money should be nsinuated as bribe
10 yourself. ! assure your Excelency that
am too well aware of the spotless integrity of
Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, President
OF the Republic OF Mexico, to have hazarded
such an experiment Oh the virgin purity of your
Eycclc1cy's honor.
l. your EXcellency can perceive "impudence
and audacily" in friendly offer Of peace, and
pledge OF my eXertons to induce gallant peo-
PIE to pay five millions of dollars for realm
which they had already won, by every title a
JUS rev0lutou and avictorioas sword could con-
fer. am quite content TO suffer under the re-
proach of having less modesty than yourself.
A;icr thus ilscourteously dsposing of myself
your Eyceleacy is pleased TO lavish upon the
lcoplc TO whose mercy and magnanmty you owe
you" lie, the grossest abuse; in the course of
which, you say there never was a more scandal
Gus robbery" than the forcible possession of the
territory OF Texas, By its present settlers.
Have you forgotten, Sir, the charters and
guarantees, under the faith of which Stephen
Austin brought his colony into Texas, which in
life, liberty and property were so candalouslyE
violated by our own government! And this too,
towards man, who resembled in the purity of |
his own life, and in the wisdom and moderation
Of his character, the veEarated founder Of the /
STATE of Pennsylvania. These colonies of the /
Anelo-American race were introduced to pro-
tect yo!lr own Mexican settlements from the
lordes of the Camanchee Indians, from whom
in spite of their vaupted bravery, your troops
had so ingloriousiy fed. i
Are you not aware that one of the causes of
the revolution of Texas was your own usurpa-
tion Your tyrannical overthrow of the Consti-
tutionof 1923, and with it the Federatie sys-
tenn, which as an integral portion Of the State
of Cuhulia. Texas was member! Have you
forgotten that by the establishment of central |
dcSpotsm on the ruins of this system, you fur
nished the citizens of Texas stronger justifca-
tion for revolution than is to be founded in the
causes which led to the resistance of the thir-
teen North American Colonies to the injustice
Of their parent State! After inviting the young
Hercules into your country, you attempted.
peridously to stife him in his cradle, and you
have reapel the full harvest of the consequences.
You say, sir, that when you commenced your
memorable campaign in 1885, it was illustrated
by series of victories, until the occurrence Of
what you are pleased to call the unfortunate
'accident' of San Jacnto
Your victories, sir, if history is not greater
novelist than the most authentic Of your bulle-
tins, consisted in your beleaguring, with well
appointed corps of three thousand men, post
defended by some one hundred, who kept your
whole force for several days at bay, the
capture of which found every man gloriouslyl
slaughtered at his post-in the still more remar-
kable galantry of numbering in cold blood five
hundred brave men, under the unfortunate Fan
min, who had laid down their arms to force of
six times their number, under the faith of a
capulation which even horde Of Calmuc Tar
teSs would have respected.
At San Jacin.o you were defeated by the
"acciaent'' of your having more than two men to
one of the band, who were led by the benefac-
tor to whom you owe your life, and BY the still
more marvellous "accident'' of his having kill
ed in Your ranks more than his whole force, and
captured an amount of prisoners who out num-
bered the victors. These your Excellency must
admit are such remarkable "accidents" in the
history of war, that neither Marshal SAKE in his
revcries, or the great Conde in his strategy has
lnado the smallest provision for.their occurrence.
3 Your Excellency not content with affording /
Inc the instructive history Of your campaign,
has been pleased to touch chord, which you
we'll knew, would vibrates most sensitively
throughout the civilized world,-when you are
pleased to announce, that one of the objects of
vour medtated crusade against Texas, is to ex-
trpae domestic slavery. Before you commence
your march for this purpose, had you not better
emancpate the miserable victims of compulsory
l. ,bo m |