The State of Louisiana is waging war with the Mexicans
of the province of Texas. It is well known that the Louisianians, and the Americans of the Arkansas territory, have a strong desire to possess themselves of that portion of the Mexican dominions. The New York Courier thus describes the manner in which the opera- tions of the Republicans have been carried on- " A party of land-speculators of our large cities have cast a longing eye on the rich and fertile province of Texas, as they might have done on Andalusia, or the county of Kent, or the plains of Austrian Italy, or any other portion of the globe whatsoever, which is evidently and unquestionably the property of some foreign power. These land-speculators obtain tracts of land under the then constitution of this foreign country, and proceed with all the tricks and stratagems usually resorted to in such cases to induce American citizens to emi- grate to their newly-acquired territories. This done, and a large population of Yankees from the Eastern States, and backwoodsmen from Kentucky, Ten- nessee, and Mississippi, being established in Mexico, these aforesaid land-spe- culators endeavour by all means to induce the General Government to purchase Texas of the Mexican Government. This notable scheme fails; and the spe- culators then determine, as a last resource, to conquer the country on their own book, calculating that when they have done so they shall be enabled to prevail on the United States to admit them to the confederation." With a view to assist these depredators, a meeting was sum-
moned at New Orleans towards the end of last month, by the fol- lowing advertisement-
" Those who have volunteered to join the Texians, and those who may wish to do so, are requested to meet the Committee at the Arcade this evening, at six o'clock, for the purpose of taking measures for organizing themselves, prepa- ratory to an immediate departure. Arms and aniumnitiou will be furnished them, and their passage paid so far as Natchitoches."
It is not only on land that this warfare is carried on- " The San Felipe, a vessel owned, arm d, freighted, and navigated from the United States of America, goes out on a niuggling expedition to Texas, a province of Mexico, but is very naturally and properly stopped by the Correo, a Mexican vessel of war of the revenue department, and immediately proceeds with the utmost sang froid to capture and bring into New Orleans the Mexican revenue cutter.
" With exactly the same propriety might a Baltimore clipper sail with a freight of contraband tobacco and a heavy armament for Deal or Dover, or any other English port, and on being stopped by the British revenue cutter, capture her and bring her into New York, or a British smuggling trader, with a cargo of steel and broadcloth, take our revenue schooners and carry them as prizes to Liverpool. It is a hard rule will not work both ways ; and if this rule were to work thus, we should be little surprised if the atbir were to end in smoke between Andrew Jackson and Great Britain."
The New York journalist very properly observes that the inter- ference of the General Government should no longer be delayed-
" Accustomed as we ate gradually becoming to the law of the stronger, and habituated as the General Government seems to he to the assumption of the highest powers by individuals, we should suppose that this flagrant usurpation of the right vested in the Legislature of the United States to declarepeace or war, would arouse them from their supineness. Here we have a knot of citizens of the United States deliberately taking measures for organizing, arming, and maintaining a force for the purpose of entering into an alliance offensive and defensive with a set of frouversmen, signing themselves Texians or Texonians, against Mexico, a peaceable Government under relation of friendship with that under which we pretend to live. There has never, perhaps, been a sounder article of international law, nor one the moral justice of which is less question- able, than that which constitutes it a high and capital crime for an individual to levy war upon a Government. This is the article on which Joachim Murat was condemned and shot at Naples ; this is the article on which General Jackson relied, when he hung A mbrister and Arbuthnot, when we were at peace with Great Britain; both of which executions were not only per se just and legal, but have received the sanction of the world as such."
Previous page
