y to the elucidation of
the justice of her quarrel.

It is an error that the Texan rebellion was conceived in a spirit of
sheer fraud upon Mexico; and writers who seek to stigmatize it thus are
entirely ignorant of its origin.

The contest that arose between the central and federal parties in Mexico
immediately after the establishment of independence has been narrated in
a preceding chapter. The first _federal_ constitution is an almost
literal copy of our own; but its equitable and progressive principles
did not suit the military despots who, whilst they commanded the army,
held the physical power of Mexico in their hands. The consequence was
that during the administration of the first president, Victoria, there
were _pronunciamientos_ against federation and in favor of centralism,
by _Padre Arenas_, and at Tulancingo, under the "plan of Montayno."
Quarrels in the party lodges of the Yorkinos and Escossceses--the
liberalists and centralists--next arose;--and, finally, the revolution
under the "plan of Toluca," destroyed the cherished constitution of
1824, by striking a death blow at the federative principle. This plan
vested the power in a central government, abolished State legislatures,
and changed those States into departments under the control of military
governors, who were responsible to the chief authorities of the nation
alone. These principles were embodied in the new constitution of 1836,
and were, of course, distasteful to every friend of genuine liberty.[32]

Meanwhile, the beautiful province of Texas had not been an unconcerned
spectator of events. Bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, and stretching
along our Southern boundary, it contained an extensive territory, fine
rivers, wide prairies, and a soil capable of maintaining near ten
millions of people.--Such a country naturally attracted the attention of
the people of the United States, numbers of whom are always ready, with
the adventurous spirit that characterises our race, to seek new lands
and improve their fortunes by emigrating from the crowded places of
their birth. The project of colonizing Texas, had, therefore, struck an
intelligent citizen of our country; and, on the 17th of January, 1821,
Moses Austin obtained permission from the supreme government of the
eastern internal provinces of New Spain at Monterey, to settle a colony
of emigrants in Texas. Accordingly, in the following winter, his son,
Stephen F. Austin, who undertook the enterprize in