Jean-Charles Houzeau

“ I heard a moment Anderson's pony galloping noisily in the mud, then the sound faded and was lost. The outlaw whom I had left had launched in an almost limitless space, a field of several hundred leagues, with no other guide than his compass, and no other companion than his horse; forced to flee the Indians in this fast gallop which we call "the gallop for his life"; forced to fear the white people. ”

“ One can hear discuss openly the project of putting into servitude all whites who own no land. The social system is based, indeed, on the principle that "capital owns its work." He who has but his arms, the proletarian, as we say in Europe, can therefore have no existence by himself: he must be owned by others. Regardless of the monstrosity of this doctrine, which denies the spiritual equality of men, and which brings to nought the idea of ​​humanity, no system is more contrary to the development of personal qualities and to that of the country's industry. ”

“ However, I relied on the resilience of the people. In this country, which last year had as motto free speech, free press and free men, one would now see mute tongues, the press, either servile or muzzled, and men beneath the yoke. ”

“ The ground seemed ready to give under the steps of the planters.
In Texas, a powerful opposition, a nearly invicible force of inertia, came to stop or at least delay the government's military projects. We swore that we would stay in our homes, owners of our weapons, and if we were some day to use a musket, it would not be for the right of the planter of having men as work slaves and of abusing their wives, but to claim our own right to live free and in brotherhood. ”

“ They preferred to burn their blacks than to see them free. Those who are guilty of this atrocity, which has no parallel in history, especially as it does not involve enemies; those who are guilty of this misdeed gathered the harmless blacks, ordered them to enclose themselves in the workshops, locked the doors, and then the fire did its work, while the masters were watching the exits, to fall by bullet the child, the elderly, the woman who would jump off a roof, risking their life, to escape the anguish of the pyre. ”

“ In the meantime, Anderson had succeeded in reaching the Mexican border; he embarked on 28 November in Tampico, and on December 11, arrived in New York. Let us hope that he will make himself useful to his country and to the cause of liberty; that he will bring to the government in Washington the good news of the latent opposition that is getting organized in Texas; that he will protest before the world, as an eyewitness, against terror and despotism with which the planters undertake to achieve their unholy project: "the extension and perpetuation of enslavement." ”

“ A generous citizen, whose name I would reveal if he weren't still in Texas, undertook to see the prisoner, and give him a note with, in a few words, the first instructions for his escape. He went to the camp, managed to talk to an officer whose tent Anderson was in, and through a ruse whose failure would have cost him his life or at the very least his freedom, he placed in the hands of the captive the paper pellet that bore the message. ”

“ Should it be otherwise, may my friends remember me sometimes. Amidst a world of profit, whose passions of greed know neither restraint nor modesty, I did not allow myself soiled. I kept my pure traditions of integrity and discretion. I still have the weakness to believe that man has duties, not only purely personal duties, but duties of humanity. I have the weakness of having faith in progress, in the success of just causes, in the moral idea. ”

“ In December, the Texas Legislature imposed the free negroes the alternative of exile or return to slavery. This was the complement of the measure prohibiting the masters to free their slaves in the future. It was not allowed to either be generous, or reward loyal service, or even free one's slaves by will. The status of free negro was regarded by the planters "as an anomaly and a danger". Already the Texas borders were closed to people of color who were enjoying their freedom, coming from neighboring areas. ”

“ The reader has seen how we were protected on the border. "I will point out, also said our consul, that this service does not affect your nationality. One loses one's right as a Belgian citizen only if serving under another flag, this is to say that one be a soldier of a foreign army." — To belong to a regiment employed in active service in time of war, is that not to serve under the flag of the country whose regiment bears the ensign? Can one make, in such cases, a distinction based on the method of recruitment, a distinction between free corps and mobilised militia ? ”

“ Marching under the same leader, toward the same goal, do they not also belong to the active armed force? I will go further. I will say that in America, where the entire armed forces are made ​​up of volunteers during peacetime, the militia is the sole and true raised by conscription, and therefore the true regular army. ”

“ And now we are put to the yoke, telling us to fight for our rights, for our homes which they claim are dedicated to the fire, for the women who are threatened in their honor! Not satisfied with distorting the facts in such a brutal way and so crudely, this pagan faction herself commits all the outrages of which it blames others, and fights for legalizing them. ”

“ This revolution will be remembered as a great feature of modern history, not only because it precipitates the emancipation of American slaves, but because it will provide one of the greatest examples of social monomania, a furious monomania contracted long under the influence of the despotic spirit and vanity. ”

“ As soon as the new recruits had shown sufficient training, they were hastily sent to the West, where they were in all appearance intended for a campaign in New Mexico, which in reality was hidind a project of pirates against California. The administration of the war, in San Antonio, was making considerable purchases of mules, wagons, corn, preparing shipments for three or four thousand men, and provisions for six months. Anyone who has traveled in the Far West does not ignore the immense difficulties of crossing the plateau, for masses of thousands. ”

“ All these people will be marked as suspicious, and labeled as enemy of the South." We see what measures the government resorts to in order to sustain itself; these threats are made ​​with aplomb and shamelessness that have never been equaled. Even the sacred ministry of the Council is stated prima facie suspect mission. You will take up arms for us, say the planters, you will leave your families and occupations; you will march to the call without hesitation, without lukewarmness — or we'll treat you as enemies. ”

“ A materialist faction, which has seized power and which holds the torch in hand, seeks to depict to us the volunteers of the North, Illinois farmers, artisans of Massachusetts, as savages, arsonists and violators. Yet we know what order and what security were enjoyed by the country under the Union. It was the reign of liberty and justice. Apart from the interests of the planters, there did not rise a complaint, no grievance was ever filed. ”

“ The leaders, whom terror and violence had hitherto profited, then conceived the absurd project of the mass uprising. They showed lack of common sense to the point of ordering, in a civilized society — which has its agriculture, industry, its intellectual endeavours, its schools, public services — to the point of ordering in this society a general uproar of the savage. ”

“ All able-bodied men, young or old, married or unmarried, U.S. citizens or resident aliens, are told: "The time has come to take up arms to defend your homes and the honor of women. A bloodthirsty enemy without honor is about to set foot on your sacred soil. ”

“ I found a true friend in the American consul. I have started a bit of gardening, and I am studying with a constant curiosity the half-savage people of Mexico, who still comprise many individuals who have lived a wandering life. ”

“ The army, the number of which was ridiculously inflated, did not amount to two hundred thousand men. The planters tried a moral pressure to have bear arms all whom depended on them: workers, merchants, businessmen, craftsmen, journalists, clerks, printers. At the end of October, there were three classes of men under the banners: the first were adventurers, among whom I include stateless men who were in the profession of arms, either a resource, or a lure to their ambition ”

“ But the Rangers of the camp, who roamed constantly the city with their weapons, had soon cut short these demonstrations. A passerby was designated as sympathetic to free negroes. The soldiers fired, and pursued the unfortunate "unionist" from street to street, until he fell dead at the corner of the marketplace.
However, a subscription was organized; supplies and transportation were prepared. A train was formed for Monterey, in the province of Nuevo Leon (Mexico) , one hundred and thirty leagues from San Antonio. ”

“ The mountains, rivers, plains, the towns there are also rich. There is everything of all that is most precious to man and especially to the soldier. There is what we are lacking. There is gold and silver... and we need it." — To others, one would have shown glory; to the son of Southern planters, you say: there is gold... ”

“ In its issue of November 2 (1861) , the San Antonio Herald, its voice, contained a snippet describing some facts related to the escape, and ending with: "There is no doubt but Anderson was assisted in his escape by citizens of this place, and we are not without some hope that they may be discovered." [6] These lines are clear enough to anyone familiar with these times and the country. The main fact on which the planters had any hope to capture "the traitors" was the discovery of the horse that Anderson had ridden on the night of his departure. ”

“ The government appeals then addressed citizens who did not want to fight, who had preserved their livelihoods, their occupations. They addressed fathers, farmers, traders, who were leading an independent existence, careful of the future of their children. ”

“ Separating the others from their customers was reducing them to begging. Citizens who had long dealt with these free individuals, neighbors who lived on good terms with them, undertook to raise complaints. ”

“ They were supposedly training people in companies, gathering these companies into battalions and regiments, and launching these ill-equipped and ill-disciplined masses on to the threatened locations, where they would have become the object of the most disastrous slaughter. ”