Page:The Fall of the Alamo.djvu/84

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An easy prey to every fancy's gust,
To innovations and Utopian schemes.
'Tis true they fill and colonize the earth,
And lay it out in states and commonwealths.
But all of these are frail and hollow shells.
Whom like a cardboard-house the slightest breath
May disarrange or wholly overturn.
Not so the Latin race! although it lacks
The other's fitful elasticity—
Their stern solidity of government,
Their healthful stableness of discipline.
Their innate reverence to authority.
Are better safe-guards for their future greatness.
Therefore our peaceful progress to insure,
I am resolved to put the best barrier
Of all, a desert waste round Mexico,
A zone of safety, broad four hundred miles.
With not one human being save the Indian.
To this effect, let every town and village
And farm-house be destroyed, as you pass by;
Let every Mexican we meet be sent
Where he belongs, across the Rio Grande;
But foreigners be warned on pain of death
Immediately to leave this territory.
When not a soul is left then in this land
Save Indians and our garrisons perchance,
The ancient Spanish law, that once forbade
A stranger's foot to trespass on this land.