Mexico Should Take Back Texas Before the US Takes More of Mexico
Dictámen leido el 3 de junio de 1840 en el consejo de gobierno sobre la cuestion de Tejas
Notes: An important tract imploring Mexico to retake Texas following its declaration of independence and the formation of the Texas Republic. “The statement...urged Mexico to attempt to recover its former Texas territories before further American immigration into the region made this impossible.... Gorostiza says the task of reconquering Texas is much more difficult than it would have been four years earlier, but that it still should be attempted” (Streeter). Gorostiza writes "This is a war of the races, of religion, of language, and of culture." (“Esta guerra es guerra de raza, de religion, de lengua y de costumbres"; page 19).
This pamphlet prints the text of a speech given in 1840, in which Gorostiza (1789–1851), a dramatist and diplomat born in Mexico but raised in Spain, successfully convinced the Mexican congress that it should not recognize Texas as an independent nation. He did not convince the government to invade Texas.
In the introduction to this pamphlet he says that effort was the proudest moment of his long political career. He also explains the reason for publishing this speech, four years after the fact. In 1844, he wrote, more than ever, Mexico needed to defend its borders because Texas was not the end of American expansionism, it was a beginning, Gorostiza predicts, accurately, that the United States would be coming for more of the Mexican frontier.
When the war came, four years later, Gorostiza led a volunteer regiment to military defeat. He died broke and disillusioned soon after the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was signed.
Uncommon. The last copy sold at auction (this one) crossed the block in 1991 ($750). Printed in a prison.
iv, 21 pages. 4-1/4 by 6-5/8 inches. Howes US-inana G263. Streeter, Texas 999.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). Upper right corner of wrappers replaced with a good facsimile, else near fine.
Publication: Mexico: Impreso en la casa de Correccion, 1844.
Item No: #307616
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