Mirabeau Lamar address on frontier defense, February 28, 1839

against the overwhelming numbers by which
they are surrounded; and if immediate
relief be not extended, they will be compelled
to break up their settlements, and seek
security in our more populous counties.  

            Under such circumstances,
they call upon their less exposed fellow-
citizens to fly to their assistance and protec-
tion. Shall the call be made in vain?
Shall those who have never experienced ca-
lamity—who have participated in the pros-
perity of the country, without sharing its perils,
look ingloriously on the sufferings of these
hardy people, the most of them the early
pioneers of Texas, and behold them cut up
and destroyed in detail, without offering
that generous succor and assistance which
they have a right to expect and which honor
and valor will delight to give? Are you,
citizen soldiers, willing to repose quietly at
home while your countrymen and brethren
are bleeding under the tomahawk, and their
families are the unresisting victims of the
scalping knife? Can you sleep upon your
pillow with the voice of lementation [sic] in your
ears? Are you insensible to noble deeds—
dead to the love of fame; too _____ [?] for
and too timid for danger? No. Such is
not the character of Texans. The history
of the past will not justify the thought. No
draft has ever been dishonored which your