Alexandria Gazette

TEXAS.
The Mexicans are again on the advance, with a force varying in computation, from 5 to 8,000 troops. The materiel of the army cannot, however, be as fine as the former army, for the reasons assigned by Gen. Houston. They are fresh levies, hastily picked up, destitute of the discipline which belonged to the veteran troops of Santa Ana, and penetrated with a panic which the battle of San Jacinto is so well calculated to inspire. On their part, the Texans are beginning to rally and concentrate their forces—and, if we may believe a late letter from New Orleans, they amount to 2,000 troops, and the number is continually increasing from fresh volunteers. We give all the items which we have received—and among them, the animated appeal of Gen. Houston, from the banks of the Sabine, on the 2d July, to Gen Dunlap of Tennessee—and also, the noble letter of the Texan Commissioners, whom the Mexicans have arrested and imprisoned, in defiance of the pledges of Filasola, and of the sanctity of a flag of truce. Those letters are worthy of the spirit of Regulus, in the best days of Rome. How can the Mexicans expect to succeed with so many atrocities upon their heads? Even if their cause had been right at first, they have turned it into wrong by the infamy of the means they have adopted. They have roused against them the indignant spirit of a liberal age—and, as Benton declares in his eloquent speech in the Senate of the U. S. on the 1st of July:-
"Sooner or later, separation would be inevitable; and the progress of human events has accelerated the operation of natural causes. Goliad has torn Texas from Mexico: Goliad has decreed independence: San Jacinto has sealed it! What the massacre decreed, the victory has sealed; and the day of the martyrdom of the prisoners must forever be regarded as the day of disunion between Texas and Mexico. I speak of it politically, not morally; that massacre was a great political blunder, a miscalculation, an error, and a mistake. It was expected to put an end to resistance—to subdue rebellion—to drown revolt in blood—and to extinguish aid in terror. On the contrary it has given life and invincibility to the cause of Texas. It has fired the souls of her own citizens, and imparted to their courage the energies of revenge and despair It has given to her the sympathies and the commisseration of the civilized world. It has given to her men and money, and claims upon the aid, and a hold upon the sensibilities of the human race. If the struggle goes on, not only our America, but Europe will send its chivalry to join in the contest. I repeat it: that cruel morning of the Alamo, and that black day of Goliad, were great political faults. The blood of the martyr is the seed of the church. The blood of slaughtered patriots is the dragon's teeth sown upon the earth, from which heroes, full grown and armed, leap into life, and rush into battle. Often will the Mexican, guiltless of that blood, feel the Anglo-American steel for the deeds of that day, if this war continues."
We are sure the reader will excuse us for making another extract from this thrilling speech of the Senator from Missouri:
"It is not within the scope of my present purpose to speak of military events, and to celebrate the exploits of that vanguard of the Anglo Saxons, who are now on the confines of the ancient empire of Montezuma; but that combat of the San Jacinto! it must forever remain in the catalogue of military miracles. Seven hundred and fifty citizens, miscellaneously armed with rifles, muskets, belt pistols and knives, under a leader who had never seen service, except as a subaltern, march to attack near double their numbers—march in open day across a clear prairie, to attack upwards of twelve hundred veterans, the elite of an invading army of seven thousand, posted in a wood, their flanks secured front entrenched, and commanded by a General trained in civil wars, victorious in numberless battles, and chief of an empire of which no man becomes chief except as conqueror. In twenty minutes the position is forced. The combat becomes a carnage. The flowery prairie is stained with blood; the hyacinth is no longer blue, but scarlet. Six hundred Mexicans are dead; six hundred more are prisoners, half wounded: the President (General) himself is a prisoner: the camp and baggage all taken; and the loss to the victors, six killed and twenty wounded. Such are the results, and which no European can believe, but those who saw Jackson at New Orleans. Houston is the pupil of Jackson; and he is the first self made General, since the time of Mark Antony, and the King Antigonus, who has taken the General of the Army and the head of the Government captive in battle. Different from Antony, he has spared the life of his captive, though forfeited by every law, human and divine."
May the next battle, if it cannot rival that of San Jacinto in the brilliancy of its exploits, yet produce to Texas, the more solid consummation of her independence.