awakened "to a new era of speculation even beyond the Río Grand[e]. The clustering stars upon the American flag have had their song of joy in hopes of an additional star," it was said, "even that of Texas being added to their number."[89]  What does Texas have to fear? asked Wright. He then proceeded to give a description of the Mexican troops being assembled for the Texas campaign. Assume, he said, that you are standing on some

. . . towering height near Monterey or Durango where the various divisions that compose this campaign will meet. Look to the S. W. [and] behold that numerious throng that crowd the highways. These are the troops from Mexico, Pueblo and other central districts of Mexico. They are the best clothed of any you see, but they are in rags. Many are without hats and many are even without sandals; how slow they move; what an awful spectacle of human misery, their vivacity has fled for want of the necessaries of life; a little further on are hundreds of poor females following their husbands barefooted with their children upon their backs -- still further on you may see in the way they come a continual Hospital of dead and dying. To the North you behold a crowd advancing more like burned pilgrims dressed in tatters than people going to war. You may see a similar scene to the South, perhaps a little better conditioned but bereft I perceive of a heroic spirit. Do they not remind you of the Philistians going to take Sampson?[90]

At Ciudad Victoria, José Antonio Quintero called upon the people of Tamaulipas to rise in defense of their country against the "bankrupt Texians" whose "horrible cry" has reached "our ears from the towns of the North. Our territory," he said, "has been violated by hordes of savages and adventurers, who unfurl a flag that is not ours and selecting our fertile fields and vast plains, call us to war. . . . From bankrupts, they have become conquistadores thanks to the Mexicans who have succumbed to the seduction," but "the brilliant columns of our veteran army" will "return the sword to the adventurers" who will flee to the woods of Texas, and will later be lanced from them near the Sabine.[91]  The Gaceta de Tampico and the Voto publica denounced the allies and protégés of the Texans and called upon all Mexicans to unite in the preservation of their independence and national unity. "Our territory," declared El Voto publica,[92]  "will not be violated with im-