A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 4

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968

USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I > Part 4

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After the failure of Long's expedition the Spanish soldiers once more harried eastern Texas. All American intruders were driven out, and buildings and improvements razed. And the Mexican revolution which so soon followed completed the work of devastation. In 1820 the population, exclusive of Indians, was estimated to be not more than four thou- sand. San Antonio was the only settlement worthy of name which survived the cataclysm of Indian depredation, filibuster failures, and successive shocks of revolution. "Such was the miserable witness of the craft of St. Denis, the patriotic work of Aguayo, the brave and patient self-sacrifice of the missionaries, and the vast expenditure of treasure and blood in the vain effort to plant Spanish civilization in Texas." But across the eastern boundaries are congregating the nebulous mists and vital- izing vapors which are destined to form the brilliant and steadfast radiance of the Lone Star.

STEPHEN F. AUSTIN

CHAPTER V.

AFFAIRS IN MEXICO-THE AUSTIN COLONY.

Before entering upon the consideration of years it was hardly possible that republican principles could thrive in the separate states. the events of the period of permanent coloni- zation, it will be necessary once more to revert to the affairs of Mexico, which we have seen in 1821 to have been declared free from the royal power of Spain, and was henceforth to direct its own way. From September, 1821, . at once sprang up-with their dominating until the following February the government was in the hands of a junta acting as a regency until the monarchical ruler should be estab- lished in power. A national congress succeed- ed the junta and continued the regency until May, 1822, when Iturbide, who had led the re- volt against Spain, was proclaimed emperor. His reign was short, and after his expulsion in the following March, a provisional congress directed the affairs of the republic for over a year, and in 1824 a federal form of government, patterned after that of the United States (but with Mexican limitations which played no small part in the history of Texas, as will ap- pear), was promulgated and the Republic of Mexico was launched upon its rough journey of time.

The government provided for the erection of states, and the formerly separate provinces of Coahuila and Texas were united as one state, with a state constitution of its own and its gen- eral government to be directed by a congress of twelve members, Texas having a represen- tation of two, with a governor elected by pop- ular vote. The scheme was such that the cen- tral government at Mexico was held to be the source of constitutional rights and political privileges, and with the head of authority maintained as a despotism through most of the

And here we may summarize the most im- portant fact of Mexican history throughout the period in which it concerns Texas. On the formation of the Mexican republic two parties ideals in a measure similar to those governing the parties in the United States during the first decades; namely, centralization of power on the one hand, and on the other free develop- ment of republican institutions with as little in- terference as possible by constituted authority. In Mexico, however, the parties-of a constit- uent character both more volatile and restive than in the United States-fell into the control of self-seeking leaders, who when defeated at the hustings hesitated not to shed blood and overturn all semblance of constituted govern- ment in order to gain their ends. One party seemed no sooner to have established itself in power than it began to overstep the limitations of the constitution of 1824 and reach out after imperial prerogatives. The drift throughout these years was toward centralization of all power at Mexico and the turning of the states into departments of administration. The an- nals of the time abound in revolution and counter-revolution, and the tedious narrative has no place here. The principal character of the vicissitudes and wranglings of the time was the Santa Anna known so odiously to Texas history. He was concerned in most of the intrigues and revolts, continually paving the way for his own pre-eminence and the overthrow of the constitution and the forma-

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

tion of a central and imperial government. In the end he was victorious, became president, then dictator, abolished the constitution of 1824, and with vainglorious and overweening self-sufficiency and complacency reached out to crush the aggressive and insurgent province on the north which alone held out for the con- stitution of 1824, and awoke a hornet's nest of freedom which stung its would-be conqueror ' into inglorious submission and made itself for- ever free from arbitrary and despotic inter- ference.

The story of the colonization of Texas has one great central name, and the Austins-father and son-are the real founders and fathers of Texas as we know it today. Moses Austin was born in Connecticut in 1764, was married at the age of twenty, and soon afterward em- barked in mercantile business in Richmond, Virginia, with his brother Stephen, and they soon became interested in lead mining and smelting in that state. Financial reverses came, and to recoup his fortunes Moses Austin, in 1797, obtained a large grant of land in French Louisiana, in southern Missouri, where he laid the foundation of a prosperous colony and him- self acquired wealth and influence. The failure in 1818 of the Bank of St. Louis, in which he was a large stockholder, bankrupted him and he surrendered all his property to his creditors. Thus, in his fifty-fifth year, he was again at the bottom of the ladder, but with spirit undaunted by adversity and ready for any bold enterprise that might present itself.

By the treaty of 1819 the possession of Texas by Spain was fixed as between that country and the United States. With such confirmation of her claims, Spain felt justified in relaxing the former exclusive policy in regard to immigrants from across the eastern border, thus allowing Texas opportunity for natural development. Hence Austin conceived the idea of planting a large colony on the fertile soil of Texas.

He laid his plans conjointly with his son Stephen, and while the father went to San Antonio to gain the proper authority for his enterprise, the son began assembling the per- sons and means for carrying out the project.

It was in no spirit of the filibuster or adventurer that Moses Austin entered upon his under- taking. As he meant his colony should contain the elements of permanence and prosperity, so he desired that it might have proper legal au- thority. Arrived at San Antonio, he obtained audience with the governor, Martinez, who, however, rebuffed him and his proposals and ordered him to leave the province at once. De- jected, he was about to start home when he met an old friend, the Baron de Bastrop. The Baron was high in favor with the governor, and on learning of Austin's mission and the ap- parent frustration of his hopes he at once pro- cured a second interview and led the governor to look more favorably upon the plan. The details of the scheme of colonization were for- warded, under the governor's authority and recommendation that they be approved, to the central government, and with the first step of his undertaking accomplished Austin set out for Missouri. The journey was a severe one, and the hardships and exposure to which he was subjected so undermined his health that in June, 1821, his dauntless spirit was calmed in death. ' Not, however, before his last great enterprise was in a fair way to accomplishment, for just a few days before his death news had come that his plan had been approved and that commissioners would be sent to Louisiana to confer upon the establishment of the colony. The project for which the father had given his life was not destined to fail, but be carried out in all fulness and success by the equally noble and enterprising son.

Even before learning of his father's death, Stephen Austin set out to meet the Spanish commissioners at Natchitoches, and thence was conducted to San Antonio, where the governor gave him permission to survey the lands along the Colorado and Brazos rivers and select a suitable site for his colony. The colony plan approved by the Spanish government gave per- mission to Austin to bring in three hundred families; each head of family was to have 640 acres, his wife 320, 100 for each child, and 80 for each slave ; all settlers must subscribe to the tenets of the Catholic religion, must be of good

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

moral character, and give allegiance to the Spanish government; each settler to pay to Austin twelve and a half cents for his land, with liberal time limit; and Austin to have full charge of affairs in the colony until its legal status could be recognized by the central gov- ernment.

On his return to Louisiana Austin published the details of his enterprise and made energetic preparations to introduce the first quota of settlers. As agriculture was to be the founda- tion of the colony, the attractions of the project appealed to a more thrifty and stable class of people than had the earlier and more romantic expeditions, and the settlers who flocked to Austin's standard were of a truly representative grade of hardy colonizers. In December, 1821, Austin brought his first party to the lower Bra- zos river, going by the overland route, while a schooner with supplies and other immigrants followed. But the vessel failed to reach the proper rendezvous, and on a second voyage in the following year it was wrecked. One ship- load of supplies for the colony was pillaged by the Indians, and thus the settlers were put to sore straits at the very beginning. The sup- plies were necessary for proper beginnings of stable agriculture, and it was with difficulty that game sufficient for the company could be procured. The Indians were also troublesome, and two years passed before Austin's colony was an assured success. Such hardships would have scattered or exterminated a colony of the Spanish or French type or one of shiftless ad- venturers, but the followers of Austin were of sterner stuff, and this germ of Texas was not to be destroyed.

After Austin had settled his people, he set out for San Antonio to make report to the governor. There, in March, 1822, he learned for the first time of the successful culmination of the in- dependence movement, and that his royal per- mit would have to be reaffirmed by the new Mexican republic. Here was another Sisyphus task, but it was a characteristic of Austin that he never flinched from any undertaking neces- sary to the success of his colony. With only one companion and in disguise, to protect him-

self from the banditti who infested all roads, he made the long journey to the capital. There his petition was presented to the junta which held the regency during the first days of independ- ence. Several other men were in the city to present petitions similar to Austin's, and the congress delayed until it could draw up a gen- eral law. Before this could be done, Iturbide was proclaimed emperor, who appointed a com- mittee to legislateproper measures for the Texas colonies. A general colonization law was passed in January, 1823, and an imperial decree shortly afterward confirmed Austin's grant. But just as he was ready to return with this goods news to his colony, occurred the fall of Iturbide from power, and all imperial acts were disavowed. Thus Austin had to await the ac- tion of the provisional congress, which finally suspended the general law, but by special de- cree confirmed Austin's grant, making its prac- tical provisions conform to the imperial decree of January, 1823. Thus Austin obtained a special charter, as it were, for his enterprise, while other Texas colonies were undertaken subject to a general system, to be described later.

By the final agreement, which Austin ob- tained in April, 1823, the general plan of the royal decree was followed, but a different method of land distribution was adopted. Each agriculturist was to have a labor (about 177 acres), each stock-raiser to have a sitio (about forty-four hundred acres), and where both oc- cupations were followed the settler could have a labor and a sitio. Austin was to have fifteen sitios and two labors for each group of two hundred families he should introduce.

In August, 1823, Austin returned to his col- ony to find it almost dissipated, all the new re- cruits having settled about Nacogdoches. But his success in obtaining confirmation of the grant and his energetic prosecution of affairs soon turned the tide in his favor, and by the following year the stipulated number of three hundred families had arrived and the colony was in a way to permanent growth and pros- perity. The lands were surveyed and assigned according to law, and the capital of the settle-

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

ment was located on the Brazos river and given the name of San Felipe de Austin (which is not to be confounded with the later city of Aus- tin on the Colorado). The limits of the colony were undefined, and the settlers took up lands over a broad territory, and Austin later ob- tained permission to settle five hundred addi- tional families on vacant lands. The colony grew rapidly and soon became the center of development and enterprise for all Texas.

Austin's position was no sinecure, even after he had settled all the legal provisions of his colony. The government was practically in his hands for some years, and the tact, ability and energy with which he directed affairs make still greater his right to the title of Father of Texas. His colonists were in the main inde- pendent, aggressive, vigorous Americans, abid- ing by the fundamental rules of civilization, but not submissive to any restraints and quick to suspect imposition. Their opposition was es- pecially loud and continued against the pay - ment of the twelve and a half cents an acre for the land, although they had enrolled themselves as settlers fully aware of this condition. They claimed that Austin was speculating on their efforts, and furthermore that, when Austin al- lowed certain poorer settlers their land free, he was discriminating. The result was that he had to forego his just claim to these fees, and from the sale of lands received only a small per cent of his original investment. It was like- wise his duty to organize the militia of the colony, and to provide for protection from with- out as well as civil administration within. After five years he was relieved of many of these duties by a select council. He had borne with wonderful patience all the cabalous and open dissatisfaction and grumbling of the meantime, and with such wisdom steered his enterprise that in the end he retained the respect of all and remained to the close of his life the best beloved man in Texas.

Austin's was the first permanently successful colony and was the central and strongest pillar which upheld the structure of Texas. But around it were built up, in the course of a few years, many others, historically of less impor-

tance than the first, but gradually coalescing to form the homogeneous, strong and enduring body politic which could in the end not only stand alone, but also resist all the force that could be hurled against it from without. These colonies, which in a few years covered, by vir- tue of title at least, nearly all the territory · which we now know as Texas, were the fruit of the empresario system, by which Texas colonization was exploited with both good and bad results during the period of Mexican domi- nation.

As has been stated, Austin obtained a special grant for his colony, but at the same time others were petitioning for privilege to make settlements, and when the federal republic be- came firmly established it passed a general law, in August, 1824, providing, among other things, limits to the amount of land to be held by each individual and also that preference should be given Mexicans in the distribution of land, and that further regulations should be enacted by each state of the republic. In March, 1825, Coahuila and Texas formulated provisions con- cerning immigration, inviting persons of Chris- tian and moral character to take up land in the state; that five sitios and five labors of land should be granted the empresario for each hun- dred families he should introduce, and that, within six years, he must bring in at least one hundred and not more than eight hundred families ; that the colonists should not be taxed for the first ten years. The allotments of land were practically the same as to Austin's colonists.

As soon as this law was passed enterprising men sought for grants and in a few years all the available land was apportioned out. But Austin was the only one who fully completed his contract with the Mexican government. The others started out big with promise, but failed in the performance. Accordingly the great agi- tation of the subject and many grants brought only a comparatively few settlers, but the classes that did come were permanent and formed a substantial nucleus for future growth. Many individuals, attracted by the fertility of soil, came in of their own initiative, thus in-

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

creasing the number and strength of the differ- ent settlements. But throughout Austin's col- ony held its supremacy in both numbers and stability. Texas was becoming a much differ- ent country from what it had been before 1821. Broad areas could be found devoted to agricul- ture and stock-raising, and the many natural re- sources were being rapidly developed. The in- crease of population during the first ten years was not phenomenal, but was steady, being es- timated at ten thousand in 1827, and twenty thousand in 1830-four times what it was when

Moses Austin journeyed across the country in the fall of 1820.

Thus Texas, after the vicissitudes of two cen- turies, is permanently prospering and growing. But its waxing strength and lustiness cause alarm in its nominal owners, and lest it be- come uncontrollable they seek betimes to shackle its power and cut off its nutriment. In the following pages it will be well to discover the causes which finally led Texas to seek separation from the Mexican. federation.

CHAPTER VI.

RELATIONS BETWEEN MEXICO AND TEXAS-THE FREDONIAN WAR.

Thus during the second decade of the nine- teenth century we see an American civiliza- tion growing up on the soil of and along side of a Latin-American nation. The leopard cannot change its spots, nor can inherent racial charac- teristics be remade in a few years. The oil and the water of the Mexican and the American populations would not mingle. Again we see the manifest destiny of Texas. The Americans were streaming in and occupying its lands for homes, and setting up an institutional and so- cial structure quite inharmonious with the gov- ernment system of which it was nominally a part. Let it be granted as an axiomatic that these two nationalities could never coalesce, and what could have been done to prevent this Americanization of Texas? Clearly in but one way-make Texas an integral part of Mexico, thoroughly systematized with her laws and in- stitutions, with the Mexican element of popula- tion ever in the ascendancy over all others com- bined, with a military and legal strength plus that of public opinion able to countenance and uphold governmental acts-in short, to Mexi- canize Texas. But alas for Mexico; it was with difficulty that she, during these years, could keep her own ship of state clear from the rocks of anarchy, and certainly quite unable to care for her derelict across the Rio Grande. It is no part of history to enter upon the moral grounds of American occupation, and to say whether rightly or wrongly Texas became a seat of for- eign colonization and later entirely dispossessed from its mother nation. Civilization has never progressed according to a code of ethics or the high moral theories which govern utopias. The

simple resume of the matter is that aggressive Americans came upon this land of promise, planted their homes and towns, enjoyed for a time the pursuit of welfare, liberty and happi- ness according to their own standards, and when those to whom they paid their small measure of national allegiance made bold to curb their unrestricted freedom, these self-as- sertive Texans simply tore loose the husk of Mexican authority and chose to grow and ripen in the direct rays of liberty and independence.

In the above paragraph there is hinted the general cause that led to the Texas revolution. But the more immediate reasons form a much longer story. Indeed, sporadic and discon- nected are at first the outbursts of the pre-revo- lutionary discontent, and there may be said to have been two minor revolutionary rumblings and commotions before the final and complete upheaval.

There was basis for trouble in the earliest provisions for colonization. The favors granted to the inhabitants of Mexico, allowing them priority in selection of claims, were certain to cause grumbling if nothing more. Then there were the obligations concerning the promulga- tion of the Catholic religion, which, though causing little practical trouble, added to the sum total of grievances. Indeed, American principles not only of religion, but of law and society, were quite at variance with the Mexi- can ideals. Restrictions on trade, likewise, ir- ritated, as they have always done however necessary to a government. There were many irregularities in the collection of such imposts and taxes as there were, and after the expira-

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

tion of the limit in which the Texas colonists were to be free from taxes the imposition of a tariff seemed very hard.

On the part of Mexico, jealousy and sus- picion, on more or less just cause, wrought their customary havoc with harmony and hastened the evil day between the two coun- tries. For one thing, the United States au- thorities seemed never to get over an itching palm for their flimsy claims to Texas territory which they had relinquished in 1819. During 1825-1827 there were various official proposi- tions emanating from Washington offering large sums for extension of United States terri- tory to the Rio Grande, or to the Colorado, or other boundaries. In a treaty of 1828 the Mexi- can government got a reaffirmation of the boundary line as settled in 1819, and thus American diplomacy was checked for a time. But the American colonists were continually coming up as a bogey to the Mexican author- ities, who imagined them to be mere instru- ments by which the United States would in time annex Texas.

The success and prosperity of the American colonies excited envy among their Mexican neighbors, for Mexican agriculture and in- dustry were indeed sickly and ineffective as compared with American enterprise. The In- dians had caused much trouble during the first two or three years to Austin's and the other colonies, but as soon as the settlers became organized they went against their red enemies with such reckless courage and resoluteness as to inspire in the natives thereafter a wholesome regard for American prowess, and henceforth there was little trouble. But the Indian depre- dations as far as San Antonio still continued, and the Mexicans could only believe the colon- ists were unmolested because of a league with the red men.

Again, slavery played no small part in Mexi- co-Texas relations. By the state constitution of Coahuila-Texas, as adopted in 1827, children of slaves were to be free, and no slaves were to be brought in after six months from the adop- tion of the constitution. Certain regulations made to enforce this article caused no little

discontent, but the colonists soon found a tech- nical way out of this difficulty. The Mexican people in forbidding slavery were only theo- retically moved by altruism and love of human- ity, for within their own borders they had the peonage system, by which the wretched peons sold their life services to masters at an average price of fifty dollars a year, and then, with all the rigors and harshness of slavery, had to sup- port themselves and family and live and die at their own expense. All the Americans had to do in order to nullify the state law was to in- troduce a nominal peonage, and continue to bring in the negroes as indentured servants. Throughout the slavery contention Mexican laws and decrees aimed not at securing freedom for a race, but to check American aggression and continued immigration. Without slaves ` the colonists would have made little headway in agriculture, therefore to prohibit the holding of slaves was equivalent to forbidding Ameri- cans to enter the country. In 1829 a more sweeping decree against slavery, abolishing the institution throughout the republic of Mexico, emanated from the federal government. This of course was directed against the Texans and was prompted by a recent investigation of af- fairs in Texas which had brought home to the government the danger that that state might be entirely won away from the republic. The colonists, with Austin as spokesman, remon- strated and set forth in extenso how necessary slaves were to the prosperity of Texas, and finally the operation of the decree in Texas was suspended.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 4

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co. Number of Pages: 968

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968