USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 1 > Part 26
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" I am well aware of the many instances, not only of rigor- ous justice, but also of great generosity, shown by your Honors in cases analogous to the present. We believe confi- dently that your Honors will not deny the justice of our cause, and that, not only our colonists, but all Texas will see that justice will be meted out alike to all.
" Therefore, I supplicate your Honors to grant my peti- tion so that we may get justice.
" Monclova, April 2, 1834.
STERLING C. ROBERTSON (L. S.)"
" I further state : In case that you may not be able to de- cide upon matters during the present session on account of lack of time for investigation, that I trust your Honors will
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suspend the aforesaid contract of the partners, Austin and Williams, as far as the lands of the Nashville company are concerned, until you reach a final decision, as this appears to me to be no more than is justly due us.
S. C. ROBERTSON (L. S.)."
" Most Excellent Sirs:
" Sterling C. Robertson, a member of the Nashville Com- pany, organized to establish a colony in Texas, and agent of the empresario of the same, Hosea H. League, with the most profound respect represent to Your Excellency that said com- pany desirous always of complying in every respect with the contract made by it with the Government on April 15, 1825, to introduce 800 families on the lands designated by said con- tract, as early as the year 1826 had introduced some families and before the passage of the prohibitory law of April 6, 1830, had introduced over 100 families as shown by the sworn documents accompanying this memorial. After the passage of said law they introduced many more families but neither the first nor the last families were settled upon our lands or . in our colony according to the contract made with us, on account of orders issued prohibiting the same and expelling them from the country. Notwithstanding all this, they never left the country and are found to-day scattered in various places in the department of Bexar, without homes or lands, awaiting the final action of Your Excellency. Mr. Austin, being deputized by the congress of the State and about to go to the capital, promised me, upon his word of honor, to secure the appointment of a commissioner for the Nashville company to put the families belonging to the same in legal possession of their lands, and also to solicit an extension of time to fulfill our contract, on account of the obstacles and difficulties placed in our way by the Mexican authorities ; but, oblivious of the good faith which should ever actuate all right minded men, and depising those principles of honor which are
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never forgotten only by the perfidious and evil, he blinded the Government with false information, causing them to believe that we had never taken a single step towards the fulfillment of our contract. And the result was, that with these false, insidious statements he succeeded in securing our colony for himself and his companion in iniquity, Samuel M. Williams, which he accomplished on February 21, 1831, celebrating with the Government a contract which included all the lands of our colony. But this last contract was void ab initio, because the Government could not contract these same lands to others while there was a contract pending with us, and although we might not have introduced a single family until the day that our contract expired, and on that day brought in the 800, our contract would have been legally fulfilled and the Government could not have disposed of the lands until, as it appears to me, that day was past, not even if we had introduced a smaller number than the 800. But the contract of said partners is void because they obtained it through false and perfidious representations, and the Government granted it, acting upon an erroneous and mistaken knowledge of the true facts, which were, that we had never taken the first step towards fulfilling our contract, as can be ascertained from article 2d of the contract made with the partners, Austin and Williams, all of which is proven by the accompanying docu- ments. In consideration of all this I earnestly solicit the appointment of a commissioner by the Government to legally place the 100 and more families introduced by us previous to the passage of the prohibitory law of April 6, 1830, in possession of the lands due them under the contract. I also entreat your Excellency to transmit this petition and the accompanying documents to the Honorable Congress and recommend their favorable consideration, and that they may please to declare the contract made with Austin and Williams null ; also that all the families introduced by us after the passage of the prohibitory act of April 6, 1830, may be
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established in our colony according to the stipulations of our contract and the proper colonization laws.
" I entreat Your Excellency to grant my petition so that I may receive justice.
" Monclova, April 2, 1834.
STERLING C. ROBERTSON, (L. S.)"
" This is an exact copy of the original as it exists in the archives of the Government (Secretary's office) from which this copy was taken by request of Don Andres E. Carruthers, by order of the Citizen Governor. And, in order that the parties interested may secure the benefit desired to be pro- cured by the archives or records.
" I hereby subscribe myself in Saltillo, capital of the State of Coahuila of Zaragosa on this the 29th day of September, 1869.
J. SARAPIO FRAYOSO, Secretary."
" CONGRESSIONAL HALL OF THE FREE STATE OF COAHUILA AND TEXAS.
" Most Excellent Sirs:
The Honorable Congress in session on the 24th of this month have seen fit to submit to Your Excellency the resolu- tion passed by them in regard to the colonization laws as applying to the statements made by the Empresario Sterling C. Robertson, and the documents accompanying them pre- sented by him, and we have the honor to communicate to Your Excellency for your information and other purposes, our adjustment of said matter, and we reiterate our high con- sideration and appreciation to your Excellency.
" God and Liberty and Federation.
" Monclova, April 26th, 1834.
JOSE JESUS GRANDE, D. S. (L. S.)"
MARIA DE URANGA, D. S. (L. S.)"
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" To His Excellency, Gubernador del Estado :
" In fulfillment of the order communicated to me by the Honorable Congress, dated April 26th of this year, after hav- ing examined the statements of the stranger, Sterling C. Rob- ertson, and the documents accompanying it, knowing that the contract with the partners, Austin and Williams, made with this Government, February 25, 1831, was merely conditional, nor could it be otherwise with regard to the land set apart for the Nashville Company, and in virtue of the information fur- nished by the council of San Felipe de Austin, to the effect that said company had introduced at least 100 families prior to April 6th, 1830, in accordance with instructions and decree of the Government I will make the following dispo- sitions :
" First. This government considers void the Austin and Williams contract so far as the same embraces the lands granted to the Nashville Company, spoken of in article 2nd of said contract, the interested parties being able to deduce the concessions granted them in each contract, and the Govern- ment will designate other lands equivalent in value to be set apart to Austin and Williams, provided there is not a suffi- cient amount of land left within the limits of their colony to supply the families they have obligated themselves to intro- duce.
" Second. The families introduced by the Nashville Com- pany before the termination of their contract should and ought to be settled on their lands.
" Third. The limits designated for the Nashville Company's land are just as stated by article 20 of the disposition made by this Government in the presence of Citizen Stephen F. Austin, on October 15th, 1827.
" Fourth. The families introduced into said colonies at the expense of the partners, Austin and Williams, will be pro- tected in the possession they have acquired legally and this will not release the contracting parties from the number of
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families they have agreed to introduce, although they may adjust their difficulties in regard to changing settlements.
" Fifth. Certified copies of the foregoing will be sent the parties interested for their information.
" Monclova, May 22d, 1834.
VIDAURRI. (L. S.)" " JOSE MARIA DEL VALLE, Official. (L. S.) (L. S.)"
" SUPREME GOVERNMENT OF THE FREE STATE OF COAHUILA AND TEXAS.
" Most Excellent Sir :
" The citizen, Sterling C. Robertson, a member of the Nashville Company, organized for the purpose of establishing a colony in Texas, and agent of the empresario of said Com- pany, with the most profound respect, represents to Your Excellency that having already introduced a considerable part of the families contracted for by our Company and desirous of rapidly fulfilling completely our contract made with the Government, and according to the last disposition made of this matter and to augment the industry and prosperity of the people, I entreat Your Excellency to appoint a commissioner to expedite the titles to the settlers as they properly are en- titled to them according to the laws and our contract. I trust Your Excellency will confer said nomination upon Citizen Wm. H. Steele, if you consider him worthy the confidence of the Government. I hope Your Excellency will respond to my solicitation and that I may receive justice and favor.
STERLING C. ROBERTSON. (L. S.)
Agent of the Colony."
" Monclova, May 22d, 1834."
" MONCLOVA, May 24th, 1834.
" In response to the above petition, the Government hereby appoints Citizen Wm. H. Steele, Commissioner for the colony
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contracted for by the Nashville Company, who will proceed to discharge this commission in accordance with the law gov- erning subaltern-commissioners of March 26th of this year, and in accordance with the requirements necessary to be ob- served with the Commissioner-General of Bexar, and a copy of the above named law with this decree inserted, forwarded to the Commissioner herein appointed so that he may be informed of his appointment.
(Vidaurri. L. S.)
JOSE MARIA FALCON, 2d Officer (L. S.)"
CHAPTER XXXI.
More in Regard to Robertson's Colony.
The version of Major Robertson has thus been given. He uses terms of bitter denunciation, which must be lamented. It has been stated that Austin's long detention in Mexico left Williams in charge. In fact, from April, 1833, to the beginning of hostilities in 1835, and, during that period, until the end of all colonial contracts, Austin had no means of participating in the management.
On the 20th of April, 1833, on the eve of leaving for Mexico, Austin wrote James F. Perry, saying :
" I made an arrangement with John Austin and Williams as to the upper colony, above the San Antonio road, and what is made out of that colony is to be equally divided between us. Williams is to attend to the business, but nothing is to be done contrary to law or the true interests of the country. That is, there is to be no kind of wild speculation. My object in this is more to have the business attended to and that wil- derness country settled, than to make a speculation." These were Austin's statements privately written to his brother-in- law at the last moment before his departure on that momen- tous mission to Mexico, in which he was to be so long immured in a dungeon because of his fidelity to Texas.
On the eve of Austin's departure for the United States, with his colleagues, William H. Wharton and Branch T. Archer, on the 17th of December, 1835, Austin wrote Mr. Perry saying :
" As regards the upper colony I have never received one cent. I have had nothing to do with it. My name has been (335)
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used for the benefit of others, and I have received all the abuse and calumny. Williams knows all about it."
On December the 24th (same year) still detained at the mouth of the Brazos, he wrote Mr. Perry :
I have never received one cent out of any of the proceeds of the upper colony, and I know nothing about it and have had nothing to do with it."
It must be borne in mind that from June, 1833, to Septem- ber, 1835, Austin was in Mexico, over half the time an actual or quasi-prisoner suffering for Texas, and that his partner, Samuel M. Williams, in these complications with Robertson's colony, was in charge of the business and was present at the State capital during a part of the time. He represented his own case to the government, but they, as is shown, decided in favor of Robertson. The final result was that the settlers received their lands and the contractors their premium lands.
On the first day of September, 1835, Austin arrived at Velasco at the mouth of the Brazos. The whole country, in- cluding as well those who differed with his views and lacked confidence in his capacity for leadership, rejoiced at his safe return. A dinner was given him on the 8th of the month at Brazoria, attended by men of all shades of opinion. In his address, often since published, he said:
" I fully hoped to have found Texas at peace and in tran- quility, but regret to find it in commotion; all disorganized, all in anarchy, and threatened with immediate hostilities.
" This state of things is deeply to be lamented ; it is a great misfortune, but it is one which has not been produced by any acts of the people of this country ; on the contrary, it is the mutual and inevitable consequence of the revolution that has spread all over Mexico and of the imprudent and impolitic measures of both the general and state governments, with respect to Texas. The people here are not to blame, and cannot be justly censured. They are farmers, cultivators of the soil, and are pacific from interest, from occupation, and
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from inclination. They have uniformly endeavored to sustain the constitution and the public peace by pacific means, and have never deviated from their duty as Mexican citizens. If any acts of imprudence have been com- mitted by individuals, they evidently resulted from the revolutionary state of the whole nation, the imprudent and censurable conduct of the State authorities, and the total want of a local government in Texas. It is, indeed, a source of surprise and credible congratulation, that so few acts of this description have occurred under the peculiar circumstances of the times. It is, however, to be remembered that acts of this nature were not the acts of the people, nor is Texas responsible for them. They were, as I before observed, the natural consequences of the revolutionary state of the Mexican nation ; and Texas certainly did not originate that revolution, neither have the people, as a people, participated in it. The consciences and hands of the Texians are free from censure and clean.
" The revolution in Mexico is drawing to a close. The object is to change the form of government, destroy the federal constitution of 1824, and establish a central, or con- solidated, government. The States are to be converted into provinces. *
" The federal constitution of 1824 is about to be destroyed, the system of government changed, and a central or consoli- dated one established. Will this act annihilate all the rights of Texas, and subject this country to the uncontrolled and unlimited dictation of the government ?
" This is a subject of the most vital importance. I have no doubt the federal constitution will be destroyed, and a central government established, and that the people will soon be called upon to say whether they agree to this change or not. This matter requires the most calm discussion, the most mature deliberation, and the most perfect union. How is this to be had? I see but one way, and that is by a general
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consultation of the people by means of delegates elected for that purpose, with full power to give such an answer, in the name of Texas, to this question, as they may deem best, and to adopt such measures as the tranquility and salvation of the country may require.
" It is my duty to state that General Santa Anna verbally and expressly authorized me to say to the people of Texas, that he was their friend, that he wished for their prosperity, and would do all he could to promote it; and that, in the new constitution, he would use his influence to give to the people of Texas a special organization suited to their education, habits and situation. Several of the most intelligent and influential men in Mexico, and especially the Ministers of Relations and War, expressed themselves in the same manner. These dec- larations afford another and more urgent necessity for a general consultation of all Texas, in order to inform the general gov- ernment, and especially General Santa Anna, what kind of organization will suit the education, habits, and situation of this people."
In view of the fact that two and a third years before, Colonel Austin, thoroughly fortified and charged with the wishes of the people, had peacefully and respectfully submitted their petitions to the Mexican Government, in return for which, he had been long imprisoned and just now released, was it not the essence of simplicity for him to advise the adoption of meas- ures to repeat the painful and degrading farce of " informing the general government, and especially General Santa Anna, what kind of organization will suit the education, habits and situation of this people ? "
Again Col. Austin said : " This country is now in anarchy, threatened with hostilities; armed vessels are capturing every- thing they can catch on the coast, and acts of piracy are said to be committed under cover of the Mexican flag. Can this state of things exist without precipitating the country into a war? I think it cannot, and therefore believe that it is our
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bounden and solemn duty as Mexicans and as Texians, to present the evils that are likely to result from this mistaken and most impolitic policy in the military movements."
Considering that a large division of Santa Anna's army were then in possession of the principal town in the country, and soon to have their numbers increased till, as they believed, they could overrun and subdue the country, it looks much as if in his long suffering and imprisonment, the subtle genius of Santa Anna had beguiled the mind of Austin. As the stern facts confronted the American colonists at that date, such representations and appeals to Santa Anna, would be as fruit- less as his subsequent butcheries at Goliad and his black bean lottery, seven years later, were infamous and horrible in the estimation of all christendom.
Colonel Austin joined heartily, however, in support of the consultation already called, and, as he came to realize more fully the actual condition of things, and the general de- ermination of the people to form a government, provisional, or otherwise, not only advanced to that position, but became a zealous and efficient worker in that cause, of necessity abandoning the chimerical idea of again applying to the mer- cies or the magnanimity of Santa Anna for relief.
In a few days he proceeded to San Felipe, arriving there about the 15th of September. He was invited to become chairman of their existing committee of Safety and Corre- spondence, in which position, apparently growing in faith, he labored with zeal during his short connection with it, a period of three weeks, till called to another field, yet to be reached in the order of events.
A great difficulty in writing history to one who desires his readers to see events as they actually occurred and to connect cause with effect and effect with cause, is to avoid the one- sided and partial statements of persons or writers imbued with prejudices for or against particular men or measures. The mission of the true historian is to honestly record facts,
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causes and effects, and, in so far as he may truthfully and conscientiously do so, to supply explanatory matter, whereby posterity, freed of the prejudices of the hour, may possess the elements upon which to base correct opinions of the past, and thus, by analogy, become fortified with data to guide their actions in the future. Beyond this, history is utterly without value. Beyond this, history degenerates to the level of romance, and is divested of its mission as an instructor to those yet to be born. After the successful American revolu- tion against the right of a foreign government, to govern a self-sustaining and thinking people who had defied danger, destitution and hardships to secure in the western world peaceful homes for themselves, families and kindred, no event has occurred in the world's history more worthy of admiration, more inspiring or more justly deserving the approving smiles of heaven, than the Texas revolution against Mexico, now about to confront us.
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CHAPTER XXXII.
Death of Green De Witt - State Land Sales - Sam'l M. Williams - Aus- tin's Appeal.
But before proceeding with these narrations two or three intervening occurrences must be mentioned. The first is that the empresario, Green De Witt, having not only fulfilled his contract by introducing the number of families stipulated for, but eighty families in addition, found himself early in 1835, in declining health, and, anxious after so much toil, to leave his family, in the event of his death, well provided for, visited Monclova to secure the proportionate amount of premium lands for the extra eighty families, to which he was justly entitled. He arrived there in the midst of the high-handed outrages, revolutions and military interventions which have been narrated. Disease, aggravated by a keen sense of wrong, made rapid encroachments on his constitution, and on the 18th of May, 1835, he died in Monclova, far removed from his wife and children and his colonists on the Guadalupe, the San Marcos and the Lavaca.1 It has been said by one or more writers, that Austin was the only empresario who fulfilled his contracts by introducing the number of colonists required by his several concessions. This is untrue so far as De Witt was concerned, for, as has been said, he exceeded the requirement by eighty families, and that he introduced worthy people is . attested by their deeds of valor and patriotism, surpassed by
1 Green De Witt was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, in September, 1787. He married Sarah Sealy, who was born in West Virginia, in the same year, and died in Gonzales in 1854. Removing first to St. Louis and next to Ralls County, Missouri, De Witt was sheriff of the latter. In 1822 on his arrival in Mexico, Austin found De Witt already there seeking a grant, which however, he only got from the State government April 15th, 1825.
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no people in Texas or America. Their misfortune was that, being then, and long after continuing, a strictly frontier people, ever exposed to Indian inroads, as well as the later invasions of the Mexicans and the depredations of Mexican free- booters for which Mexico, as a government, was not responsi- ble, and De Witt, dying as he did, neither he nor they had any representative in the court of literature to chronicle their virtues, their sacrifices or their heroism. Beyond this De Leon, McMullen and McGloin, Power and Hewitson, so far as times permitted, fulfilled their agreements.
Reference has been made to the sale of four hundred leagues of land, in March, 1835, by the then State government, to private individuals, for speculative purposes. Two hundred of these leagues were sold to Samuel M. Williams, secretary of Austin's colony, and Austin's partner in the Robertson colony matter, and a hundred each to two other individuals whose names are not remembered. Mr. Williams also secured from the same legislature a charter for a bank, under which, many years later, under that sometime-fiction in law called vested rights, he established and maintained a bank in Galves- ton, notwithstanding the State constitution of 1845, adopted before the bank was organized, prohibited the establishment of such institutions in the State. The question was adjudi- cated and the Supreme Court sustained the plea of vested rights for the unexpired term of the original period allowed.
On the 29th of July, 1835, responsive to the public clamor on the land sale question, Mr. Williams published an explana- tory and defensive address " to the people of Texas." That document is now before me, but is too long to be quoted; but it may be said, he denied having had any agency in the pas- sage of the law of March 14th, 1835, and continued : " I was an entire stranger to every member of the legislature at the time of my arrival in Monclova, two weeks anterior to the time the law was passed, with the exception of Mr. Carbajal, who did not arrive at that place until about the 10th of the
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month, three or four days previous to the passage of the law. The members from the different departments of the State were mostly strangers to one another. The body was composed of new members and therefore cannot be presumed to have had any concerted plan on that subject, nor in fact on any other."
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