The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 7, July 1903 - April, 1904 Page: 115
xvi, 340 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Cherokee .Indians in Texas.
around Nacogdoches, without let or hindrance from the authori-
ties." A number of the settlers that had been attracted by the
offers of Austin's advertisements for colonists, during the latter's
absence of eighteen months in the city of Mexico, stopped short of
their destination and located in eastern Texas.2 And the passage
of the colonization laws added momentum to the movement already
begun.
The general colonization law was passed August 18; 1824. It
granted to the States the right to make regulations for the distri-
bution of the public lands within their boundaries. The States
were directed "as speedily as possible [to] frame laws or regula-
tions for the colonization of those lands which appertain to them.""
Nothing more liberal could have been desired by the States, and
that of Coahuila and Texas showed its appreciation by promulgat-
ing a colonization law (March 24, 1825) two years before a State
constitution was adopted. Even before the law was promulgated,
petitions for permits to introduce colonists were sent to congress;
and after the passage of the law, all were granted. The congress
of Coahuila and Texas appears to have been so "desirous of aug-
menting by all possible means the population of its territory, of
encouraging the cultivation of its fertile lands, the raising of stock,
and the progress of arts and commerce,"' that, before a month
elapsed after the passage of the colonization law, five contracts had
been approved, authorizing the introduction of a total of three
thousand families. "Thus the year of 1825 was the year of emigra-
tion for Texas. It was an impulse of the Ango-Saxon race crowd-
ing westward."5
The Cherokees, coming into eastern Texas in 1819-20, found few
whites, and still fewer Americans. To make sure of their posses-
sions, even at that time they had taken steps to obtain a title to
their lands. Matters, however, had dragged on for reasons beyond
the interest and comprehension of the Cherokees until 1825, and
'Lester G. Bugbee, The Texas Frontier, 1880-1825, in Publications of
Southern History Association, IV 102-121.
2S. F. Austin to the settlers in what is called "Austin's Colony," in
Texas, November 1, 1829. Gammel, Laws of Texas, I 17.
'General Colonization Law, Article 3. Ibid., I 97.
'Preamble of the colonization law of Coahuila and Texas. Ibid., I 99.
'Yoakum, History of Texas, I 234.115
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 7, July 1903 - April, 1904, periodical, 1904; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101030/m1/119/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.