The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 16, July 1912 - April, 1913 Page: 388
464 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
doubtedly worse than avowed slavery, it is evident that it was the
name rather than the institution to which she objected. But
whether her attitude was consistent, or merely a gross oversight
of the beam in her own eye while looking for the mote in her
neighbor's eye, was a question that did not affect her feelings
toward the actual fact of slavery in Texas. It was a constant
source of irritation to her that, in spite of repeated laws on the
subject, the English-speaking colonists of the northern province
continued to hold their black slaves, and the semblance of legality
afforded by the state law cited served only to deepen the irritation.
General Teran, in a letter to President Guadalupe Victoria,
written from Nacogdoches in 1828,' says: "If these laws [abolish-
ing slavery] should be repealed-which God forbid-in a few years
Texas would be a powerful state which could compete in wealth
and productions with Louisiana." General Terdn's observations
on the situation in Texas in 1828 are not only keen and intelligent,
but doubly interesting from the fact that he is inclined to respect,
if not even to admire, the Anglo-American colonists as a whole.
In the words just quoted he implies his personal disapproval of
slavery as an institution-a disapproval expressed in no uncertain
terms elsewhere in the letter-but he is at the same time able to
grasp the economic importance of the institution. In another
passage of the same letter he points out two sources of danger
from these slaveholding citizens. He says that they are impatient
of the restraint placed upon the development of Texas by anti-
slavery laws, and that they are also annoyed at the effect of such
legislation on the attitude of the slaves themselves. Just how far
the last observation may be true-and Terdn was but newly arrived
in the province-and how much weight to attach to it if true, are
matters open to question; but that the Mexican leaders saw in the
rigid prohibition of slavery a weapon with which to strike at Anglo-
American immigration and influence is evidenced in the renewed
attack on the institution in 1829.
When Guerrero was invested with dictatorial powers in that year,
those of the Mexican leaders who were especially desirous of seeing
Anglo-American colonization cut short induced him to issue a
'TerAn to Guadalupe Victoria, June 28, 1830. Transcript. Legajo 7.
1836.388
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 16, July 1912 - April, 1913, periodical, 1913; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101058/m1/396/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.