The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 23, July 1919 - April, 1920 Page: 95
319 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Border Troubles Along the Rio Gande, 1848-1860
to grant permits for their entrance to the interior, and in some
instances seized them outright.
One of the most important of these cases, and one which may
serve to illustrate this phase of the subject, was that of Samuel
A. Belden and Company of Matamoras and Turner and Renshaw
of New Orleans. The latter firm had imported during the Ameri-
can occupation 565 bales of tobacco, and had not disposed of it
when the treaty of peace was signed. The Mexican government
delayed the granting of permits until the tobacco was injured, and
Turner and Renshaw were forced to sell it at a reduced price,
obtaining an average of $13 instead of a possible $25 per hundred.
Three hundred bales of the tobacco were bought by Belden and
Company, perhaps with the hope of realizing handsome profits
from the investment. In October, 1850, after having received the
proper permits, the company dispatched an agent with the tobacco
to Saltillo. Upon its arrival at that place, it was seized by order
of a federal judge, condemned and sold. Moreover, Belden and
Company were subjected to a fine of $26,000, their store and
stock at Matamoras were seized as security, and Belden himself
was forced to flee to Texas in order to avoid arrest.
By these outrages Belden claimed he had been injured to the
extent of $500,000. He straightway addressed the President of
the United States regarding the matter and sent in a petition to
Congress. On May 6, 1852, Congress called upon the President
for documents regarding the claim. A few days later they were
communicated to that body with the statement that the matter
had been taken up in a diplomatic way.12 Belden did not realize
anything on his claim until 1855, however, and the matter was not
finally settled by Mexico until about twenty years later when
Belden and Company were awarded some $128,000 and Turner
and Renshaw received some $18,000.13
Besides this case there were ten or fifteen others of a similar
nature,1' and it may be taken for granted that such procedure did
not leave the merchants of the left bank of the river in the best
of humor. They were doubtless further irritated because they
knew that British traders were the owners of the tobacco monopoly,
senatee Ex. Doc. 80, 32d Cong., 1st Sess., 1.
senate EA. Doe. 31, 44th Cong., 2d Sess., 24-25, claims 113 and 131.
"Ibid., 18 et seq.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 23, July 1919 - April, 1920, periodical, 1920; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101075/m1/101/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.