The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944 Page: 33

Life of General Don Manuel de Mier y Terin

and a few Anglo-Americans who had drifted in after Long's
invasion already living on the grant made to Edwards; the latter
adopted a policy towards these old settlers which aroused their
hostility. He demanded their titles for examination in order
that he might decide who was and who was not legally settled,
and threatened to sell their lands in case they did not comply
with his demand immediately; at the same time he alienated
many of his own colonists by his demands for fees. Complaints
were made to Jos6 Antonio Saucedo, the political chief at B6xar;
Benjamin Edwards, a brother of the empresario, in attempting
to defend the policy of Iaden, inadvertently aroused the ire
of Saucedo and the latter succeeded in having the grant annulled
by the state government. On December 16, 1826, Benjamin
Edwards, with a handful of supporters, declared Texas inde-
pendent from Mexico and announced that henceforth the prov-
ince should be the Republic of Fredonia. The Edwards brothers
formed an alliance with the Cherokee Indians, who had recently
come into the region from their home on the Arkansas River;
they tried but failed to win support in Austin's colony. Peter
Ellis Bean, who had been sent to Texas as a sort of Indian agent
of the Republic of Mexico, persuaded the Cherokees not to par-
ticipate in the revolt. Three hundred soldiers from B6xar,
accompanied by a contingent from Austin's colony, marched to
Nacogdoches, but when they arrived they found the town al-
ready abandoned by the insurgents and the Fredonian republic
dissolved.5
The Fredonian rebellion was in itself a fiasco, but it marked
a turning point in the relations between the United States and
Mexico. Much diplomatic correspondence followed the sensa-
tion which it had created. Troops were assembled in Mexico
for the purpose of putting down any similar uprising which
might follow; a small force was stationed at Nacogdoches under
Colonel Jos6 de las Piedras. Public sentiment in both Mexico
and the United States was significantly affected; the news of
the revolt of a handful of men against a nation spread to the
capitals of both countries and aroused far more interest than
it deserved. Many officials in Mexico became uneasy and sus-
pected that Edwards was in some way the agent of the United
States; suspicions thus aroused were fed by brooding; it was
5E. C. Barker, The Life of Stephen F. Austin, 168-202; G. P. Garrison,
Texas, 163-169; H. H. Bancroft, The North Mexican States and Texas,
II, 98-110.

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