The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 204
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
from the condemnation of public opinion. "It is perilous," he
wrote, "to prolong a political question in Texas." Before he
wrote this, however, he had written Stephen F. Austin for his
opinion on the law. He wanted particularly Austin's ideas on
declaring Texas a territory.60
The eleventh article of the law contained the prohibition
against immigration from the United States:
In accordance with the right reserved by the gen-
eral congress in the seventh article of the Law of
August 18, 1824, it is prohibited that emigrants from
nations bordering on this Republic shall settle in the
states or territories adjacent to their own nation. Con-
sequently, all contracts not already completed and not
in harmony with this law are suspended.
In Austin's translation of the tenth article, the first phrase
read, "No change shall be made with respect to the colonies
already established, nor with respect to the slaves which they
contain. .. ." By combining the two articles, he substituted the
word "contract" for "colony" in the first and then argued that
no change should be made in contracts that were already estab-
lished or effective. His own and Green DeWitt's contracts were
effective, he said, and by the terms of the law, no change should
be made in these contracts and the empresarios should be al-
lowed to continue introducing colonists until the contracts were
either filled or expired by limitation. He insisted that Mier y
Teran, as commissioner of colonization, should so interpret the
law." Fortunately for Austin's enterprise, and for reasons
6OMier y Teran to Austin, April 24, 1830, in The Austin Papers, II, 370;
Austin to Mier y Teran, May 18, 1830, Ibid., 380-381. This writer fails to
see in Mier y TerAn's letter of April 24, any attempt to deceive Austin.
Alleine Howren in her "Causes and Origin of the Decree of April 6, 1830,"
in The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XVI, 420, by placing certain
phrases in italics, shifts emphasis so that it might appear that both Mier y
Terdn's opinion and final action on the bill were being held up for Austin's
reply. E. C. Barker in The Life of Stephen F. Austin, 309, says, "Teran
forwarded it [a letter from Bustamante to Austin] with a letter of his own
on April 24, innocently remarking that he supposed Austin was informed
concerning the bill which Congress was discussing for the development of
Texas; some friends in Mexico had asked his opinion, but he wanted to hear
what Austin had to say about it before replying." It is, of course, difficult
to say how much advance information Austin had on the law, but Articles
1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 13, and 18, were translated and discussed in The Texas Gazette,
April 10, 1830. This information reached Texas before it reached Mata-
moros. See Mier y Teran to AlamAn, May 7, 1830, MS., in archives of
Hospital de Jesds, in Archivo General de la Naci6n, Mexico, Legajo 416,
Expediente 1.
61Austin to Mier y Teran, May 18, 1830, as cited. E. C. Barker in The
Life of Stephen F. Austin, 296-328, has published a comprehensive study
of the Law of April 6, 1830, particularly as it affected the established
colonies. For Austin's reasoning, see pages 308-313.204
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945, periodical, 1945; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146055/m1/222/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.