The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 53

Life of General Don Manuel de Mier y Terdn

2 he obtained from Guerrero authority to allow the decree to
be inoperative in Texas.8
Several days, however, before this letter was written, Presi-
dent Guerrero, in reply to a letter from Mier y Teran, had
authorized him to inform Austin and others in Texas that the
decree in question did not comprehend that department. On
November 20, Mier y Terdn wrote Austin to that effect.9
This letter of November 20 has brought forth some interest-
ing discussion.' The two extracts which follow attempt to
explain Guerrero's reasons for exempting Texas from the decree
and are both of incidental interest to a study of Mier y Terin:
TerAn's letter is dated at Tampico, November 20,
1829, which raises an interesting question of chronol-
ogy. Teran declared that the president's instruction
to him was in the form of a private letter [carta par-
ticular] and that it was in response to a letter of his
own." From this it would appear that the decision to
except Texas from the decree was formed several
weeks before the petitions of local authorities were re-
ceived, and perhaps before the Texans even knew that
the decree had been issued. While that need not imply
consideration for the Texans, but simply the desire to
avoid certain opposition from them, it would at least
prove that the suspension was not decreed under the
menace of insurrection.'2
Since this letter was dated November 20, twelve
days earlier than the communication of the Minister
of Relations to Governor Viesca, it appears that
Guerrero may have learned from a source other than
the governor that the decree had caused agitation in
Texas and thought that he could send news to the
settlements more quickly through the military authori-
ties.18
Besides the letter to Elosua, December 18, cited above, Mier
8A. Viesca to J. M. Viesca, Mexico City, December 2, 1829, in The Texas
Gazette, January 30, 1830.
9Mier y TerAn to Austin, Pueblo viejo de Tampico, November 20, 1829,
in The Austin Papers, II, 290.
"0Lester G. Bugbee, "Slavery in Early Texas," in Political Science Quar-
terly, XIII, 655-658.
11TerAn to Elosua, December 18, 1829, MS in Spanish Records, General
Land Office of Texas, Vol. 57, page 130.
12E. C. Barker, "The Influence of Slavery in the Colonization of Texas,"
in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXVIII, 23-24.
13W. F. Sprague, The Life of Vicente Guerrero, Mexican Revolutionary
Patriot, 1782-1831, MS. (Doctoral dissertation), The University of Texas
Library, 1934, 228.

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