The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907 Page: 91

Land Speculation as a Cause of the Texas Revolution. 91
the same date. He said, "The simple facts are these: The admin-
istration of the government of the state during the present year has
been of the most shameful character. .. . A law was obtained
for the sale of four hundred leagues of vacant land and the most
shameless acts of speculation were committed against the state and
the interests of Texas. .. . The purchasers and those inter-
ested in them and a few others who have been deceived by them are
[responsible for] the reports which you have heard, and which I
trust the colonists will pay no further attention to than to treat
with contempt and indignation, etc. The movement of troops to-
wards Texas has in my opinion no other object than to meet and
counteract the revolution which the general government had grounds
to believe would be attempted by those individuals." James Kerr,
writing the next day to Chambers states the situation more forc-
ibly. "At San Felipe," he says, "Williams, Johnson, Carbajal,
Bowie, and others cry, 'wolf, wolf, condemnation, destruction, war,
to arms, to arms !' Williams says, 'I have bought a few leagues of
land from the government; but if they don't bring the governor
to Bexar, I shall not be able to get my titles.' What a pity; and
with his terrible tales I am astonished to see that they have had
the cleverness to excite some persons of that colony to a 'high de-
gree. . . . There is not in my opinion, in all the country one
single person, with the exception of the interested ones, who would
wittingly seek his own ruin in order to save thousands like Wil-
liams and the others. But they have been able to deceive many
persons and make them believe that an army is coming to destroy
their property and annihilate their rights in Texas. . . . The
inhabitants of La Vaca and Navidad are inclined to attend to their
ranches and estates."2 July 11, Edward Gritten wrote to General
Cos that "All the inhabitants of Texas protest against the conduct
of the land speculators, but they will unite themselves unanimously
'Chambers to James H. C. Miller, July 4, 1835, in The Texas Republi-
can, July 18, 1835. This is wholly inconsistent with a statement made
by Chambers in 1837 to the effect that he came post haste from Monclova
to warn the Texans of their danger and was unable to arouse them be-
cause of the pacific influence exerted by the speculators, who had con-
cluded that revolution would not be to their interest.-Sketch of the life of
Gen. T. J. Chambers, of Texas, p. 34 (described above).
2James Kerr to T. J. Chambers, July 5, 1835. Bexar Archives. Copy,
translated into Spanish by -Chambers.