Account of the Removal of the Remains of Stephen F. Austin from Peach Point Cemetery in Brazoria County, Texas to State Cemetery, Austin, Texas, October 18 to 20, 1910 Page: 27
This book is part of the collection entitled: Texas History Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
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27
told me more than once that before the revolution of 1836 there
were not twenty men in all the colonies who were worth $5,000
each. Their common pasture was the broad prairie that stretched
westward 700 miles to the Rio Grande, while the black bear,
antelope, millions of buffalo and deer supplied them with both
food and raiment. We who rejoice in fruitful fields and growing
cities can never love Texas as did its first pioneers, who delighted
in the waving beauty of its untrodden grass and wild
flowers, while it was yet vocal with the music of the wilderness.
AUSTIN S FIRST JOURNEY TO THE CITY OF MEXICO.
A change of rulers in Mexico compelled Austin to visit its
capital, for the last of the Spanish viceroys had been expelled
in 1821, and he needed a confirmation of his empresario contract
to colonize under the government of Iturbide. He made
this journey of a thousand miles over a road dangerous from
Indians to the Rio Grande. and in Mexico from robber bands. To
avoid being plundered he went on foot and alone from San Luis
Potosi to the City of Mexico disguised as a beggar, and in April,
1822, reached the Mexican Capital. There he first met Santa
Anna and the Emperor Iturbide, whose coronation he witnessed,
as he did also his abdication. During the bloody era that then convulsed
Mexico, he learned to speak Spanish like his native tongue,
and after securing the confidence of rival chiefs, returned with
his contract sanctioned and enlarged by the central authority.
While watching the shifting scenes of the revolutionary drama
there, he wrote the first draft of the Mexican Constitution,
afterward in substance adopted in 1824. This fact has been
questioned by one historian who never knew Austin or had access
to his papers, but is attested by his private journal. His
papers are in a vault of our State University. That Constitution
was adopted in substance by Mexico more than a year after
Austin's return home.
One man, solitary and alone, unaided by wealth or powerful
friends, had induced the Mexican government to reverse its policy
of a century, and permit the colonization here of the very
race it had watched with jealous distrust. Calm, intellectual,
self-possessed, accomplished as a scholar, gentle as a woman, yet
fearless as a lion, Austin was admirably equipped for the great
work before him. His greatness shines with increasing luster
as we see him moving forward, still unaided, and overcoming
very obstacle in his path. Milam, DeWitt, Cameron, Hewitson
and Robertson followed his example, and in a few years the
anoke that went up from pioneer cabins from the Sabine to
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Bryan, Guy M., Jr. Account of the Removal of the Remains of Stephen F. Austin from Peach Point Cemetery in Brazoria County, Texas to State Cemetery, Austin, Texas, October 18 to 20, 1910, book, 1911; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth38129/m1/31/?q=Lamar+University: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.