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Abstract:
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The passage of Mexico’s State Colonization Law in 1825 set in motion a sequence of events that eventually led to the independence of the state of Texas. Stephen F. Austin had begun bringing U.S. families to Texas in the early 1820s, but this law allowed U.S. citizens to enter and settle the Texas territory and thus encouraged Anglo-American settlers to occupy Texas in large numbers. The Mexican government hoped that inviting U.S. settlers into Texas would protect the territory from attacks by native Americans, encourage commerce, and stimulate ranching and cotton cultivation. The plan, however, backfired as U.S. settlers largely remained in the eastern part of the territory, too far from centers of Mexican authority for Mexico to assert its laws forbidding smuggling and slavery. In 1830, the Mexican government passed the Law of April 6th, which was supposed to end immigration of U.S. settlers into Texas, prohibit the importation of slaves, regulate commerce along the Gulf of Mexico, and create military posts to enforce the new laws. This law was largely unpopular among U.S. settlers in Texas who eventually revolted, and in 1836 Texas declared its independence from Mexico. The document that appears here expresses concern regarding property rights in the months immediately following the Law of April 6th. Written in Goliad, which was in the western Mexican-controlled area of Texas, it addresses questions regarding coastal lands along the Gulf of Mexico and jurisdiction over these eastern regions of the territory. |