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AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
desire radical remedies, and only believe that they have mistaken the means to obtain them. Concerning this point, it must be said that at that tim~ (Nove~ber and December, 1832) Texas was almost in a state of nature as to government-and perhaps one would not venture much in saying that the whole republic was in the same situation,-so that the wisest were divided in opinion whether or not we had a legitimate government, or whether the Constitutio11 still existed. I did not know of this i1ew attitude of the ayuntamientos untiJ November 5 [1833] at the conference of ministers called by the _President, at which you assisted, when Senor Blanco brought it out. I therefore acted in conformity with the instructions given me by the convention in April. • • . In :Mexico I did all that I could to obtain the prompt and favor- able dispatch of the petitions of Texas, or busied myself to obtain such things as the repeal of the 11th Article of the law of April 6, 1830, exemptions from the tariff, the regulation of the mails, the payment of the presidia! companies; in short, anything to calm and content the people of Texas. At the beginning of October I ~as discouraged and irritated by an incident or bad news or a mistake which occurred then, and lost hope and patience, and in that moment wrote to the ayuntamientos of Texas recommending that they consult among themselves in order to.organize the local government in union and harmony, in case the Gen.eral Congress did nothing to remedy the evils of Texas. 1 I had also an other reason which influenced me to make this recommenda- tion_: nt that time, the result of the revolution was, in the opinion of many, doubtful, and I knew very well that the inhabitants of Texas were decided to revolt rather than submit to the domination of the Church party. In such case it would have been much better for the interest of Texas, of the popular party, and of the republic that it be organized in union and harmony, by agreement and ap- probation of the local authorities and under their direction than to proceed by means qf a popular uprising without the intervention of any authority. • • • • Thus my .recommendation was entirely conditional, subject to the developments of the future, a precautionary measure and noth- ing more. As soon as Arista surrendered and the 11th Article of the law of April 6, 1830, was repealed, I informed the ayuntamientos, and· in so doing believed that I had revoked the recommendation made in my letter of October, because it was made under the sup- position that nothing would be done.
1 See letter to Ayuntamiento ot Bexar, Oct. 2, 1832.
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