THE AUSTIN PAPERS 173 for itself and needs no explanation-it is very full- The difficul- tie~ in l\fexico a.re all settled. Guerrero is the President and Busta- mante the vice President- Pedrasa's· election was set aside by congress in the manner prescribed by the constitution on the ground of fraud and corruption, and congress then proceeded to elect from the other persons who stood highest in the list, and at the first vote Guerrero recd. 15 States and Bustam te 13-there are 19 states in all ~o that' this great question is now finally settled _in a legal and constitutional manner and tranquility is fully restored 1 The prospect of a change in the national constitution so·· as to strike out the restriction on Religious toleration is so great and brightening so rapidly that I have no longer any doubts that ·it must and will take place, 2 and under this belief I am of opinion that no evils will arise from family or neighborhood worship, or from the delivery of moral lectures, provided it is not done in a way to make a noise about public preaching So as not to start excited methodist preachers, for I do say that in some jnstances th~y are too, fanatic, too violent and too noisy,- Moral instruc- tion delivered in that pure, chaste and dignified language and man- ner with which such instruction ought _to be imparted to rational beings, will certainly not be objected to by the Govt on the con- trary it will be highly approved of. I give this as my opinion Mr Pilgrim proposes to teach school I am pleased with him so far as I have been able to judge- •My opinion on this subject is that we should all unite with a view .of establishing a permanent Academy at this place- If we now commence on this, basis, I have no doubt of succeedi~g, and if the subject is pushed and properly laid ·before the Govt. I have no doqbt of obtaining a liberal endowment of funds- I fear that a division in the minds of the people as_to where the Academy ought to be located would totally defeat the object, and for this reason I am in favor of engaging Mr Pilgrim to establish a School here per- manently !:!,nd that measures be adopted without delay to raise funds by subscription for a suitable house, large enough to accommodate about 100 scholars- I have drawn a plan which I send you This subject is a very important one, it has always been a favorite one with me, and·I think an effort should be now made to get the school under way, it can be added to afterwards-in fact it will ~aturally increase as its reputation becomes known and I fear that if the present opportunity passes of geting a permanent teacher an- other may not o[ffer so]on. I will however unite in support of any • See H. H. Bancroft, History of Mexico, V, 35-40. 1 The hope was probably based malnly on the fact that the clergy had almost unani- mously opposed Guerrero, who was now l,n the Nddle.
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