198
A1\1:ERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
encroachments of personal rights, and a general repugnance to every thing that wore even the semblance of a stretch of power. This feeling is correct when properly guided by an enlightened judgement, capable of discriminating between a necessary and rigor- ous discharge of official duty and an abuse of it- And here I confess the people are somewhat defective, tho not more ·so than the mass of the people-" the multitude" are in the United States. Ninety nine times out of one hundred, an officer who discharges his duty 1·igo1·ously and firmly in the U. S. is denounced by the multitude as a tyrant, and he generally sinks under the denuncia- tion, unless shielded by the accidenta1 or substantial brilliancy of his acts, or by the amiable suavity of his manners, or by a talent to concilliate popular favor at the e:xpence o-f candor and truth- The Settlers of this colony taken en masse are greatly superior to any new country or frontier I have ever seen, and would loose nothing by a comparison with some of the oldest counties of 1'1any of the Southern and western States-this I state as a positive and incontrovertable fact-true it is that some of them have "growled" at me for expelling or rejecting bad men, and they have gone so far as to clamor because bad men have been rigorously handled- It arose from a defect of judgement, and not of the heart-there is a much greater want of men of sound and enlightened and experi- anced judgement-than of sound and pure materials to form a happy community in this colony-tho I will always contend that in this particular we are not behind the great mass of the people of the United States-in proportion to our numbers, we are as enlightened 1 as moral, as good, and as "law biding" men, as can be found in any p·art of the United States, and greatly more so than ever settled a frontier- The policy which the 1\'.fexican Govt has uniformly pursued towards the settlers of this colony, has been that of a kind and liberal and indulgent parent-favors and privileges have been showered upon us, to an extent that has even caused some to doubt their reality; and hence have arisen many vague and unmeaning suspicions a·s to the validity of our land titles etc- All such suspicions are vague and unmeaning and g1·oundless. . In the month of may and perhnps in next month the whole of the country bordering on the coast from Galveston bay to La Baca river on :Matagorda bay will be open for settlement~no grants can be made nor even promises of grants, untiU the person who applies has first removed his family and has actually become a settler-he cannot first pick out a place, and get a promise that it will be retained £or him and then go back and bring out his family-and no one can be admitted without producing the certificates and proof
Powered by FlippingBook