384
AMERICAN HISTORIC.AL ASSOCIATION
The ln.w of the 6 of April will have a fatal tendency if imprudently executed as you can easily perceive by taking n. slight view of my colony- I have made arrangements by means of contracts entered into by myself personally and by means of my agents to settle all the families which I have engaged to settle, and I believe that they have all arranged their affairs to remove the coming fall and winter and spring and are now on tµe road They are from N. Y. and the States from there to Louisiana- Many of them are persons of capital and all of them ha.Ye property or lands or other effects to sell before they could remove, It is very evident that they require time to make their preparations, to sell their property and convert it into money and arrange their affairs for a final and perma.nent removal to a foreign and distant land- it is also evident that they had to make some preparations here for the reception of their families-and such is the fact with respect to the settlers who have contracted to emigrate to my Colony the ensuing fall and winter and spring- They have sold their property where they lived and made the necessary arrange- ments for a removal. They in [fact] properly belong to the colony and have the [same] right to come to it, which those who are [nowl . here have to stay, and to prevent them would be a direct violation of the law and of public faith, and could not be viewd otherwise by the intelligent world- under this view of the subject and considering that the 10 article of the law of 6 April gives all such emigrants a right even under that prohibitory law to enter this territory I have informed them, that the emigrants to my colony are not included in the prohibition contained· in the 11 article for my colony is "estab- lished" and consequently no variation is to be made in it-- This is consistent with the law and it was due to justice, and was more especially necessary to shield the character and public faith of this Govt from the odium which must of necessity have been cast upon it, if these families were not allowed to enter, for it would have ruined the most or all of them,-imma.gine for a moment the situation in which some hundreds of families had to be placed, by being stopped on the road to this colony after having sold all their property where they formerly lived and incurred heavy expences, they would be totally· ruined, and the odium would of necessity fall on the Gov' that caused their ruin-public sympathy would be excited to a very high degree and public indignation would immediately follow,-The settlers whom I allow to [enter] are of the best class, whether con- sidered with respect to their property, their morals or their intelli- gence-and the acquisition of that population would do more towards uniting Texas to Mexico and securing good order and tranquility than any measure that could be adopted. I ha,re been informed that the commandant at Nacodoches will enterpose difficulties on
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