1126
Ai\'IERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
sou~ht a settlement 1 Which has received you with every public mark of confidence and favoud Are you aware of the fatal in- fluence it will have on your future prosperity, as well as the ob- stacles it will create against the admission of new settlers, to im- press on the Government the idea, that, the Americans are disposed at the very moment of their entrance into the count.ry,-while yet at the threshold and even before their full reception is completed and they are received .in all the rights of Citizenship, to array themselves in opposition to the authorities placed over them~ and to doubt, suspect and distrust the good faith of the Government, by declaiming, that, the officers appointed by it a.re without au- thority, and therefo're ought not to be obeyed t-..- I know that it is unnecessary for •me to caution you against com- promiting yourselves in any such acts, for I know, that, you will never do it unless misled or drawn into error without reflection, and this is the only reason why I now. allude to the .subject, and not because I ever believed that any well disposed man would knowingly engage in any act not sanctioned by the laws of the Country. If the object of the discontented persons be an investigation of my conduct by the Government, I hope they will be gratified, for, as I before said, I have petitioned the Government for such an investiga- tion; and I now declare that I will give a pasport to any person who applies for it who wishes to proceed to the Government for the purpose of entering complaints against me, and that, I will myself sign nny petition respectfully drawn up requesting an.investigation of my conduct by the Government: and that such investigation may be public and at this place in orcler to give every man an opportunity to come forward and exhibit his proofs.- My duty, however, and the positive orders of the Government, relative to such cases, imperiously derriand, that, open acts of insubor- dination tending to disturb the public peace should be noticed.-! have therefore issued an order for the arrest of the turbulent indi- vidual before·alluded to and shall send him to the Government to be disposed of as it may deem just.- As regards the fees ordered to be paid by the settlers on their lands, I have to state, that, they were fixed by the official order of the Governor of Texas, published on the 20 th • May 1824, and sanctioned by the most Exct-• Provincial Deputation, who ordered them to be exacted as will nppenr by their official letter dated 21 st Sept. 1824, A translation of which is hereto annexed.-The Governor informed me that they were in conformity with the fee bill established by the ancient audience [audiencia] of Mexico, and other laws then in force; 1'Thether they are legal or not, the establishment of them was not my act; it wus the act of the highest authority of the then Province of
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