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AM:ERTCAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
licanism was proscribed as a Crime and Republicans persecuted as Criminals, heavy restrictions were laid on foreigners by decrees regulating the manner and conditions in which they were to enter the Com1try-they were suspected and watched-in fact the whole Attention of the New Imperial Government was directed to their own Consolidation and preservation-In this state of things indi- vidual applications were lost amidst the multiplicity of more im- portant and I may say of personal Interests which occupied the Executive Department-And my Application Coming as it did from a foreigner born and bred a republican and whose Object was to form a Colony within the new Empire of :Men who like himself were Also born and bred in that land of liberty where Im- perial Diadems were only estimated by the intrinsic value of the materials which Composed them and where no Sceptre ruled but the public will, was considered by my friends as a hopeless Object, And I was Advised to save myself from further pecuniary ruin and embarrassment by its Abandonment--1\-fy Answer to this was, that my faith was pledged to the Settlers to secure their titles, and that I never would abandon ·their Interests-that the public Con- tract made with them to secure their lands should be complied with on my part, if such a thing was possible-Accordingly I presevered through one whole year of Revolution and political Convulsions in :Mexico, And After the Congress was dispersed by the Emperor On the 31 of October-the Junta Nacioruzl Instituyente which was sub- stituted in its stead passed the Colonization Law which was finally Approved by the Emperor and published on the 4 th day of January 1823-I can without boasting say that my Constant Exertions and· importunity with the Members both directly and indirectly through my friends produced this Law, for if it had been delayed a few weeks longer the new revolutionary events of January and Feb- ruary would have prevented its passage at all during that year- Immediately After the promulgation of the Colonization Law I urged a decision of my business by the Government, And After passing through the hands of the Captain General of the Internal Provinces Don Anastacio Bustamente and the Council of State who made separate reports on it-The Imperor on the 18 of february 1823 issued the Decree Authorising- me to complete the Colony and regulating the quantity of Lands to be distributed to the Settlers in Conformity with the Colonization Law, a translation of which Decree accompanies this Statement-marked A.-As Soon as I received this decree of the Emperor I considered my business finished and prepared to leave :Mexico, but the Storm which the forcible proclamation of the Emperor had engendered now burst forth from every quarter and threatened to speedy Subversion of a throne which
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