The Development of Friction, I820-z835
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that of Goliad. When the election for the a,yuntamimw was ordered in February, 1828, the settlers voted separately in seven districts.u Tlie first civit code. At the repeated request of the Anglo-American alcaldes in his constantly expanding colony, Austin was forced to draw up a civil code for their guidance. This, the first code, fixed the juris- diction of alcaldes and prescribed a definite judicial procedure. An alcalde, acting alone, had final jurisdiction in cases under $10.00, and if aided by arbitrators, up to $25.00. In cases involving sums up to $200.00, he had primary jurisdiction, subject to appeal. The alcaldes were urged to try to settle out of court first. Jose Antonio Saucedo, political chief, gave his approval and made the code official on May 23, 1824. The Civil Code of Austin contained the first fee bill ever put in operation in Anglo-American Texas. The charges, considering the purchasing power of those days, were reasonable enough. The alcalde's fees were: "Issuing a criminal warrant, 4 bits; for a forthwith summons, 3 bits; subpoena, 2 bits; summons, 2 bits; subpoena for arbitration, 2 bits; judgment, 3 bits; entering stay of execution, 2 bits; entering appeal and writing appeal bond, 8 bits; issuing execution, 2 bits; entering special bail and taking bond in case of attachment, 3 bits; ditto record- ing: for every 100 words, ¼ bit." 13 Tiu criminal code. A criminal code, submitted by Austin a day later, May 24, 1824, Saucedo approved. It dealt with murder, theft, robbery, gambling, profanity, drunkenness, seduction, counterfeiting, and the passing of counterfeit money. Horse-racing, curiously, was not classified as gambling, for it was considered an incentive to improving the breed of horses. Winners of bets on such races could not, however, have recourse to law to collect. All cases were to be investigated by the alcalde, tried by a jury of six, and the record and transcript of the cases were to be transmitted to Austin for final approval. Capital cases were, in tum, to be submitted by him to the commandant general in Monterrey for final judgment. Whipping and banishment from the colony were penalties imposed, 12 Austin, Translatio,r of t/,e Laws, Orders, a,r.d Co11tracts on Cololli11aLi<Ht ••• wit/, an explanatory lniroduction (Columbia, 1837), 21-:z:z; Wooten, A COMjr#- l,ensive History of Texas, I, 458-459. 13 Cited in Barker, "The Government of Austin's Colony, 1821-1831," T~ Quarterly, XXI, 229 1 note 28. A bit was twelve and a half cents, generally desig- nated in Spanish as a real.
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