Our Catholic Heritage in T e:xa.s
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the doors wide to immigration was all too soon displaced by susp1c1on and fear. The rush of immigrants from the United States and the American attitude in surveying the boundaries fixed by the Florida Treaty of 1819 aroused many doubts. The Mexican officials naturally saw, or thought they saw, a logical and, therefore, a dangerous con- nection between the two. Mexico took precautions that irritated the colonists, who, it is safe to say, were innocent of any designs in carry- ing out the foreign policy of the Adams and Jackson administrations. The fear of losing Texas had flashed momentarily in the Con- gressional discussion of the Colonization Law of 1822. The Committee on Colonization realized that the fertility and natural resources of Texas had long since aroused the cupidity of the United States. They pro- phetically declared they would satisfy this desire if steps were not taken to prevent it. They maintained that to neglect "this matter would bring upon Texas the fate of the Floridas." Almost at the very time that the Commit~ee on Colonization was warning against American expansion, the first Mexican minister to the United States became impatient with the American Government for delaying the boundary survey. Monroe remained indifferent. A statement, reputedly made by General Andrew Jackson, of Florida fame, filled the Mexican minister with concern. He had publicly ex- pressed his opinion, according to reports, that the United States should never have let slip the opportunity to acquire Texas. It was his firm belief that the best way to acquire territory was to occupy it and then negotiate for it. The Mexican minister warned his Government of the serious consequences that would follow the election of the Tennessean to the presidency. When John Quincy Adams succeeded Monroe and Henry Clay be- came Secretary of State, Mexico had good grounds for suspecting that no stone would be left unturned to secure Texas, for Adams had stoutly held that Louisiana extended to the Rio Grande, and Clay had vehe- mently denounced the ultimate compromise that sacrificed Texas for Florida. The instructions given to the first American minister Joel R. Poinsett by Adams early in 1825 fully confirmed the Mexican fears. Poinsett was instructed to suggest negotiating a new boundary "more suitable to the United States," such as the Brazos, the Colorado, or the Rio Grande. Although Poinsett was told not to press the matter and was authorized to agree to the survey of the line fixed by the treaty of 1819 if Mexico insisted, his very suggestion shocked the
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