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Our Catholic Heritage in T e:tas
respect to the colonies already established . • ." Austin seized upon it and took the position that his colony and that of Green DeWitt should be considered as having been "established" under the law; and that, consequently, colonists now on their way to Texas under these con- tracts should not be barred from Texas; that, furthermore, to hinder their entrance would make the law retroactive in effect, which effect would be unjust and cruel, as well as contradictory to the state law. He so wrote President Bustamante, General Teran, and Governor Viesca." Fortunately, Teran, who was federal commissioner in charge of en- forcement of the new law, fully concurred with Austin in his views on these two articles. It is to be remembered that the recommendation to suspend all immigration from the United States had been, not his, but Alaman's. Going further than Austin had dared hope he would go, Teran advised the commandants at San Antonio and Nacogdoches that it was the intent of the Government "to guarantee the colonies al- ready established on the terms in which their. contracts were granted; so that they have the right to conclude all matters pending in the past which have not yet been fulfilled." In addition to these instructions, a copy of which he transmitted to Austin, Teran went on to say that Austin could for the present advise settlers now on the way, or who planned to join his colony, that there was no obstacle to their admission; that he could send each settler a certificate for presentation to the authorities at Nacogdoches to serve as a passport, and invite the scattered settlers in East Texas to move to his colony if he wished, "For to me,'' he added, "it is all the same whether you bring a family from Tennessee or from the Sabine."ss Such instructions suspended in effect Article XI and left° the door ajar to immigrants from the United States. The stream was slowed down but not dammed. Austin unequivocally told Teran and Alaman that irrespective of the interpretation placed upon the law, it was not a good law. With in- credible frankness and no little courage he declared that the law would only serve to bar good colonists, for it would not keep undesirables out; and that he doubted, consequently, that Texas would ever become populated under such a policy. He then mentioned the possibility o.f Texas separating itself from Mexico to avoid complete ruin. He per- sonally did not desire such a course of action, but in any case, he did "Austin to Bustamante, May 17, 1830; to Teran, May 18, 1830; to Viesca, May 31, 1830, Austin Papers. 55 Clted by Barker in Life of Stepl,en F. Austin, 313.
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