Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
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Spanish and French governments. The rebels had made an urgent appeal to Louis XV to take them under his rule, which they dispatched to France with two messengers from New Orleans. The citizens of Louisiana found no encouragement at the French Court. Their fate was in the hands of Spain. Would she attempt to subdue them and reestablish her authority, or would she return the colony to France? Charles III called a special council to determine "whether Spain should retain Louisiana, on account of the extreme importance of establishing barriers to the aggrandizement of the English or leave it in the hands of France." From January to March, 1769, the great council discussed every phase of the important question. The ablest statesmen of Spain expressed their opinions. Among the members were the Duke of Alba, Don Jaime Masones de Lima, Don Juan de Arriaga, the Marquis of San Juan de Piedras Albas, the Count of Aranda, Don Juan Gregorio Muniain, and Don Miguel de Muzquiz. Individual reports in writing were submitted to the Marques de Grimaldi, now Secretary of State. All but Muzquiz agreed that Spain should keep Louisiana and subdue the rebellious colony. The reasons were well expressed by the Duke of Alba. Louisiana should be retained in order to define the western limits of the English possessions; the rebellious colonists should be subdued in order to strike at the root of all future disorders; and the form of government of the province should be changed to a form that should make future revolutions impossible. "Finally," he declared, "what to my judgment appears to be of more importance than all the rest, is that it be seen throughout the world and particularly in America, that the king knows and is able to repress any attempt whatever derogatory to the respect due to His Royal Majesty." 15 The Count of Aranda, who may be said to have been the foremost Spanish diplomat of his day, foretold the difficulties that were to arise over the western limits of the French province and how the failure to define them by France would be used as an excuse to include the larger part of Texas. If the province was now returned to France as suggested by some, he pointed out that it would probably soon be abandoned to the English or become, perhaps, an independent republic. In either case it would threaten the integrity of Texas and the commerce of all New Spain. In his opinion, Masones de Lima seems to have formulated for the first time the condition which was to be exacted of Napoleon in 1802. "If UGayarre, History of Louisiana, II, 249-270. In this work are found summaries of the various opinions rendered, taken from documents In the Spanish archives,
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