After the adoption of the above constitution, all negroes brought into the country came not as slaves, but as indented servants, to which indentures they themselves personally and voluntarily assented, which custom has never been discontinued. It is, nevertheless, provided in the draught of a con- stitution, proposed by the Convention of March last, that all slaves should continue to be the property of their law[11l owners. It is also by this instrument made piracy ·to introduce slaves from any country, except the United States. The object of this clause, I conceive to be, to allow persons coming from the Southern States, to setttle among them without break- ing up their family establishments.-But it must con- tinue a matter of doubt, whether it will be adopted by the people in the present form, inasmuch as it has not been discussed by nor submitted to them for their acceptance. Not many years after the Mexican constitution came into operation, the General Government conceded to the States the exclusive disposition and government of all public lands within their territorial limits. There was, also, a general colonization law enacted, which allowed each family a league of land, and to each single settler one fourth as much, after paying the nec- essary fee to an Empresario, appointed by the state
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