The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Volume V

388

of the Eastern internal States, ancl his means to augment in proportion to his uninterrupted labours, and prudent economy. In his "E.rposee" to the Ueneral Government of Mexico made in 18:l2. and existing on file in the Treasury Department, as abo,·e mentionetl, he urged to the Consideration of the General Executi,·e, with n ,·iew that he may lay it before Congress, the passage of a Law, permitting the Cultivation of Tobacco, in Texas, from whence the whole ·l\Iexit·an Territory might be supplied with; Also the passage of a law authoriz- ing the President to grant permission to any indi\-idual or association, with Certain privileges & restrictions to open a Communication by water, connecting the Snbine Hiver, by Sabine Bayou, and East Bayou ,vith Galveston llay, also the West Bay of Galveston by way of Oyster Creek, and East Union Bayou, with the llrasos River, at Velasco. He urged likewise the necessity of repealing certain Sections of the Revenue Laws, as established by the Tariff of 1826. whose effects were very injurious to the rising interest of Texas. viz: the prohibitory System, of not permitting the importation of foreign Grain, Provisions, Groceries, Clothing, Blankets, Lumber, Tobacco, Powder, Lead, Shott, Salt, Soap, Candles, Coffee, Sugar, Saddlery, Boots, Shoes, Hats, and Sundry other ,\rti<:les, of prime necessity for the use of the Emigrants, as also the reduction of the exorbitant duties on various articles of prime im- portance in a New Country viz: Nails, & Casting at 25 ceHts per pound. Furniture at 40 per cent "adra./ore111" dut)'· He also advocated i11 the Strongest terms the necessity of establishing Post offices, a11d Post roads throug[h.jout Texas, with a weekly mail from l\Ionclorn, via Hio Grnn,1e, Bexar, Gonsales, San Felipe, and Naeogdoches to Gains ferry, 011 tlw Sabine, and from l\Iatamoros, \'in San Patricio, Hefugio, Goliad, Vie- toria, :Matagorda, Brasoria, Harrisburg, Lynchburg, Liberty, and Fort Teran, to the Sabine on the road to Opelousas. The extending a line of Military Ca11to11ements, in forts or lllock Houses, (Presid-fr,." ) as it was during the reign of Spain, all along the ~'Hio Bravo del Norte"; comme11ei11g from the "Presidio dr.l Rio Grande" and terminating at Taos, in the Territor~· of New l\Iexico with the object of checking the incursions of the Barbarian tribes of Indians and paralysing the Commission of those depredations of these Savages, which they ha,·e so frequently and Successfully effected, uml whose constant continuance is the dayly scorge of the unfortunate nnd exposed iu- habit[ant]s of those frontiers, ever since the garrisons of those Presidia have been for want of the necessary menus on the part of the Government to maintain them on the permanent and imposing footing which tlw object of their institution requires, disbanded, was oue of the points upon which he had dwelled, with great Solicitude in his "Exposee" The object of the highest importance to the promotion of the interest of Texas, and thereby to the Revenue Department of :Mexico, which a Measure of that Kind would have effected, woultl ha,·e been the iucrease of the Commerce of Texns, and the Augmentation of the Import and Export trade by the formatio11 of a Compnny of enterprisin 9 irn1iv~cluu_ls in Texas, who would have opened a Hoacl from Bexar to Snu~a I< ee _m New :Mexico, as it was premeclitatecl by the lnte Gen! Stephen .F .• _\ustm, Empresario of .\ustins Colony, ~lso by the h~te ~ol: James Bowie, and his father-in-law the late )Inrtm Veramend1, Lieutenant Governor of

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