The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 32, July 1928 - April, 1929 Page: 315
361 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Tadeo Ortiz and the Colonization of Texas, 1822-1883 315
of Texas with an almost perfect title and without any guarantees
certain Americans have even secured a third contract for immense
concessions for the purpose of carrying on a shameful trade and
traffic in lands.
A miserably small portion of the population was angrily urging
the national government to establish a military post or to form a
settlement of additional Mexicans while more than one hundred
petitions for titles to land presented by the people of the old set-
tlement at Bahia were either not being taken up for consideration
or were being refused altogether. This affair came to such an
extreme that a commissioner of the state finally notified them that,
if they wanted lands, they would have to sign their petitions in
the capacity of colonists under a foreign empresario so that this
empresario could sell it to them.
Finally, your Excellency, such is the conduct and confusion
caused by the authorities of the State of Coahuila by their latest
colonization law, that for the third time they recently granted to
the astute empresorio, Austin, more than 6,000 square leagues of
the best and choicest lands; and, in spite of the principles of equity
and justice, they have ruled that people born in Coahuila might
obtain a sitio. of land for fifteen pesos while the natives of Texas
could only secure this same amount of land by the payment of one
hundred pesos. The latter have a thousand reasons for thinking
they deserve at least an equality, if not a preference over other
Mexicans of the state.
While some have been angered by these unfair and objectionable
measures, others have secured lands by submitting to this objec-
tionable condition. However none of them have devoted them-
selves to farming and not a few of them have sold out to the
Anglo-Americans at a loss. These Americans have, in this way
acquired immense possessions in contravention of the spirit and
the letter of the Federal law of August 18, 1824, which forbids
the accumulation of more than eleven leagues of land by one
person.
To crown the confusion and discredit of the government, a num-
ber of poor and needy men have clothed themselves with the title
of commissioners, under pretext of granting possession of the land.
Besides the fee of fifty pesos, which they collect for each deed,
they are making a shameful traffic in lands and are abusing their
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 32, July 1928 - April, 1929, periodical, 1929; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101089/m1/320/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.