The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, July 1936 - April, 1937 Page: 119
348 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Mercer Colony in Texas, 1844-1883
Indians; and that colonists' notes for surveyor's fees were in his
possession. He stated that the contract of January, 1844, followed
the opening of the Cherokee lands. It was made solely with the
view to provide for the public debt of Texas.
Another echo of opposition was heard in a subscriber's letter
to the Alexandria Advertiser in which it is stated that President
Houston had without authority granted to Mercer and his British
associates the right to colonize a large district simply to strengthen
his own personal and political influence. In rather indignant
words the subscriber wrote:
A grant that was made, as I repeat, without the authority of
the law closing the land office to those who had right claims,
who had military bounty warrants, a grant by which old settlers
who had conquered the country have been deprived of their just
rights; a grant made to Mercer and British abolitionists!
In a letter to the editor of the Alexandria Advertiser, dated
September 1, 1845, Mercer calmly replied to the tirade as follows:
You will readily perceive, that, while I am at much labor, and
a heavy expense, yet wholly unrequited, by the offer of half a square
mile of land, to any immigrant family, free of cost but for the
fees of survey, diligently complying with the conditions of the
contract referred to, I could not in justice to 224 families I have
colonized, to those I am inviting to follow them, to my respectable
associates, or to myself, pass unnoticed the injurious remarks that
I have quoted.
. . I have no associates under my contract who are not native
Americans; not one among them who was ever in Europe. They all
reside in the United States, south of Maryland, except one, origi-
nally from Virginia, but living, at present, on Red River, in Texas:
that none of them, nor any other person interested in my contract,
had any knowledge of it, prior to its final execution. Among them
all, twenty-six in number, of which I send you a list, there is not,
I am confident, a single "abolitionist."
It is possible, though improbable, that the author of the letter,
I have here noticed, has confounded my contract with the one of
January, 1843, in which I was reluctantly persuaded to take an
interest, in 1842. With this interest I parted, a year ago, in favor
of a company in Louisville, who allowed me for it but a moderate
compensation for much labor, in Europe, no small expense in
America, and two journeys exceeding four thousand miles.
President Houston first introduced the principles of reserving119
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, July 1936 - April, 1937, periodical, 1937; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101099/m1/133/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.