The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 52, July 1948 - April, 1949 Page: 363
512 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
induce the Mexican government to initiate a new policy of
colonization in Texas in 1830; his arduous work at Matamoros
thereafter as commandant general of the Eastern Interior Prov-
inces and federal commissioner of colonization administering
the new colonization law, with some parts of which he "was not
entirely in accord"; his increasing difficulties, because of con-
flicting and overlapping subordinate authorities in Texas and
because of the nominally federalist revolution in Mexico in 1832;
and throughout all of these experiences his expert discretion in
loyalty. As long as he could preserve some degree of health and
some time for his favorite studies of science and philosophy,
Mier y Terin strove valiantly also to preserve Texas from Anglo-
American control and to preserve for Mexico both territorial
integrity and internal stability. When he became convinced in
1832 that these preservations were all impossible, he killed him-
self. Still surviving is his justly great reputation as a patriot who
sought, despite too many obstacles, to perpetuate with mutual
satisfaction the sovereignty of Mexico in Texas.
Many statements throughout the book are addressed directly
to the reader, as reminders and announcements of the author's
procedure, some of them suggestive of a public announcer or a
constantly sociable lecturer. Even the final paragraph, introduc-
ing the last letter of Mier y Terin, exemplifies the tendency to
announce. This mannerism, however, is not to be branded by
any reviewer as a fault; it is approved by many readers and by
many directors of doctoral dissertations, and condemned by as
many others. It is merely a mark of an author's taste and style,
in which his freedom of choice is, after his graduation, well nigh
absolute.
Clarity, even vividness, characterizes the entire narrative. The
reader can follow almost without a break the successive move-
ments of Mier y Terin and of the political forces with which he
was successively associated. There is an occasional arousal of
unsatisfied curiosity, as for instance the desire to know in whose
interest and by whom and against whom Mier y Terin "was called
upon to quell some disturbances," page 33, incident to the revo-
lution against Iturbide in 1823. This kind of situation, however,
occurs too rarely in the book to impair its usefulness.363
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 52, July 1948 - April, 1949, periodical, 1949; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101121/m1/372/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.