The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 233

7Votes altd DocuAtMets
Stephen AustiA ard At/hoi /tcdr
Documtwts
Contributed by HENR Y P. BEERS
STEPHEN F. AUSTIN went to Mexico in June, 1833, as the
representative of the Texas Convention to obtain approval
of its petition for separation from Coahuila and the estab-
lishment of a state government in Texas. His vigorous efforts to
accomplish this purpose led to his arrest at Saltillo in January,
1834, on charges of attempting to revolutionize Texas and to
annex it to the United States. He was imprisoned in Mexico
City for a year, and subsequently detained on bond for six months
until his release by a general amnesty in July, 1835.
Numerous letters written by Austin while he was in Mexico
have been published, and some of them concern his relations with
Anthony Butler,' the United States minister to Mexico from 1830
to 1835, as do some earlier letters.2 The accompanying letter from
Austin to Henry Meigs, a New York businessman, is a much more
complete account of the relations between the two men.
HENRY MEIGS TO JOHN FORSYTH3
New York May 7. 1834
Dear Sir. Col Stephen Austin of Texas is my wife's cousin. He is
Said to be in danger from the Mexican Governt in whose hands
he is Said to be.
I have a claim of more than $1oooo upon the Lands of his
1Eugene C. Barker (ed.), The Austin Papers (Vols. I and II, Annual Report of
the American Historical Association for the Years 1919 and 1922, Washington,
1924, 1928; Vol. III, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1926), III, 7, 41, 68, 71, 73.
2lbid., II, 76-77, 149, 177.
aHenry Meigs to John Forsyth, May 7, 1834. Enclosed with a covering letter of
May 19, 1834, from John Forsyth to the Secretary of State (MS., Miscellaneous
Letters Received, Records of the Department of State, National Archives).