History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 37

HISTORY OF TEXAS. 37

Under this system it was nut difficult for
the Anglo-Americans to evade the law prohibiting
the further importation of slaves;
and under the appellation of indentured servants
they continued to introduce them into
Texas. The negroes were apprenticed for a
term of ninety-nine years. Arguments were
brought to bear upon the Mexieani governmnent,
inducing it to make an exception in
favor of Texas, under the law providing for
the immediate manulmission of slaves.
RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL INTOLER&NCE.
In legislation, as might have been expected,
there was a curious mixture of wise measures
with unwise, the latter growing out of the
old prejudices, and but a dim foresight of
modern requirements. Thle restrictions on
the sovereignty of the people laid down in
the constitution, the intolerance of any religion
but the Roman Catllholic, and the excessive
power vested in the chief of the departmnent
of Texas, were incompatible with
free republican institutions. In strong contrast
with the liberality manifested in the
State colonization law was the persecution to
which resident Spaniards were sul)jected. By
a law, passed June 23, 1827, they were excluded
from all civil and ecclesiastical office
until Spain should acknowledge the independence
of Mexico; and, in November of the
same year, all Spaniards, except those domniciled
in the State thirty years, were banished;
' travelers of that nationality could not remain
more than three days in any town, except in
case of sickness or other recognized impediment;
those who remained were required to
present themselves monthly to the local authorities,
and were forbidden to carry arms,
except those customarily worn for personal
defense; and a strict surveillance was kept

over their conduct. During the ilvasion of
Spanish forces in 1829, Coahuila and Texas
displayed its patriotism by exacting a heavy
forced loan from the resident Spaniards, while
the property still remaining iin thle State of
those wlho liad fled to other countries was
confiscated. Unmarried Spaniards andl widlowers
without children were called upon for
one-third of their capital; those wlho were
married and without children, and widowers
with only one child, for one-fiftlh; and those
of both classes with more than one child, for
one. eighth.
ED U CATION
in Coahuila and Texas was at an extremely
low ebb. Only in the town of Saltillo was
there a fixed appropriation for the maintenance
of a common schoolmaster, an(d tlat
was a scanlty one. The education of the children
of servants to write was prevente 1, on
the fear that on growing up they would want
higher position than that of servitude. In
1820, tlie Congress endeavored to remedy
this evil by enacting a law to establish schools
of mutual instruction on the Lancasterian
system, but the law did not estal)lish the
schools. In these schools were to be taught
reading, writing, arithmetic, the dogmas of
the Catholic religion and Ackerman's carechisms
of arts and sciences, the teachers'
salary being fixed at $800 a year. The next
year another law was adopte:, to establish
primary schools on a similar plan, with a similar
result. The people were indifferent to
educational progress. Among the settlements
of Austin's colony a few private schools were
established, and, in 1829, the first Protestant
Sunday-school in Texas was opened, at San
Felipe de Austin, by T. J. Pilgrim, of thle
Baptist Church. It was soon interrupted,

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