to turn them from honor and justice. When the elder Austin
approached the Mexican Alcalde, Martinez in San Antonio,
and proposed to introduce three hundred American families,
the indignant governor, filled with the dread and hatred of
twenty years' war with the Fredonians, ordered him to leave
Texas immediately under penalty of being arrested and shot.
As Austin was hastening across the public square, or plaza,
from the furious governor he providentially met that remark-
able man, Baron De Bastrop, the embodiment of all that
is noble in manhood, and in devotion to royalty and dread of
Republicanism, which he regarded as synonymous with an-
archy and social ruin. The courtly and princely Baron De
Bastrop had known the immaculately honest Austin at Bas-
trop, La., and greeted him warmly and offered to return with
him to the infuriated Alcalde, and to assui'e him that Austin
was no bloody Fredonian, but a quiet and peaceable man who
would bring a great colony of farmers and stockmen who
would help to fill up Texas and whip out the dreaded Co-
manches and be loyal to Mexico.

The noble old Baron De Bastrop hurried away to the
timid and furious Alcalde and soon allayed his fears and anger,
and overtook Austin and presented him to the Governor as a
peaceable man, abhorring war and bloodshed, but ready to
plant a colony of farmers and stockmen, who would be a wall
of protection against the dreaded Comanches, Lipans and
Apaches. Just as the whole arrangement was consummated,



Dr. Rufus C. Burleson. 795

making Moses Austin an Empressario with authority to intro-
duce 300 families, granting each family a league and a labor
of land and exemption from taxes for six years, a revolution
occurred in Mexico, and the combined forces of Morales and
Iturbide swept away the last vestige of Spanish royalty, and
established a republic. The wise and prudent Austin deemed
it better to make a long and tedious overland journey to the
City of Mexico to get a confirmation of his authority as Em-
pressario to introduce 300 families, from the new dynasty.
After many and terious delays, which nothing could over-
come but his consummate skill and wisdom, the new
dynasty confirmed his authority, and he was ready to
return to Texas. Iturbide was aspiring to make himself
Emperor on the ruins of the infant Republic of Mexico.
The republican forces, under the leadership of Santa
Anna, hurled him from power and drove him into ex-
ile and restored a republic. The indomitable Austin,
after long and tedious delays and great expense, got his author-
ity confirmed by the reigning dynasty. But the toilsome and
perilous journey of thousands of miles from Missouri to the
City of Mexico, on which he was robbed and left to live ou
acorns, and all this incessant worry of mind and body, brought
on disease of the lungs, from which he died at Mr. James
Bryan's, in Missouri, June 10, 1821. His dying request
was that his heroic son, Stephen F. Austin, should carry out
in good faith and without delay his colonization scheme. The
son entered upon the great and onerous duties and honors
bequeathed him by his father. Stephen F. Austin, like his
father, took a solemn oath not to introduce none but honest,
peaceable men and reject all outlaws and maintain true alle-
giance to the constitutional authorities of Mexico. We call
special attention to these two points. First, to show that the
first and earliest Texans were the purest and most select and
honorable men that ever settled a new country. And, sec-
ondly, several writers have recently censured Stephen F. Aus-
tin for clinging to the Mexican Government and opposing
Texas' independence so long. But his high sense of honor
and regard to his solemn oath compelled him to exhaust every
remedy to secure the rights of Texas before he was released



79 G The Life and Writings of

from that oath. And nothing gives so exalted a conception
of Stephen E. Austin as his profound regard for the sanctity of
his official oath. And especially when his whole life, public
and private demonstrated that his honor was dearer to him than
life. Oh that his undying love of truth and justice in public
and private, could live and grow in the heart and life of every
Texan. Filled with all these noble principles, Stephen Y.
Austin and fourteen select friends came to Texas to select the-
most favorable location for his colony. After a thorough sur-
vey of the whole territory in regard to soil, climate and acces-
sibility to the Gulf, they selected the surpassingly beautiful
land between the Colorado and Brazos Kivers and the old San
Antonio road in Burleson and Bastrop Counties and the Gulf
of Mexico.

Austin hurried back to meet the coming tide of emi-
grants and to see that none but good and true men entered
his new colony. He met ten companies, in one of which was
the well-known Ban Foster, so long a leading citizen of Fort
Bend County. Deer, buffalo, wild turkey and wild honey
were so abundant that no commissary department was needed.
He found the courtly Baron De Bastrop as devoted to the son
as he had been to the father, and who consented to become
land commissioner for Austin's colony. San Felipe De Aus-
tion was selected as the capital of the colony. Austin, as the-
father of the colony, prepared a plain and simple code of laws.
And in no part of Texas, or at any time, was there so little
crime and so much good order. In San Felipe the sainted
Thomas J. Pilgrim, a Baptist, established the first Sunday-
school in 1827, and Gail Borden, of condensed milk fame^
established the newspaper called the "Star and Telegraph.""
Near San Felipe, in the house of Moses Shipman, cousin of
Gen. Ed Burleson, the first gospel sermon was preached by
Elder Joseph Bayes, a Baptist preacher, in 1827. There, also,
Mrs. James Allcom, still living near Brenham, was the first
person converted in Texas. The prosperity of Austin's 30O
families was so great that in 1825 he took a second contract
for introducing 500 families. In 1827 he took a third con-
tract for 100 families, and in 182S, 300 families more, all of
the highest character and noted for being industrious, good,,
moral and law-abidins; citizens.



Dk. Rufus C. Burleson. 797

The prosperity of these twelve hundred families and the
glowing accounts of the soil, climate and vast herds of deer
and buffalo and wild turkey and honey and free grass so
excited the people on both sides of the Atlantic that in teri
years sixteen men applied for grants to colonize in different
parts of Texas, extending from Red River to the Rio Grande.
Among them were :

Hayden Edwards, 800 families.

Frost Thorn, 400 families.

R. Leftwich and S. C. Robertson, 400 families.

Stephen J. Wilson, 200 families.

Vehlin & Co. (French), 400 families.

David G. Burnet, 300 families.

John L. Woodbury, 200 families.

John Cameron (Scotch), 399 families.

John Dorminguez, 200 families.

Lorenzo De Zavelle (Mexican), 500 families.

Martin De Leon, 191 families.

Chambers and Padilla, 800 families.

McMullen and McCloin (Irish), 300 families.

But Stephen F. Austin was the only Empresario that
introduced his full number of families contracted for. The
•eminent success of Austin showed his admirable combination
of wisdom, justice, energy and common sense, and justly enti-
tles him to the noble appellation, "The Father of Texas."
And he should live in every Texas heart. Parents and teach-
ers should hold him up as a model to all the rising generation.

The progress of Texas colonization is a striking illustra-
tion of the vast superiority of an Anglo-Saxon Protestant
nation over a Spanish Catholic nation. Spain had spent 133
years and millions of public money trj^ing to colonize Texas,
and in 1820 had only 6,000 people there.

While the above is true, the Protestant Anglo-Saxons, in
ten years, and w^ithout a dollar from the public treasury, filled
Texas -with 30,000 brave and resolute colonists, and not only
checked and chastised the dreaded Indians, but conquered at
San Jacinto the picked army of 8,000,000 of Mexico's popula-
tion, and forced them to acknowledge their independence.



798 The Life ain'd Wkitings of

Time and space do not allow us here to note the failure
of the celebrated English capitalist, Edward Keene, or the
sadder failure of the celebrated Erench Lallemand, who
attempted to plant a Erench colony, made up chiefly of Napol-
eon's Old Guard and other veterans of his grand army. They
settled at Libertad, now Liberty, and attempted to make wine
out of mustang grapes. But they scattered, and left only a
few families, whose descendants still reside on the Trinity.
'Nor, again, the failure of the celebrated infidel, Kobert Owen,
who endeavored to secure a vast territory between the Brazos
and the Colorado, to test the folly of trying to found a colony
on Infidelity and Communism. Failing to secure a grant in
Texas, he and his followers invested $5,000,000 on the
Wabash, in Indiana, and founded there ISTew Harmony col-
ony, that in thirty years proved the most inharmonious col-
ony ever founded in America. But all these failures only
demonstrate the greatness of the colonizers of Texas and
crown Stephen E. Austin and his co-laborers with undying
glory- .

STEPHEN E. AUSTIN.




STEPHEN F. AUSTIN.

The goodness and wisdom of God arc eminently displayed
in the grand pathfinders and foundation builders lie gave



Dk. KuFus C.Burleson. 799

Texas. Eminent among these will ever stand Stepen F.
Austin. His father, Moses Austin, in dying from long jour-
neys and exposure and desertion of his traveling companions,
had a glorious assurance that his son Stephen would carry out
fully his cherished plans of colonizing Texas. Stephen F.
Austin was born in Austinville, Va., ISTovember 3, 1793, the
same year Sam Houston was born in the same grand state.

His father moved to Missouri when Stephen was six
years old. He spent four years in New London Academy,
Missouri, and graduated in Transylvania University, Ken-
tucky, then one of the most eminent in the United States.
When Missouri was organized into a territory in 1818, Stephen
F. Austin was elected Territorial Legislator, and rendered
good service in laying the foundation of Missouri. The next
year he removed to the Territory of Arkansas, and was imme-
diately appointed Circuit Judge. Which office he filled with
great distinction till the death of his noble father, when he
was called to take his place in laying the foundation of the
grandest State in the Union.

He assumed the grand work in 1821, when twenty-eight
years old.

After surveying the vast territory of Texas, he wisely
selected the rich bottom lands of the Brazos and Colorado
Rivers, extending from Trinity to Colorado River and from
what is now known as Bastrop and Burleson Counties to the
Gulf of Mexico. Austin, father and son, agreed to bring to
Texas 300 families, all to be farmers and stock raisers of high
moral character. Each married man was to receive as a bonus
a league of 4,428 acres for pasturage, and a labor, or 177 acres,
for cultivation. The whole expense of surveying and per-
fecting titles was $16.60 in silver. At ITatchitoches, Mr.
Austin was joined by ten companions, one of whom was the
celebrated Ran Foster, the pioneer of Fort Bend County.
This company of colonizers crossed the Brazos River where
Washington now stands, and camped the first night on the
fertile little stream which they called New Year's Creek, as
it was the first day of January, 1822. This stream is midway
between Independence and Brenham. Austin was pre-emi-
nently fitted for his great and delicate work. He was finely



800 The Life and Wkitings of

educated, especially in the history of founding States and
empires. He was immaculately honest and just to all and firm
as the rock of Gibraltar. He succeeded so well in locating 300
families that he took a contract for bringing 500 more. And
later 200 more, and finally 200 more. The brilliant success
of Stephen F. Austin induced twelve other men to get grants
to bring colonists to Texas, but seven out of the twelve proved
failures. But in a few years Texas increased to wonderfully
and the Texans were so skillful with guns that the Mexicans
became alarmed and jealous, and violated every pledge made
to the colonists. Bustamente, the President of Mexico, abol-
ished the Constitution of 1824. His successor, Santa Anna,
abolished all courts and put Texas under military rule, and
sent five military tyrants to disarm the Texans, so the Indians
could come and murder them. Stephen F. Austin advised the
Texans to do nothing rash, but to send messengers to plead
with Mexico to redeem her solemn pledge to Texas, and that
Texas would be true to Mexico. Three commissioners were
appointed to bear this earnest plea to Mexico, but Austin
alone went on that long and perilous journey. He was rudely
thrust into prison and kept there two years. When he re-
turned home, he assured the Texans that war or extermination
was their only alternative. He at once became a leader of the
revolution, and exerted his vast influence to save Texas and
make her a grand State.

The question is often disciissed in debating societies,
^^Which was the greater man, "Austin or Houston, and which
should Texas reverence more ?" Before discussing this ques-
tion, we advise them to settle another question, "Which should
sons and daughters reverence more, father or mother?''
Ever)' true heart instinctively responds, love and honor both
alike. So all Texans in all ages should honor and love
Austin and Houston alike. Both were God-sent men and
•essential to the greatness of Texas. The illustrious patriot,
Austin, while profoundly engaged in his office as Secretary of
State, especially in preparing instructions for Ministers to be
sent to England, United States and France, was compelled to
-toil a greater part of three days and three nights in December
in a room without fire, from which he contracted a severe



Dr. Eufus C. Burleson. 801

attack of pneumonia, of which he died at Columbia, December
27, 1836. His remains were accompanied by President
Houston and Cabinet and both houses of Congress to the
family burial ground at Peach Point, Brazoria County, where
his remains still sleep in glory. He was never married, but
made his home chiefly with his sister, the mother of our illus-
trious fellow-citizen, Guy M. Bryan, who inherits many of
the excellencies of his illustrious uncle.



ERA OP REVOLUTIOlNr.

;N"o era of Texas' history has been so little understood and
so often misrepresented, especially the causes of the revolu-
tion. Some writers have described the Mexicans as blood-
thirsty tyrants, delighting in the blood of patriots and freed-
men. While others, particularly those living north of a once
celebrated line, have slanderously said the early Texans were
reckless, slave-holding adventurers and outlaws, who came to
Texas with a secret yet fixed purpose, as soon as they were
able, to secede from "the best Government in the world" and
wickedly wrest this beautiful Texas province of 274:,00{)
square miles from Mexico.

But the facts will demonstrate that both of these are false.

The real origin and keynote of our Texas Revolution was
"The Race Problem," always so little understood by super-
ficial minds.

God has said, "How can two walk together except they
be agreed?" And in Daniel's Golden Image — that grand
picture of universal history — Divine Wisdom declared that
"the ten toes, part of iron and part of clay," represented the
weakness and degradation of nations where the races are
mixed.

This mixing of races or conglomerating antagonistic ele-
ments, so fitly portrayed by Divine Widom as toes of clay,
has always been a cause of strife, division and weakness.

I repeat, this race problem was the keynote of the Texas
Revolution of 1830-36.



802 The Life and "Writings of

We have shown in a previous number of this series that
the imbecile Spaniards were so amazed at the p'ush and cour-
age and love of liberty of the Fredonians that Governors Mar-
tinez and Salcedo declared that, if possible, they "would kill
every bird that flew across the line between the United States
and Mexico."

This terrible race antagonism was allayed by the assur-
ances of courtly Baron De Bastrop that the Austins were the
soul of honor and lovers of peace, and wanted to bring none
but peaceable farmers and stockmen, and who would form a
bulwark of protection between the timid Spaniard and the
fierce and bloody Comanches and Lipans,

But when the Mexican rulers beheld the resistless energy
and courage and wonderful growth of the fiery Anglo-Ameri-
cans, they were appalled. They saw that in nineteen years
they had colonized Texas with 30,000 brave and resolute pio-
neers, which was just five times more than Spain had colon-
ized in 147 years, with millions of money from the royal
treasury. When they saw these 30,000 Texas colonists, ter-
ror struck to the hearts of the fierce savages even, and they
exclaimed, what will they do in ten years more ? Will they
not overrun Mexico?

These facts so alarmed the fears of the Mexican rulers
they resolved by all means to cripple or crush this fearful
increase of Anglo-Americans. Bustamente's first act was
strictly to forbid all further immigration from the United
States, though the Constitution of the Mexican Government
of 1824 positively declared "no State shall pass any law for-
bidding immigration till the year 1840."

Hi a second act was to make Texas a penal colony for
Mexican convicts and outlaws. The third was a decree to
free all slaves. His fourth act to establish custom houses at
San Antonio, Nacogdoches, Copano, Velasco and Anahuac to
rob the colonists of their hard-earned money. His fifth act
was to disarm the Texans and leave them to the mercy of the
enraged Comanches, wliich meant extermination. To en-
force these outrages and unconstitutional acts of oppression,
Bustamente stationed five Mexican officers — Piedras, with 320
soldiers, at Nacogdoches; Bradburn, with 150, at Anahuac;



Dr. Rufus C. Bukleson. 803

Ugartechea, witk 150 men, at Velaso, and Bean, with 112
men, at Teran. These Mexican soldiers were the most brutal
of the whole Mexican army, and were sent to vex and outrage
the Texans in every possible way and drive them from their
homes or exterminate them.

How dare Northern historians, professing any regard
for truth, justice or human liberty, say the Texans had not a
hundred times greater reasons to revolutionize and form a new
government than- the thirteen colonies had to rebel against
England in 1776? The thirteen colonies rebelled agamst
England on account of a few pence tax on tea. The Texans
fought for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; yea, for
existence itself.

Thomas Jefferson Chambers, who was sent as the Mexi-
can Supreme Judge of Texas, says :

"Bradburn introduced martial law and took the prop-
erty of citizens without consent or consideration. He arrested
and imprisoned many good citizens, and protected many vile
soldiers who were guilty of robbing and stealing. The peace-
able, law-abiding Texans assembled in 1830 and sent a peti-
tion to the military rulers to desist from such terrible aces.
But Branch T. Archer and George McKinstry, who bore the
petition, were spurned with contempt. .In June of the same
year the infamous tyrant, Bradburn, and apostate Virginian
in the Mexican service, arrested and imprisoned William B.
Travis, Patrick H. Jack and Monroe Edwards for no other
cause than their opposition to his lawless acts against the lib-
erties and lives of the Texans. The Texans rose up as one
man, elected the immortal Frank W. Johnson as their leader,
and marched to the rescue of the imprisoned patriots."

They captured nineteen of Bradburn's soldiers, sent to
disperse them, and were marching on to tear down the fort at
Anahuac and drive the infamous Bradburn out of Texas.
But before actual assaults on the fort began. Gen. Piedras, of
Nacogdoches, a high-toned gentleman, arrived, and acceded to
the wishes of the Texans, ordered the release of all the pris-
oners, and sent the infamous Bradburn to New Orleans. The
affairs at Velasco, the great seaport of Texas, were still worse.
Capt. John Austin, W. J. Russell, Henry S. Brown and 112



804



The Life and Writings of



patriots, disgusted Avith the oppression and falsehoods of the
Mexican commander, Ugartechea, resolved to capture the fort
and 125 soldiers. After a heroic assault on the strongly for-
tified fort, mounted with cannon, 125 Mexicans surrendered
to 112 Texans.

In this first battle thirty-five Mexicans were killed
and fifteen wounded. Eight Texans were killed and twenty-
seven wounded. A. C. Buckner, of Buckner's Creek, a great
Indian fighter, was among the killed. Among the wounded
were Henry Smith, afterwards Governor; J. P. Caldwell,
Edwin Waller and K. H. Williamson.



'O' ^..^_-iV^^>|



SANTA ANNA.

But the victory was complete. Ugartechea and his men
Avere banished from Texas, and all Texas was free.

At this critical juncture. General Santa Anna, a great
Republican leader in Mexico, overthrew the tyrant President,
Bustamente, and declared the Constitution of 1824 should be
restored, and military law should be banished and the rights
of all citizens should be protected. The gaUant Colonel Jose
Antonio Mexia, General Santa Anna's messenger, arrived in
Texas to assure the Texans that Santa Anna intended to
restore the Constitution of 1824, modeled after the Constitu-
tion of the United States, and protect all citizens in life, lib-
erty and the pursuit of happiness. A full meeting of Texas
delegates, assembled at San Felipe, assured Colonel Mexia, for
whom our beautiful Mexia is named, that Texas was loyal to



De. Kufus C. Burleson. 805

the Mexican flag, and would co-operate with. Santa Anna in
his noble purpose to restore the Constitution of 1824, to expel
tyrants and royalists and maintain republicanism. And as
an earnest of their good intentions they aided Colonel Mexia
in capturing General Piedras, commander at E"acogdoches,
who, though a gallant and noble man, like the courtly Baron
De Bastrop, was an ardent friend of monarchy and an uncom-
promising foe to republicanism.

He sternly refused to join Santa Anna's Republican
party, and bravely resisted every attempt to capture the fort,
led on by Captain Bradley Looney. But, seeing it impossible
to hold the fort, he threw his ammunition in the wells and at-
tempted a retreat to San Antonio. But he met an overwhelm-
ing force of Texans on the banks of the Angelina. After see-
ing his brave Captain Marcos and forty others killed and a
large number wounded, and realizing that all resistance was
hopeless, and knowing also that the majority of his men were
Republicans, he turned over the command to Major Medina,
and retired mthout a stain on his official honor and with the
admiration of all true Texans.

General Santa Anna expressed himself well pleased with
the spirit of the Texans, and especially their heroism in wiping
out the last vestige of Bustamente's power in Texas. He
assured Stephen F. Austin and other eminent Texans that
Texas should be the special object and regard of his adminis-
tration. 1^0 name was dearer to Texas at that time than San
Antonio Lope^ De Santa Anna.

But alas ! how soon men change and honors flee away.
In less than three years Santa Anna was loaded with infamy,
and he was crouching a bare-headed, bare-footed suppliant at
the feet of General Houston, while a hundred outraged Texans
were shouting around Houston's tent, "Shoot him !" "Hang
him!" "Burn him!" "He murdered my brother, my
father, my son at the Alamo or Goliad."

As it is the sacred office of history to tell the truth con-
cerning all men, and as the law of the ancient Colchuans, or
Aztecs, made it death for a historian not to tell the whole
truth alike regarding enemies and friends, it may be well to
state a few facts in favor of Santa Anna :



806 The Life and Writings of

1. Just as soon as he attempted to organize the Govern-
ment of Mexico on a republican basis, he found the Mexicans
were incapable of self-government and not prepared for the
Eepublican Constitution of 1824. And the sixty-nine revo-
lutions in the Republic of Mexico in sixty-seven years show he
was correct.

2. He found the priesthood of Mexico well-nigh omni-
potent and that it must be conciliated. These priests, with
Padre Muldoon at their head, had traveled all over Texas
and remarried all the Texans at $25 and $50 a couple,
and baptized all the babies at $2.50 a head. Padre Muldoon