"Had the Mexican presidial system succeeded,
would there still have been a Texas Revolution ?"
Views expressed are not necessarily those of
"The Second Flying Company of Alamo de
Parras"
From: W.L. McKeehan
Date: 20 January 1998
The following is based on the assumption [that] the question refers to the Teran recommendations of 1827-1829 that precipitated President Bustamente's Decree of 1830 (See Sons of DeWitt Colony) and Commanding General of the Eastern Interior Provinces Teran's attempt to implement the decree, which unfortunately, had gone beyond his recommendations by including principles most objectionable to Texian colonists:
Art. 3. ...central government commissioners shall supervise the introduction of new colonists...
Art. 9. ...The introduction of foreigners across the northern frontier is prohibited·.under any pretext...
Art. 10. ...the government...shall most strictly prevent the further introduction of ·.slaves.
Teran's strategy was to encircle the main settlements of Anglo colonization and control immigration and contraband trade. He stationed Col. José de las Piedras at Nacogdoches with 350 men, Col. John Davis Bradburn at Anahuac with 150 men, Col. Domingo de Ugartechea at Velasco where he built a fort, Lt. Col. Francisco Ruiz at Tenoxtitlan on the Brazos River (current Burleson County) who built and staffed a fort and Col. Peter Ellis Bean who occupied Ft. Teran on the Neches River. Teran was a sincere and well-meaning Mexican nationalist, his dream was that the series of military settlements and forts would serve as foci for subsidized native born Mexican and European immigrants, a system not unlike the earlier presidio-villa system in New Spain, but without the church's involvement. I believe that Teran and his successor Tadeo de Ayala were not evil men equal to the more powerful Mexican leaders including Santa Anna who subverted the liberal Federalism of the Mexican Republic, but merely hoped to balance the Anglo population of Texas with native born immigrants and those from other countries. Like their Spanish predecessors, the central government failed to sincerely support both the military and the attempts at colonization of Texas by native-born Mexicans and Europeans for a variety of complicated reasons.
Even more importantly as realized by almost all true Republican Hispanic-born, native Tejano and Anglo-Mexican patriots of the period, military attempts to dictate and control Texas were futile in the long run. These liberal principles and the Mexican Republic's potential to benefit from them were betrayed by racist, self-serving and corrupt leaders. With the failure of the central government of Mexico to grant Texas independent statehood in the Republic and assimilate and learn the principles of self-determination from them, revolution became inevitable with subsequent events.
The inevitability of revolution and impending loss of Texas to the Mexican Republic was no more dramatically realized than by Gen. Manuel Mier y Teran (See Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas) himself when on that fateful morning of 3 July 1832 he awoke early, dressed in his most immaculate uniform and plunged his battle sword through his own heart. The day before he had written his friend and associate, minister Lucas Alaman, predicting the loss of Texas. He expressed dismay over the assumption of leadership of Santa Anna of the liberal rebellion under the Republican banner and the impending Civil War. He remarked "how could we expect to hold Texas when we do not even agree among ourselves?"
W.L. McKeehan
Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas:
http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/dewitt.html