Stephen F Austin to James F Perry, 11-06-1834
Summary: Almonte's report on Texas has created favorable feeling for Austin. Reflections on his past policies. Faults of North American character
Mexico
Your letters by Messrs. Grayson and Jack were a great relief to me, and
afforded me more gratification than I have experienced for a long time.
How anxious I am to be with you, and settle myself along side of you on
a farm free from troubles or other matters. Had I cared as much for my
own individual happiness and welfare as I have for that of Texas and its
inhabitants I should now be enjoying a quiet and comfortable life, as
the rest of you all in that country are. But no one ought reasonably to
expect to effect any important object of a public nature without labor and
suffering of some kind, and if he sustains his honor unblemished, and has
the consciousness of having done his duty, he ought to bear all with
patience and fortitude. I have this consolation—I have done my duty
to the people of Texas so far as it was in my power to do it, and I have not
in anything departed from my duty as a good and faithful Mexican citizen,
as the decission of the tribunal in my case will attest (as I believe in a
Since the arrival of Col. Almonte there is evidently a very favorable
change in my favor—incorrect opinions and erroneous ideas which have
originated in false rumors and reports circulated by the enemies of Texas,
have been corrected by Almonte's statements. He speaks of Texas impartially and so far as I can learn very favourably, and I have no doubt that
he is exerting himself all he can in my favor. The forms of judicial proceedings in this country are so very complicated and slow, that I cannot
say with any certainty when my case will be brought to a conclusion.
I think however that I can assure you, that it will be in all
I hope the past events will have a good and salutary influence in making
every body in that country more disposed to reason and reflect [ion] before
they yield to excitements. I have always been of the opinion that a silent
and quiet course was the true one for Texas. I wished to see it grow up
in tranquility like an oak sapling in the midst of a thick forest, which
protects it while slender and weak from the storm, until it rears its head
above the rest with a sturdy trunk and firmly rooted foundation, that
enables it to defy the storms, and rely upon its own matured strength. The
excitement of the last few years forced me out of that quiet and silent policy
much against my judgement—but it was unavoidable, I could not help it.
Those excitements were not without sufficient cause, if the causes were to
be tested solely by abstract principles, but I believed them to be impolitic
and ill timed. The prosperity of Texas was much too near my heart to
see it, even by probability, jeopardised in any manner. There were men
of influence in various parts of this nation who were willing to paralise
the progress of Texas, but they could not attack it, without cause, or at
least a plausible pretext. I wished to avoid giving them such a pretext—
On the other hand there were many ambitious men who wished to figure
and become "great men" by means of commotions or revolutions in Texas
in which they expected to rise and make fortunes as leaders, out of the
hard earnings of the old settlers, who would have been the mere instruments
of such leaders, and their victims. I wished to save the old settlers, who
had suffered so much to redeem that country from the wilderness, from
such friends and from the evils of commotions. My ambition has been
of the silent, and not the boisterous kind. I preferred seeing a new log
cabbin and field rise up in the wilderness, to making a noise as the leader,
or participator of an excitement or revolution.
There has been for the last three years a painful conflict in my own
mind, between the ideas and principles of abstract right which influenced
many, and caused the past excitements; and what I believed to be the
true policy and interest of Texas. This conflict, added to the influence
which my personal friends had over me, has caused me much unhappiness,
and perhaps it has at times given to me the appearance of wavering. I
have felt for Texas as a parent feels for its only child when he believes it
to be in danger.
When viewing the subject on this general and broad scale, such men as
Chambers, Robinson [Robertson] and others, who I am told have been
trying to undermine and ruin me during my imprisonment, are entirely
overlooked. I view them as the captain of a noble ship does the worms
who are eating into the sides of his vessel at a time when the waves are
driving him upon a rocky shore. The greater danger absorbs the lesser.
But they are notwithstanding worthy of attention—a worm hole can sink
a ship. I have heretofore believed that Chambers had acquirements and
a knowledge of the Spanish language that would enable him to be useful
to Texas, and for this reason I have been disposed to see him advance, and
be imployed in public matters. The idea which my friends all had, that
he was my personal enemy had no weight with me so long as I believed he
could be of public utility. But if he has spent the last winter to intrigue
at Monclova for the purpose of keeping me in prison, and of wheedling
this simple Govt out of sixty leagues of land for two years services as
judge, and entangling all the upper country so that no man of common
sence will settle there—if he has been doing all this, he certainly is not the
man I believed him to be, and so far from serving Texas, he is calculated
to do nothing but harm. I never condemn any one hastily or without
evidence—that he has much boyish ambition and vanity I always knew, but
that properly directed, I thought might be made useful to the country, after
a little experience had tempered it to the standard of sound and patriotic
and rational and manly ambition. When I reach Monclova I can folm
an opinion as to these matters, and untill then I shall suspend it.
There has been too much of the ardent, impatient, and inflamatory
impetuosity of passion for the last three years in Texas, The people of the
U. S. are ardent in everything, it is their national character, and what has
raised that country to the unparaleled prosperity it enjoys, and Americans
carry the same ardor and enterprise and love of freedom wherever they
go. It is a noble trait of character, but at the same time there are situations
and circumstances where Prudence dictates moderation and calmness. We
are in that situation in Texas. The people of the Colony ought to seek
their public servants amongst the most prudent men they can find—Men
who have a firm and well established reputation for probity, calmness,
intelligence, judgement and virtue. such men for example as Burnett, Grayson,climb the
skies without a ladder, must learn by experience that such a course will
not do, before they can be useful to the country, or even to themselves.
The people should recollect that the interest of the farmers and laboring
part of the community is what ought to be looked to, and not the interest
and ambitious views of young lawyers or impatient aspirants or
inflammatory political adventurers who are always trying in all countries to
make instruments and tools of the people. Young men of this class will
be useful and very valuable members of society hereafter, when experience
shall have fully matured their judgment and tempered their youthful ardor
and taught them prudence. But untill then they are better calculated to
do harm by keeping up excitements and filling newspapers with violent and
inflamatory remarks than anything else. S M Williams has been a faithful
and useful servant to the colony, and he and McKinney are very well
calculated to be of great and essential benefit to the farmers as merchants, to
export the produce of Texas, and give character and activity to our infant
commerce. They richly deserve encouragement, and I sincerely hope they
will receive it from all persons. They neither of them are grasping or
gaping for office, and for that very reason they deserve to be employed
tho as exporting merchants they can be of more advantage to the people
than in any other situation, for they will secure a fair price to the farmer
for his produce and give system and stability to the market as regular
merchants do in all countries, and save the farmers from mere pedlars and
transient dealers, who are an evil rather than a benefit.
I need not recommend to either of you, harmony with your neighbors and
with all persons—because I know that your ideas on this subject are the
same as mine—public good and individual happiness depends very much
on harmony between the members of a community, and especially of a new
and rising community. There might be a very good society below Brazoria
including both sides of the river, and I see no substantial reason why there
should not be harmony amongst the families of the opposite banks of so
small a river. It has not been my fault or yours there is not, and it is to
be hoped that those who have tryed to create party division there and in
other parts of Texas will take a different course in future. It is my sincere
wish and any advance towards such a happy State of things will be met
by me with pleasure, as I have no doubt it also will by you. I expressed
my ideas on this matter in a letter to McKinney the
Thewarmth of my affections for those people.
I feared they would injure themselves. Had I cared nothing about them,
no such fear would have influenced me. The truth is I am not sufficiently
cold hearted, for at times I suffer myself to be excited very much, my
letter of passion violence and irritation,
and by so doing have involved myself in a tangled net, I might have done
it mildly and avoided making so many enemies and such powerful ones.
I rely on you and Williams to attend to my private affairs. The last two years have cost me large sums of money and thrown me back very much in my own affairs. You can make such arrangements of my business as you think best. I am greatly in favor of keeping up the Chocolate bayou stock farm, and intend to spend some of my time there. The place is of 110 value except for stock, but is good for that purpose.
I hope you or my friends will never forget Mr. Jack and his family, and Mr. Grayson they are truly worthy men. I shall ever remember them with gratitude.
I cannot write to all, but wish you to remember me to all, and you can show this letter to such of my friends you think proper.
Remember me to all the children, tell them to mind their books and
study hard and loose no time in idleness. I send Eliza a small pair of
scissors, as an emblem of industry and the domestic virtues, which she will
possess to a great degree if she will attend as she ought to do, the precepts
and example of her parents, as I have no doubt she will do. Joe must
be a good planter, Austin a good merchant and Guy a good Lawyer. Let
them bear this in mind, also Steph F. must be a Lawyer. Remember me
to Mr. Pilgrim. I am greatly pleased with him as a teacher. Remember
me very affectionaly to Cousin Henry Austin and all his family. I hope
to see him
Most truly and affectionately your brother
S. F. Austin [Rubric]
Since writing the above I have recd additional information which
strengthens my opinion that my affair will terminate favourably—so that you
must not be uneasy or unhappy on my account
S. F. Austin [Rubric]