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Lot 195
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Ramon Musquiz 1831, 4 ALSs To The Mayor of Goliad Re: protection against hostile Indians.
Ramon Musquiz 1831, 4 ALSs To The Mayor of Goliad Re: protection against hostile Indians.
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Description:

Musquiz Ramon

Ramon Musquiz 1831, 4 ALSs To The Mayor of Goliad Re: protection against hostile Indians.

 

Ramon Musquiz was appointed the political chief of the Department of Texas by the Governor of Coahuila and Texas in January 1828. He served until July 7, 1834 when health reasons forced him to resign. Musquiz favored the rights of the Anglo-American colonists in Texas and was a friend of Stephen F. Austin. While in office, he attempted to mediate disputes between the colonists and the Mexican authorities.

 



Musquiz continued to be involved in public affairs and, in 1835, was elected Vice-Governor of Coahuila and Texas, but the national congress annulled the election. General Martin Perfecto de Cos then appointed Musquiz to assist in negotiations between the Texans and the Mexican Army after the Siege of Bexar, the first major campaign of the Texas Revolution. From October until early December 1835, an army of Texan volunteers laid siege to a Mexican Army in San Antonio de Bexar. Musquiz was present at the fall of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, and assisted in identifying the bodies of the defenders.

 


On January 1, 1831, Gonzales colonist Green DeWitt asked Ramon Musquiz, political chief of San Antonio de Bexar, to make arrangements for a cannon to be furnished to the Gonzales colonists for protection against hostile Indians. On March 10, 1831, nine days after he relays his reappointment to office in one of the letters in this archive, Ramon Musquiz gave James Tumlinson, a DeWitt colonist at Bexar, a six pound bronze cannon to be given to Green DeWitt at Gonzales. It was given with the stipulation that it would be returned upon request. That request came in September 1835.

 


Because of increasing unrest, the military commander at Bexar, Col Domingo de Ugartechea, sent a corporal and five soldiers to Gonzales to retrieve the cannon. The Gonzales colonists notified Ugartechea they were keeping the gun and took the soldiers prisoner. They put out a call to other Texans to help defend the cannon. Ugartechea responded by sending 100 troops under Lieutenant Francisco de Castaneda who, upon arriving at Gonzales, requested the cannon be returned. The Texans pointed to the gun, about 200 yards behind them, and said, “there it is – come and take it.” On the morning of October 2, 1835, they attacked the Mexicans, and Castaneda, eventually finding himself outnumbered and outgunned, ordered a withdrawal toward Bexar. The “Battle of Gonzales” was the beginning of the Texas Revolution. The “come and take it” cannon was eventually brought to San Antonio de Bexas and the Alamo where it was one of 21 artillery pieces commandeered by the Mexican army upon the recapture of Bexar on March 6, 1836.

 


All four letters are addressed to the Mayor of the Town of Goliad. By decree of the Governor of Coahuila and Texas, on February 4, 1829, the town of La Bahia became the town of Goliad. One of the most significant engagements of the Texas Revolution occurred near Coleto Creek in Goliad County on March 19 and 20, 1836. Col. James W. Fannin, Jr. and his men surrendered to Mexican forces in the Battle of Coleto. The Texans were imprisoned by the Mexicans at Goliad and subsequently murdered by order of Gen. Santa Anna on March 27, 1836. “The Handbook of Texas” notes that the “Goliad Massacre immeasurably garnered support for the cause against Mexico both within Texas and in the United States, thus contributing greatly to the Texan victory at the Battle of San Jacinto and sustaining the independence of the Republic of Texas.”
Each letter forwards to the Mayor of Goliad a communication from the Governor of Coahuila and Texas and ends with “Dios y Libertad” (“God and Freedom”).

 


(1) Manuscript LS “Ramon Musquiz” with flourish beneath signature, two conjoined pages, 6.25” x 7.75”, penned on right half of each page. Light soiling. In Spanish, fully translated. Headquarters of the County of Bexar, February 26, 1831. Fine condition. In part, “[The] declaration dated 3 December 1829, addressed to this Government by the Spaniard Francisco García, resident of Goliad … relative to his desired exoneration from the forced loan imposed by article 1 of decree no. 105, has seen fit to resolve to comply, in virtue of the reasons expressed by the interested party in his declaration and evidenced by the documents that accompany the said declaration, so that the said Spaniard Francisco García be exonerated from the above mentioned loan…”

 


(2) Manuscript LS “Ramon Musquiz” with flourish beneath signature, one page, 7.75” x 12.5”. Light soiling. In Spanish, fully translated. Headquarters of the County of Bexar, February 27, 1831. Fine condition. In part, “The Most Excellent Governor of the State has seen fit to send me the following decree: ‘Through the Secretariat of War and Navy it was communicated to me the following decree: …The Vice-President of the United States of Mexico, in exercise of the supreme executive power, to the inhabitants of the republic, be it known: That the General Congress has decreed the following: The sentence of the accomplices in the trial to which the decree of extraordinary faculties dated 14 September 1829 applies, who were not sentenced to death by two agreeing sentences, shall not be longer than four years in prison, counted from the day on which they were sentenced"

 


3) Manuscript LS “Ramon Musquiz” with flourish beneath signature, two conjoined pages, 7.75” x 9.75”, penned on right half of each page. Light soiling. In Spanish, fully translated. Headquarters of the County of Bexar, March 1, 1831. Fine condition. Musquiz is reappointed by the Governor! In part, “I have seen fit to reassign Your Lordship as head of this county … I inform Your Lordship for your knowledge and understanding that this Government expects that Your Lordship will not make use of the right that is incumbent upon you by article 152 of the said constitution, but that as a gift to your homeland, you will serve the new term in which it assigns you, not only for being such the will of the majority of the said Town Halls, but also because the government considers necessary the permanence of Your Lordship in the position you are heading…”
Nine days later, on March 10, 1831, the newly reappointed political chief of Texas, Ramon Musquiz, gave James Tumlinson, a DeWitt colonist at Bexar, a six pound bronze cannon to be given to Green DeWitt at Gonzales. It was given with the stipulation that it would be returned upon request.

 


(4) Manuscript LS “Ramon Musquiz” with flourish beneath signature, one page, 8” x 12.75”. Uniformly foxed. In Spanish, fully translated. Headquarters of the County of Bexar, September 8, 1831. Fine condition.
In part, “Because several federal judges have manifested that on the correspondence they have received from other federal judges or state judges regarding judicial matters it has been omitted the certification and oath that must be included on the cover … the Most Excellent Mr. Vice-President has seen fit to resolve that all judicial authorities and corporations be reminded of the exact compliance to the said article so that the requisite it prescribes is never omitted, avoiding thus the inconveniences that would otherwise result for a most prompt and expedite administration of Justice…”

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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