In 1820 Moses Austin applied to the Spanish authorities, and obtained from them the right to settle a certain number of families in Texas. He died soon after, and his son Stephen obtained a confirmation of the grant, or, rather, a new grant, from the authorities established at Mexico under the Federal Constitution of 1824. Under that constitution Texas was annexed to Coahuila, and, together with it, was formed into the united state of Coahuila and Texas. From the authorities of this state divers other Americans obtained grants of land under the provisions of the colonization law of the Mexican Congress of the year 1824. From this time all things went smoothly on, and the grantees were busily engaged in introducing the number of families which were stipulated for in the said law, and in the grants made under it, when the Spanish armada landed at Tampico.
DOWNFALL OF BUSTAMENTE.
In consequence of the great dangers threatening the country, Congress had conferred dictatorial powers upon the President of the Republic, Vincente Guerrero. By virtue of his dictatorship, he had invested the Vice-president of the Republic, Bustamente, with the command of an army of reserve, which he established at Jalapa. As soon as the Spanish army had capitulated to Santa Anna, Bustamente put forth a pronunciamiento, and, marching to the city of Mexico, he deposed the President, whom he afterward caused to be cruelly put to death. Having now, by means of a successful military insurrection, possessed himself of the executive power, he proceeded by violent means to overturn, one by one, the governments of the individual states. In this war against the states he was also successful, except in the most distant one, that of Coahuila and Texas.
Texas clearly owed no allegiance to the usurper Bustamente. It was an independent state in all respects, excepting those powers it had conceded to the general government by adopting the Federal Constitution. The