Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/803

Jackson and the Texas Revolution 793 negotiation, saying. " The situation of affairs in the State of Texas y [and] Coahuila makes it important that your negotiation on that subject should be brought to a speedy conclusion. It is at least doubtful whether in a few weeks any stipulation could be carried into effect."^ This communication has been interpreted as prov- ing that President Jackson was too well informed concerning Texan affairs to have been entirely guiltless of shaping them himself. Pro- fessor 'an Hoist misstates its terms somewhat, saying that the President " had an order given to Butler through Livingston to break oft' the negotiations for the purchase, because they would soon become objectless, for the reason that the American colonists of Coahuila intended to declare their independence in a convention on the 1st of April, 1833 "," while Adams insinuatingly remarked, that in the documents communicated to the House in 1838, " This pre- cise knowledge of Jackson, to a day, of the intended design of the colonists to declare their independence as early as April. 1833, was suppressed."^ One naturally asks, how did Jackson get his information ? And at first blush it does not help his case, perhaps, that the answer is, from his friend Sam Houston. But Houston's letter is apparently a casual one, and at least does not indicate a collusive understanding between himself and the President. He knew, for it was no secret, that Jackson wanted to acquire Texas, so he wrote him the latest news from that interesting country. His letter was dated at Natchitoches, Louisiana, February 13, 1833, and runs, in part, as follows : Having been so far as Bexar [San Antonio] in the province of Texas, ... I am now in possession of some information which will doubtless be interesting to you, and may be calculated to forward your views, if you should entertain any, touching the acquisition of Texas by the Government of the United States. That such a measure is desired by nineteen-twentieths of the population of the province I can- not doubt . . . The people of Texas are determined to form a State Government and separate from Coahuila, and unless Mexico is soon restored to order, and the constitution revived and re-enacted, the Province of Texas will remain separate from the confederacy of Mexico. . . . jIy opinion is that Texas, by her members in Convention, will, by 1st of April, declare all that country [from the Rio Grande] as Texas proper, and form a State Constitution. I expect to be present at the Convention and will apprise you of the course adopted, as soon as its members have taken a final action. It is probable that I may 1 MSS. Department of State. Instructions to Agents to Mexico, Vol. 14. p. 29^- 2 Von Hoist, Conslitutional and Political History of the United States, II. 563. 3 Adams, Memoirs, XI. 36S.