Louis Francois L’Héritier. Le Champ d’Asile, tableau topographique et historique. Paris: Ladvocat, 1819. 21 cm. Contemporary green quarter-calf over boards.
In 1818 about 400 Bonapartist refugees from France, some with families, settled on the Trinity River near modern Liberty, Texas, forming the colony, Le Champ d’Asile – the field of asylum.
The colony lasted only six months – being disbanded in July 1818. The surviving colonists were absorbed into the francophone community in New Orleans.
Although the colony itself had no particular impact, the fact that it ever existed at all had profound international repercussions. The realization that an armed group had settled in Texas prompted the signing of several treaties establishing the borders of the United States, Mexico, and Louisiana.
This work is one of three largely fictitious accounts of the founding of the French colony, complete with spurious documents. The key themes are Bourbon oppression of imperial heroes, romance, and savage American Indians. A sentimentalized Champ d'Asile inspired French attachment to Texas, which later contributed to France becoming the first European power to recognize the Republic of Texas as a country.
Streeter 1072
[Texas.] Ordinances and Decrees of the Consultation, Provisional Government of Texas. Houston: National Banner Office, 1838. 21 cm. Quarter buckram over paper boards.
The material for this book was drawn from an expedition in which Edward participated in 1830. He provides a good physical description of the area, and accounts of the towns and products found there. He included a copy and analysis of the colonization laws, as well as extracts from many important documents – some of which have survived nowhere else. The work contains one of the few English translations of the Mexican Federal Constitution of 1824, and the complete text of the proposed constitution of 1833.
When Texas managed to wrest free of Mexican sovereignty, most of the inhabitants were in favor of joining the United States. The United States government, however, had been embroiled in a pro-slavery/anti-slavery debate for years. Both the Whigs and the Democrats were reluctant to admit a large, somewhat lawless, slaveholding territory into the Union and further disrupt an unsteady détente. Congressional resolutions for the annexation of Texas had been presented a number of times, but were uniformly defeated by filibuster in both houses.
The need for an English translation of the laws of Coahuila and Texas had been recognized as early as 1835,well before the founding of the Republic, but the lack of a translator delayed the project. The vast majority of the settlers in the Austin colony spoke and read English only. Since all transactions with the Mexican government had to be undertaken in Spanish, it placed a huge burden on the few bilingual inhabitants of the region, as well as providing opportunities for misunderstanding. The local alcaldes (magistrates) rarely could read the laws they were charged with enforcing.
On December 10, 1835, the General Council of the provisional government issued a call for an election on February 1, 1836, to choose delegates to assemble on March 1 at Washington-on-the-Brazos. The initial assembly met on March 1, 1836. On March 2, the delegates signed the Texas Declaration of Independence (based closely on the United States’ Declaration of Independence), and so formed the Republic of Texas. The First Texas Congress assembled at Columbia on October 3, 1836, with fourteen senators and twenty-nine representatives.
This is one of several large sammelbands (books bound together) of Republic laws. This version contains the session laws for the first through the ninth congress, as well as an index.
The House of Representatives, according to the Constitution, was to be made up of "not less than twenty-four nor more than forty members," until the population of the republic exceeded 100,000. When the population reached this size the House was to be made up of "not less than forty nor more than one hundred pieces provided that each county was entitled to at least one representative."
The Senate was chosen by districts and was to have a membership numbering "not less than one-third nor more than one-half that of the House," according to the Constitution. A senate district was represented by only one member. A senator had to be thirty or older, a citizen of the Republic, and a resident of his district for one year. Senators were elected to three year terms, with one-third of the members being elected each year.
[Texas.] ADDITIONAL-CONGRESS-BESCHLUSS...[caption title]. Wiesbaden: s.n., January 1845. Broadside. 19 x 22 cm.
The president’s message triumphantly welcomes Texas to the Union, although the work behind the annexation was that of his predecessor, President John Tyler. Polk claimed that the annexation peacefully extended US jurisdiction to the Rio Grande – a statement that precipitated war with Mexico the following year.
[Texas.] Constitution of the State of Texas, adopted in Convention, at the City of Austin, 1845. Austin: Printed at the Office of the ‘New Era’, 1845. 21 cm. Contemporary sheep. 