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MEXICAN COLONIZATION LAWS (Extract from the Handbook of Texas Online article Mexican Colonization Laws.)
The State Colonization Law. The
state law specifically accepted the limitations imposed by the
federal act; gave heads of families who immigrated a league of
land with the provision that they should pay the state a nominal
fee in installments at the end of the third, fourth, fifth, and
sixth years after settlement; and authorized the executive to
enter into contracts with empresarios for the introduction of
specified numbers of families, for which service they should receive
five leagues of land per hundred families after their settlement.
For ten years following settlement the colonists were to be tax-free,
except for contributions to repel invasion. Colonists acquired
citizenship by settlement. Land commissioners who issued titles
and surveyors were to be paid by the colonists. Thirty or more
empresario contracts were made, contemplating introduction of
some 9,000 families. Some of the contracts were concluded under
this law by surrender, annulment, or consolidation of previous
contracts. All grants were defined by more or less definite geographical
boundaries, all empresarios had six years in which to carry out
contracts, and in effect this provision deprived the state of
control of vast areas during the pendency of the contracts.
On April 6, 1830, the federal government made use
of a reservation of the law of August 18, 1824, and forbade settlement
of emigrants from the United States in Texas and suspended contracts
in conflict with this prohibition (see LAW OF APRIL 6,
1830). By interpretation, Austin obtained exemption from suspension
for his own contracts and that of Green DeWitt.qv Congress repealed the anti-immigration articles of the law in
May 1834; all contracts were automatically restored and extended
by the state congress or legislature for four years to compensate
for the previous suspension. All Mexican contracts ended with
the Texas Declaration of Independence.qv
Eugene C. Barker
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