The History of the Republic of Texas

of a valley, which was evidently a continuation of the present bed of that river, and having been cut off from its original source, at some remote period, by the Red River, it is now kept up by the natural drainage of the vast marshes through which it formerly took its course, as denoted on the map.

There is also a great variety of wild grasses in Texas, but they are generally very coarse, dry, and sour; the musquit grass, however, is of such a delicious flavour, that cattle frequently eat of it until they drop dead; the blade sometimes grows to the height of six feet, and when seen at a distance has a novel, beautiful, and noble appearance.

The extravagance of the estimates that have been put forth relative to the marvellous productiveness of the soil of Texas may be seen from the few foregoing, and her present and future commercial prospects from the few following statistical facts:

Cotton is the only Texan commodity that can be produced for export for some years; and this can only be raised by negro labour, for I repeat, that Europeans cannot work in the fields in Texas, and the American, who can do so partially, will not; therefore negroes must be obtained, and in the absence of capital, which is not to be found in Texas, the cotton must go to pay for the labour that raises it, to the great but unavoidable injury of the country, as I will show ; but these facts are adroitly disguised by the Texan authorities, as may be seen

by the last statements of the Secretary of the Treasury of Texas, published in the Morning Herald of the 1st of September, 1841, as follows:

127,666.27 92,734.88 220,401. 15

For the three months ending 31st March, 1841.

Total of 15 months 193,315. 97 119,880. 85 313,196 .82

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The "foreign goods" named in this statement refer to the imports, the duties on which are paid in the promissory notes of the Texan government, and these securities are to be bought at 75 per cent. dis

count, and paid, as they are at all times, in these notes, would yield a net amount, in silver dollars, of 29,970:21 only, instead of 193,315:97 dollars. The amount of "domestic goods" paid for in this depreciated currency (for the government rule their receipts in notes at par in all their statements) would yield 48,328:991 in hard dollars, and not 119,880:85 dollars. The expenses of collections being paid in notes at 75 per cent. discount, and redeemable at par in specie, amount to 532,556:00 dollars, showing a deficiency in the "gross amount of revenue (313,196:82 dollars) of 219,359:18 dollars, in the place of "net dollars," 180,057:82. It would puzzle the Texan government exceedingly, I fear, to show what the domestic goods (which mean the exports) of Texas, as set forth in their financial statement, consist of. However, it will not suffice to dismiss our statistical exposé of the Texan budget in the face of so formidable an official document as the foregoing, and of the following and conflicting statements of its advocates. Mr. Kennedy says (Vol. II. p. 379), "The estimated receipts into the treasury for the fiscal year, commencing the 30th of September, 1839, and ending the 30th of September, 1840, are as follows:

"From Customs

"Taxes and Land Dues

"Sales of Lots in the Cities of Austin and

Colhoun

Dollars.

400,000

500,000

400,000

1,300,000"

This is Mr. Kennedy's statement, in the face of that of the Texan government, which gives 313,196:82 dollars as the gross amount of revenue for fifteen months from the customs; while Mr. Ikin, the Texan consul, says the amount of revenue obtained by means of import duties and direct taxation, in 1840, is 802,054 dollars. In order, therefore, to arrive at any thing like a correct estimate, it is necessary to ascertain what are the articles exported from Texas, and the amount of labour employed in their cultivation. Cotton, as I have before observed, is the only article that Texas produces at present for exportation, and, admitting that there are 11,323 slaves in Texas, and that half of this number are the bona-fide property of the Texan planters, and that the other half are only hired, and out of the whole that 8000 are actually employed in the cultivation of cotton; the labour of 8000 hands, at the average rate of ten bales to each hand, will produce 80,000 bales annually, at the estimated value of forty dollars per bale; for 40,000 bales uncontracted for, and 40,000 bales contracted for at the usual rate, thirty-five dollars per bale will yield 3,000,000 dollars per annum, from which we have to deduct the hire and keep of 4000 slaves at the common rate of forty dollars per month for nine months, as being actually engaged in planting, picking, ginning, and bagging cotton, and ten dollars per head per month for the keep (including imports) of 4000 slaves, 1,920,000 dollars, which, when deducted from the net amount of produce, leaves only 1,080,000 dollars as the dis

posable means of Texas; and this is the amount that is to supply the imports for 59,000 souls (not including the negroes) on an average of fifty dollars per head, 2,950,000, and an ad valorem duty (say of 15 per cent.) on this amount of imports, with the revenue derived from assessed taxes (500,000 dollars), added to sales of government lands (400,000 dollars), is, as near as can be calculated, all that is tangible to meet the current expenditure of the country, which has averaged 1,475,750 dollars annually, from 1836 to 1840. The last item is by far too low; but I am here trying to yield a little to sanguine speculators, who have represented the present and future ordinary resources of Texas as truly unlimited. However, in following up these supposititious calculations, the reader must not pass over the subjoined statement of the

PUBLIC DEBT OF TEXAS.

Amount funded under the act of 1837, redeemable at

the pleasure of the government, after 1841 Interest on the same, not paid