[Mexico]. [Texas]. [Vallejo, Antonio]

Secretaria de Hacienda. Seccion 1a. El Exmo. Sr. Presidente Interino de la Republica Mexicana Se Ha Servida Dirigirme el Decreto Que Sigue. ... "El Gobierno Solo Podra Disponer Hasta de la Mitad de las Rentas de los Departamentos, Mientras Subsista la Guerra Provocada por los Colonos de Tejas..." [caption title and first lines of text]

Mexico City: January 9, 1836. Broadside, 11.5 x 8.25 inches. Old folds, minor creasing. Very good. Item #2211

An exceedingly rare Mexican decree concerned with financing the Mexican Army during the early months of the Texas Revolution. Essentially, the decree called for slashing the budgets of other departments (or states) within the Mexican government to help ensure funding for Santa Anna and his troops while "subsista la guerra provocada por los colonos de Tejas" [the war brought on by the Texas colonists continues]. The decree was issued just about halfway between two of the most important events of the Texas Revolution - the Battle of Goliad in September 1835 and the passage of the Texas Declaration of Independence in early March 1836. The Battle of the Alamo also occurred around the time of the latter, less than two months after this decree was promulgated. It was likely through the present decree that Santa Anna was able to raise enough troops to steamroll the Texans in San Antonio, as the Mexican economy was stretched thin beforehand.

"The series of alarming events of rebellion in Texas, culminating with the Siege of Bexar in late 1835, prompted authorities in Mexico to issue this decree to raise the funds needed to underwrite Santa Anna and his army of about five thousand ill-provisioned green recruits who were enduring the frightful ordeal of marching six hundred miles from San Luis Potosí to San Antonio in the dead of winter across the desert to punish the Texans. Santa Anna had energy and nerve, but not a cent in his war chest. The same might be said of the Texans" - Sloan.

"Decree authorizing the government to dispose of half of the income of the departments while the war brought on by the Texas colonists continues" - Streeter.

Streeter had not located a copy at the time of publication of his Bibliography of Texas and took his information from a provincial printing of the decree issued in Arizpe that was located at the Bancroft Library. Streeter subsequently acquired one, presumably from the Eberstadts, which is now at Yale. OCLC shows just three copies of the Mexico City printing, at Yale, Baylor, and the University of Texas at Austin. Yale also holds the single copy of the Chihuahua printing. The Mexico City printing came first, and the decree was then promulgated through several states, with copies known from Arizpe, Chihuahua, Guadalajara, Toluca, and Zacatecas.
Streeter Texas 871. Streeter, The Only Located Copies of One Hundred Forty Texas Pamphlets and Broadsides 83. Eberstadt 162:868. Dorothy Sloan Auction 6, lot 53.

Price: $2,500.00