José María Jesús Carbajal wrote to his cousin Antonio Menchaca from the confusion of the collapsing 1835 Coahuila y Tejas legislative session that "...all that our rulers want is to abolish the federal system!! Coahuila and Texas shall never be governed by any other form of government."
Carbajal, the secretary of the congress and elected representative from Bexar, was a man who could have only been forged in the tumult of early 19th century Texas. His earliest memories were being turned out into the streets when he was four after his mother was imprisoned after the Battle of Medina. In the 1820s, his family befriended Stephen F. Austin, and under his sponsorship, Carbajal traveled to Kentucky for education. Returning to Texas fluent in English and a devout Protestant, Carbajal gingerly straddled two worlds. He was sent to Monclova in 1835 to help continue pushing Federalist reforms. Instead, he was sucked into one of the most infamous political scandals in Texas History, the notorious Monclova Land Scandal.
Join us at Re-Collections of the Revolution as we explore the 1835 Monclova legislative session and its impact on the Texas Revolution, featuring a declaration from the 6th of May 1835 from embattled federalist governor Agustin Viesca, listing Jose M.J Carbajal as deputy director.
Learn More:
Chance, Joseph E (2006). Jose Maria de Jesus Carvajal: The Life and Times of a Mexican Revolutionary. Trinity University Press.
(Read full text of the pronouncement here, Ordinances and Decrees of the Consultation, Provisional Government of Texas and the Convention, Which Assembled at Washington March 1, 1836. The Portal to Texas History (unt.edu))