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301

Ramon Musquiz

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:14,000.00 - 16,000.00 USD
Ramon Musquiz

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Auction Date:2010 Sep 15 @ 22:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Musquiz was appointed the political chief of the Department of Texas by the Governor of Coahuila and Texas in January 1828. He served until July 7, 1834 when health reasons forced him to resign. Musquiz favored the rights of the Anglo-American colonists in Texas and was a friend of Stephen F. Austin. While in office, he attempted to mediate disputes between the colonists and the Mexican authorities. From October until early December 1835, an army of Texan volunteers laid siege to a Mexican Army in San Antonio de Bexar. Musquiz was present at the fall of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, and assisted in identifying the bodies of the defenders. On January 1, 1831, Gonzales colonist Green DeWitt asked Musquiz, political chief of San Antonio de Bexar, to make arrangements for a cannon to be furnished to the Gonzales colonists for protection against hostile Indians. On March 10, 1831, nine days after he relays his reappointment to office in one of the letters in this archive, Musquiz gave James Tumlinson, a DeWitt colonist at Bexar, a six pound bronze cannon to be given to DeWitt at Gonzales. It was given with the stipulation that it would be returned upon request. That request came in September 1835. Because of increasing unrest, the military commander at Bexar, Col Domingo de Ugartechea, sent soldiers to Gonzales to retrieve the cannon. The Gonzales colonists notified Ugartechea they were keeping the gun and took the soldiers prisoner. Ugartechea responded by sending 100 troops under Lieutenant Francisco de Castaneda who, upon arriving at Gonzales, requested the cannon be returned. The Texans pointed to the gun, about 200 yards behind them, and said, ‘there it is - come and take it.’ On the morning of October 2, 1835, they attacked the Mexicans, and Castaneda, eventually finding himself outnumbered and outgunned, ordered a withdrawal toward Bexar. The Battle of Gonzales was the beginning of the Texas Revolution. The ‘come and take it’ cannon was eventually brought to San Antonio de Bexas and the Alamo where it was one of 21 artillery pieces commandeered by the Mexican army upon the recapture of Bexar on March 6, 1836.

Four LSs, all in Spanish, each ending "Dios y Libertad," ("God and Freedom") and signed “Ramon Musquiz,” forwarding a communication from the Governor of Coahuila and Texas letter to the Mayor of Goliad. By decree of the Governor of Coahuila and Texas, on February 4, 1829, the town of La Bahia became the town of Goliad. One of the most significant engagements of the Texas Revolution occurred near Coleto Creek in Goliad County on March 19 and 20, 1836. Col. James W. Fannin, Jr. and his men surrendered to Mexican forces in the Battle of Coleto. The Texans were imprisoned by the Mexicans at Goliad and subsequently murdered by order of Gen. Santa Anna on March 27, 1836. “The Handbook of Texas" notes that the "Goliad Massacre immeasurably garnered support for the cause against Mexico both within Texas and in the United States, thus contributing greatly to the Texan victory at the Battle of San Jacinto and sustaining the independence of the Republic of Texas.”

(1) LS signed "Ramon Musquiz,"one page, both sides, 6.25 x 8, February 26, 1831. In part (translated): “[The] declaration dated 3 December 1829, addressed to this Government by the Spaniard Francisco García, resident of Goliad ... relative to his desired exoneration from the forced loan imposed by article 1 of decree no. 105, has seen fit to resolve to comply, in virtue of the reasons expressed by the interested party in his declaration and evidenced by the documents that accompany the said declaration, so that the said Spaniard Francisco García be exonerated from the above mentioned loan..."

(2) LS signed "Ramon Musquiz," one page, both sides, 7.75 x 12.5. Light soiling. In Spanish, February 27, 1831. In part (translated): "The Most Excellent Governor of the State has seen fit to send me the following decree: 'Through the Secretariat of War and Navy it was communicated to me the following decree: ...The Vice-President of the United States of Mexico, in exercise of the supreme executive power, to the inhabitants of the republic, be it known: That the General Congress has decreed the following: The sentence of the accomplices in the trial to which the decree of extraordinary faculties dated 14 September 1829 applies, who were not sentenced to death by two agreeing sentences, shall not be longer than four years in prison, counted from the day on which they were sentenced..."

(3) LS signed "Ramon Musquiz," one page, both sides, 8 x 10, March 1, 1831. Musquiz is reappointed by the Governor. In part (translated): "I have seen fit to reassign Your Lordship as head of this county ... I inform Your Lordship for your knowledge and understanding that this Government expects that Your Lordship will not make use of the right that is incumbent upon you by article 152 of the said constitution, but that as a gift to your homeland, you will serve the new term in which it assigns you, not only for being such the will of the majority of the said Town Halls, but also because the government considers necessary the permanence of Your Lordship in the position you are heading..." Nine days later, on March 10, 1831, the newly reappointed political chief of Texas, Ramon Musquiz, gave James Tumlinson, a DeWitt colonist at Bexar, a six pound bronze cannon to be given to Green DeWitt at Gonzales. It was given with the stipulation that it would be returned upon request.

(4) LS signed "Ramon Musquiz," one page, 8 x 13, September 8, 1831. In part (translated): "Because several federal judges have manifested that on the correspondence they have received from other federal judges or state judges regarding judicial matters it has been omitted the certification and oath that must be included on the cover ... the Most Excellent Mr. Vice-President has seen fit to resolve that all judicial authorities and corporations be reminded of the exact compliance to the said article so that the requisite it prescribes is never omitted, avoiding thus the inconveniences that would otherwise result for a most prompt and expedite administration of Justice..."

In very good to fine overall condition, with scattered toning and soiling.

A quartet of legal letters dispatched by a man who would later be present at the fall of the Alamo and he was called upon by Santa Anna to help identify the bodies of David Bowie, Davy Crockett, William B. Travis, and other Texans.
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