Decreto Numero 178

Single leaf (8 4/8 x 6 inches) printed on recto only, annotated and signed by local officials. Decree number 178, repealing articles 3, 5, 6, and 7 from decree number 38 which stated that no Spaniard should be allowed to settle in the state, should not be allowed to carry arms, required a passport to travel within the state, nor be allowed to congregate, respectively. Issued by Jose Maria de Letona, this decree which loosened the stringent regulations placed on Spanish residents of Coahuila and Texas, indicates the reduced threat perceived by the State from the original Spanish colonists. Instead, the State found enemies closer to home across the border in the newly independent Republic of Texas, and the United States. The Spanish provinces of Coahuila and Texas were governed as a unit intermittently during the late 17th- and early 18th-centuries until about 1726 when the two provinces were separated. In 1785 Saltillo and Parras with their surrounding territory were detached from Nuevo Viscaya and added to Coahuila. Under the Mexican Constitution of 1824 the provinces of Coahuila and Texas were rejoined with the capital at Saltillo. On August 15, 1824 the Congreso Constituyente of the new state convened to draft a constitution which was adopted on March 11, 1827. "By May 21, 1835 that Congreso had adopted 325 decrees covering a great variety of subjects including the ordinances of the various towns of the state, amendments to existing laws, and some repeals of prior laws" (McKnight, pages iv and v). José María Letona ((1799-1832) was Governor of Coahuila and Texas from 1831 to 1832. He was originally a lawyer and a resident of Saltillo in Coahuila. He participated in the revolt of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla as an orderly to Gen. Mariano Jiménez and later served that chief as legal advisor. In 1821 Letona was a member of the provisional governing junta at Saltillo that declared for the Plan de Iguala. Letona regarded the Law of April 6, 1830, which had been designed to stop the flood of immigration from the United States to Texas, as unconstitutional, and in line with this view sent José Francisco Madero to Texas as land commissioner to survey the grant land titles to the settlers on the Trinity. He also supported the Cherokee Indian land claims. Letona died in Saltillo on September 18, 1832, and was succeeded in office by Vice Governor Juan Martín Veramendi (Handbook of Texas online). Kimball p. 182.…