![[TEXAS]. -- TORNEL Y MENDIVIL, José Maria (1795-1853). Tejas y Los Estados-Unidos de América, en sus relaciones con la República Mexicana. Mexico: Ignacio Cumplido, 1837.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2012/NYR/2012_NYR_02622_0137_000(texas_--_tornel_y_mendivil_jose_maria_tejas_y_los_estados-unidos_de_am070900).jpg?w=1)
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[TEXAS]. -- TORNEL Y MENDIVIL, José Maria (1795-1853). Tejas y Los Estados-Unidos de América, en sus relaciones con la República Mexicana. Mexico: Ignacio Cumplido, 1837.
8o (216 x 134 mm). Original printed wrappers (a few small stains and minor wear at extremities).
FIRST EDITION of Tornel's warning to his fellow countrymen written a year after San Jacinto. Then secretary of the Army and Navy, Tornel presents the earliest printing of the complete record of Texas colonization contracts, 1825-34, as recorded in the official report rendered by the Coahuila government to officials in Mexico City in 1834. Aggressive in tone, Tornel states that he does so to demonstrate the enormity of the Texas settlers' ingratitude, and the error of Mexico's having made a gift of Texas to the Anglo-Americans and Mexican empresarios (Bancroft cites this as the first in his list of primary sources "on the subject of Texas and the empresario system," p.76, note 31). As Mexican ambassador to Washington from 1829 to 1832, Tornel was well aware of the American drive to the Pacific and gives arguably the best informed review of the time of the history of American expansion from the Louisiana Purchase through the displacement of the Georgia-Alabama Indians. He feared the worst for the Mexican future: "La perdida de Tejas acarrearia inevitablemente la del Nuevo-Mexico y de las Californias; y poco a poco se iria menoscabando nuestro territorio, hasta quedar reducidos a una espresion insignificante" (p. 90).
Howell calls this "An important analysis of Mexican-Texan relations. The former Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States from Mexico, General Tornel was at the time this pamphlet was written Secretary of War and Marine. He details all land grants up to 1837, and reports on the American attempts at revolution in California, as well as their various schemes for colonizing Mexican territories." Bancroft, No. Mex. States & Tex. II:76, notes 29 and 31; Eberstadt, Texas 162:841; Fifty Texas Rarities 18; Graff 4167; Howell, California 50:233; Howes T-302; Palau 334525; Rader 3145; Ramos, Bibliografia de la Historia de Mexico 4329; Sabin 96208; Streeter sale II:932.
8o (216 x 134 mm). Original printed wrappers (a few small stains and minor wear at extremities).
FIRST EDITION of Tornel's warning to his fellow countrymen written a year after San Jacinto. Then secretary of the Army and Navy, Tornel presents the earliest printing of the complete record of Texas colonization contracts, 1825-34, as recorded in the official report rendered by the Coahuila government to officials in Mexico City in 1834. Aggressive in tone, Tornel states that he does so to demonstrate the enormity of the Texas settlers' ingratitude, and the error of Mexico's having made a gift of Texas to the Anglo-Americans and Mexican empresarios (Bancroft cites this as the first in his list of primary sources "on the subject of Texas and the empresario system," p.76, note 31). As Mexican ambassador to Washington from 1829 to 1832, Tornel was well aware of the American drive to the Pacific and gives arguably the best informed review of the time of the history of American expansion from the Louisiana Purchase through the displacement of the Georgia-Alabama Indians. He feared the worst for the Mexican future: "La perdida de Tejas acarrearia inevitablemente la del Nuevo-Mexico y de las Californias; y poco a poco se iria menoscabando nuestro territorio, hasta quedar reducidos a una espresion insignificante" (p. 90).
Howell calls this "An important analysis of Mexican-Texan relations. The former Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States from Mexico, General Tornel was at the time this pamphlet was written Secretary of War and Marine. He details all land grants up to 1837, and reports on the American attempts at revolution in California, as well as their various schemes for colonizing Mexican territories." Bancroft, No. Mex. States & Tex. II:76, notes 29 and 31; Eberstadt, Texas 162:841; Fifty Texas Rarities 18; Graff 4167; Howell, California 50:233; Howes T-302; Palau 334525; Rader 3145; Ramos, Bibliografia de la Historia de Mexico 4329; Sabin 96208; Streeter sale II:932.