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Mode of Amending the Constitution.

The Legislature, whenever two-thirds of each House shall deem it neces sary, may propose amendments to this Constitution, which proposed amend ments shall be duly published in the public prints of the State at least three months before the next general election of the Representatives, for the consi deration of the people; and it shall be the duty of the several returning offi cers, at the next election, which shall thus be holden, to open a poll for, and make a return to the Secretary of the State of, the names of all those voting for Representatives who have voted on such proposed amendments, and if, thereupon, it shall appear that a majority of all the citizens of this State, voting for Representatives, have voted in favor of such proposed amendments, and twothirds of each House of the next Legislature shall, after such election, and before another, ratify the same amendments by yeas and nays, they shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this Constitution, provided that the said proposed amendments shall, at each of the said sessions, have been read on three several days in cach House.

Article VIII.-Slaves.

SEC. 1. The Legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipa tion of slaves, without the consent of their owners, nor without paying their owners, previous to such emancipation, a full equivalent in money for the slaves so emancipated; they shall have no power to prevent emigrants to the State from bringing with them such persons as are deemed slaves by the laws of the United States, so long as any person of the same age or description shall be continued in slavery by the laws of this State; provided that such slaves be the bona fide property of such emigrants; provided, also, that laws be passed to inhibit the introduction into this State of slaves who have committed high crimes in States or Territories; they shall have the right to pass laws to permit the owners of slaves to emancipate them, saving the rights of creditors, and preventing them from becoming a public charge; they shall have full power to pass laws which will oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity, to provide for their necessary food and clothing, to abstain from all injuries to them extending to life or limb, and, in case of their neglect or refusal to comply with the directions of such laws, to have such slave or slaves taken from such owners and sold for the benefit of such owner or owners; they may pass laws to prevent slaves from being brought into this State as merchandise only.

SEC. 2. In the prosecution of slaves for crimes of a higher grade than petit larceny, the Legislature shall have no power to deprive them of an impartial trial by a petit jury.

SEC. 3. Any person who shall maliciously dismember or deprive a slave of life shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted in case the like offense had been committed upon a free white person. and on the like proof except in ease of insurrection of such slave.

Article X.-Education.

SEC. 1. A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legis lature of this State to make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of Public Schools.

SEC. 2. The Legislature shall, as early as practicable, establish free schools throughout the State, and shall furnish means for their support by taxation of property; and it shall be the duty of the Legislature to set apart not less than one-tenth part of the annual revenue of the State, derivable from taxation, as a perpetual fund; which fund shall be appropriated to the support of free public schools, and no law shall ever be made diverting said funds to any other use, and until such time as the Legislature shall provide for the establishment of such schools in the several districts of the State, the fund thus created shall remain as a charge against the State, passed to the credit of the free common school fund.

This Constitution is dated at Austin, August 27, 1845, signed by Thomas J Rusk, President.

TITLES OF LAND.

(From a letter of J. De Cordova to E. Smith.)

Spanish Titles.-Grants.-1. For services. 2. For ecclesiastical purposes

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The principal colonies are as follows:-Burnet's, Vehlin's, Robertson's or Nashville, De Witt's, Austin (four colonies), Powers and Hewitson's, Austin and William's, Zavala's, McMullen and McGlone. All these were empresa

rios who are entitled to premium lands, provided they strictly complied with their contracts.

BOUNTIES.

1. Emigrants who arrived (a.) before Declaration of Independence. Married men are entitled to one league and one labor; single men to one-third of a league.

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Among these, a sale of forty ten league grants to John T. Mason, which, with others similar, was declared void by the Republic of Texas.

2. (b) After Independence, and before 1837. Married men, if enrolled in the ariny, are entitled to one league and one labor; if single men, to one-third of a league, provided such enrollment was previous to August, 1836.

3. (c.) After 1st October, 1837, and before 1842-640 and 320 acres Bounty claims, for services in the army, are for 320, 640, 1,280, and 1,920

acres.

For those disabled, one league.

INDIAN COLONIZATION.

[From the Report of Commissioner Moneypenny to the Secretary of the Interior, December, 1856.]

The policy of colonizing the Indians of Texas was commenced early in February, 1855. The reservations for that purpose are in Young county, Texas, one on the Brazos River, and one on the Clear Fork of the Brazos. The Caddoes, Anadahhas, Tahuakleros, Wacos, and Toukahwas, have been congregated at the former reserve, called the Brazos, and the Comanches at the latter, called the Comanche reserve.

On the 18th of September last, there were nine hundred and forty-eight Indians at the Brazos, and five hundred and fifty-seven at the Comanche reservation. At the former, during the past year, there have been five hundred and forty acres of land fenced in and cultivated, and at the latter two hundred acres. The Indians have made considerable progress in building houses and making other improvements, and have advanced in their moral and social condition. Whisky has, by great vigilance on the part of the agents, and the military and State authorities, been kept entirely away; and, in every point of view, the enter prise, in its present state and future prospects, is more encouraging than its most sanguine friends had anticipated.

The forays and depredations occurring last spring, on the confines of Texas, were not, it is said, to be traced to the indigenous tribes of that State, but were committed entirely by Indians who had not any connection with the reserves. The chastisement of some of these predatory bands, has happily been succeeded by a period of unusual quiet and peace.

The flattering success in Texas gives promise that, by a similar policy, the Southern Comanches, Wichetaws, and other wandering bands, near the northern frontier of that State, may be successfully colonized on the western end of the Choctaw country, for which provision was made by the treaty of June 22, 1855. between the United States and the Choctaws and Chickasaws.

LIST OF WORKS AND AUTHORS.

Texas: its Geography, Natural History, and Topography. By William Ken. nedy, Esq. (British Consul at Galveston). 8vo. pp. 118. New York: Benjamin & Young, 1844.

Texas: the Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic. By the same.
History of Texas. By David B. Edwards. Cincinnati: 1836. 12mo

History of the Revolution in Texas. By C. Newell. New York: 1838. 12mo A Visit to Texas, with a sketch of the late war. By Fiske. New York: Van Nostrand & Dwight, 1836.

A Journey through Northeastern Texas. By Edward Smith. London: 1849.

12mo.

Green's Journal of the Texan Expedition against Mier. New York: 1845 8vo.

Texas. By Mrs. Mary Austin Holley. 12mo. Baltimore: 1833.

Engle Pass. By Cora Montgomery. New York: G. P. Putnam. pp. 188. Letters from Texas. By W. B. Dewees. Louisville: Morton & Griswold, 1852. 12mo., pp. 312.

Notes on Unexplored Texas. By W. B. Parker. Philadelphia: Hayes & Zell, 1855. 12mo., pp. 242.

The Santa Fe Expedition. By G. W. Kendall. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1844. 2 vols., 12mo.

Rambles in Texas.

Personal Narrative. By John R. Bartlett, Commissioner for the Mexican Boundary. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1854. 2 vols., 8vo.

Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. By Mrs. Houston. Philadelphia. 2 vols., 18mo. Our Army on the Rio Grande. By T. B. Thorpe. Philadelphia: 1848. 12mo. A Stray Yankee in Texas. By Philip Paxton.

Wanderings in the Southwest. In the New York "Crayon," 1855-6. By J. D. B. Stillman.

Texas. By L. T. Pease (in Niles's Spanish Republics). Hartford: 1836.

Sam Houston and his Republic. By C. Edwards Lester. New York: Burgess, Stringer & Co. 8vo., pp. 208.

Life of Gen. Sam Houston. New York: Redfield, 1855.

Notes from iny Knapsack. Putnam's Monthly, March, 1851.

A trip from Chihuahua to the Sierra Madre. The same, October, 1854.
History of Louisiana. By Gayarré.

Ward's Mexico in 1827. Appendix, Texas.

London. 2 vols., 8vo.

History of Texas from its discovery to the present time. By Maillard.
Mexico in 1842. To which is added an account of Texas and Yucatan, and of

the Santa Fe Expedition. New York: 1842. 18mo.

Texas and the Texans. By Henry Stewart Foote. 2 vols., 12mo. Philadelphia: 1841.

Notes on the Upper Rio Grande. By Bryan Tilden.

Featherstonaugh, Excursion Through the Slave States. New York: Harper & Brothers.

The Fiscal History of Texas. By W. M. Gouge. Philadelphia: J. P. Lippin cott & Co.

Memoir of a Trip to Northern Mexico in 1846 and '47. By A. Wislizenas Senate Doc., Washington, 1848.

Yoakum's History of Texas. 2 vols., 8vo. New York: J. S. Redfield, 185€

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