EARLY BELGIAN COLONIAL EFFORTS - The University of Texas at ...

further than it did. 210 The much larger Mexican market was simply more settled and
stable than that of Texas. The issue of slavery would, perhaps, have doomed a large-
scale Belgian development in Texas, as there was strong antislavery sentiment in
Belgium.
The best of Belgian intentions must be measured against the problems inherent
in the position of the government of Texas. Similar to that of Guatemala, the Republic’s
government was deeply split over the sale of land to foreigners where terms of any
accompanying loan seemed to impose any constraints on the Republic and the
overriding question of independence versus statehood. The disagreement between
Mirabeau Lamar, the first president of Texas, and Sam Houston, the second president,
centered, among other issues, on whether it was best for Texas to remain a republic or
continue attempts to join the United States . What seems to have driven the
disagreement and ultimately the decision to join the union was the economic viability of
the Republic. It was simply too economically unstable and did not give the impression
that it would improve.
The rather casual attitude of General James Hamilton, in terms of his authority,
definitely seems to have confused the issue. There does not seem to be any doubt that
his offer of land to be “ceded” simply was not authorized in his position as “Loan
Commissioner.” His reluctance to inform the Republic of the nature of his promises and
innuendos to Belgium lend credence to this view. Hamilton, in many respects, is the
210 It took a significant amount of persuasion by the government to soothe the commercial sector,
especially, iron armaments and cotton when it announced that the government was abandoning its efforts
to establish a colony in Texas. This was mostly achieved by the lure of a potentially more lucrative
104