"The Mexican War brought not only soldiers to the lower border country, but also a host of Anglo-Americans who began almost immediately to challenge the Mexicans for control of the land. Spanish and Mexican land grants, some of long standing, became the focus of competition, controversy, and conflict. Despite what Mexicans believed to be specific guarantees to their property and civil rights under Articles VIII and IX of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the older Mexican landholders on the north bank of the Rio Grande often found themselves uncertain about their rights to lands granted by Spain and Mexico. The treaty provided no standard for validation of land grants. Land grant adjudication proceeded in a piecemeal fashion with the federal government determining the procedures in the new American Southwest, except that, by virtue of its prior claim to the trans-Nueces, the state of Texas controlled the process in the annexed lands.
Because the federal government never challenged this position, the state determined the manner of settling the titles to lands in the annexed territory. Contrary to popular belief, however, Texas acted equitably by making available several opportunities for adjudication. Still, the validation of Hispanic land grants opened the gates to Tejano land loss, an event that involved complex dynamics beyond the range of this article. Anglos ultimately took advantage of their growing economic power, used new laws to gain land, and occasionally resorted to devious means to subvert the Mexicans' position as dominant landholders.
At the end of the war, some soldiers and other Anglo adventurers stayed in the area as well as several scores of Anglo and European merchants who had moved to Matamoros in the 1820s and 1830s. While the latter were content merely to restart the Mexican trade, many newcomers had loftier economic and political ambitions. Some of them were interested in the delta farmlands and rich pastures upon which large numbers of livestock grazed. They often manifested an anti-Mexican bias that stirred up trouble and widened the chasm between Mexicans on the one hand and Anglos and Europeans on the other. For example, Judge Rice Garland, who sold lands and bought land certificates in Matamoros, advertised in the Brownsville American Flag on June 2, 1847, that "Mexican law and authority are forever at an end" in the Nueces territory and that "by the laws of Texas no alien can hold real estate within its limits." In the same ad he declared in Spanish that all original owners of land must have their lands surveyed and possess deeds. He warned Mexican owners that "preparations are being made to locate other claims on the land covered by such titles." Despite such threats, Mexicans were not about to relinquish their claims so easily. But before adjudication, Anglo legal challenges against Mexican claimants resulted in newcomers' acquiring rights to lands in the Espíritu Santo grant and to a tract containing La Sal del Rey, a dry salt lake mined since the late seventeenth century, in the San Salvador del Tule grant. In the first case, Charles Stillman's economic and political power forced Rafael García Cavazos to sell his rights, even though the court had ruled in the latter's favor by voiding squatters' claims to property acquired by Stillman. In the second case, the courts ruled against the Hispanic claimants to the grant in favor of Anglos who had received land certificates from the Republic of Texas. One can only surmise that the Mexican claimants' anxiety must have increased instead of lessened as a result of these actions. Those in the middle of the controversy over land grants included rancheros who were concerned about their property rights and newcomers who during the Mexican War had acquired derechos or undivided interests in the land. The latter were mostly merchants who had sought out grantees or heirs as well as previous purchasers of the grants and for a few dollars bought the undivided rights or derechos from them. They must have anticipated that the lands along the Rio Grande …
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weighs the pros and cons of using a power drill on the minis workbench.
