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Erasmo Seguín

Erasmo Seguín (1782 – 1857) was a San Antonio political figure, postmaster, and businessman. Seguin’s public career began in 1807 when he was a San Antonio postmaster, a position he held until October 1835. During the 1812-1813 Gutierrez-Magee expedition, Seguin was under suspicion for working with the revolutionaries. He had his property taken away and was removed from his job as the postmaster. He was later forgiven for the charges and returned to his job as postmaster in 1822.

Seguin held many public official positions. First, he was elected alcalde (an important official in a Spanish town) of San Antonio. In 1825, he was appointed as the quartermaster for the San Antonio garrison. In 1821, Governor Antonio Martinez appointed Seguin to inform Moses Austin that Austin’s petition to start a colony in Texas was approved. The Convention of 1833 appointed Seguin as one of three representatives to present Texas’s complaints to the national government, but he declined the assignment. He served as a magistrate (judge) in San Antonio after Texas claimed its independence. Seguin’s most significant role was serving as Texas representative to the congress that wrote the Constitution of 1824. From 1823 through 1824 he worked in Mexico City to promote the interests of both San Antonio and the Anglo-American settlers. He worked on the liberal National Colonization Law of August 18, 1824, which left most issues of immigration and land distribution in the hands of the state governments. He reluctantly accepted the union of Coahuila and Texas, but he worked for the inclusion of a provision allowing Texas to petition for separate statehood at a future date. Seguín also worked for flexibility concerning the requirement that settlers be Catholic and he was against the complete abolition of slavery.


Source: Erasmo Seguín
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