"An Act," December 21, 1838

Summary: This law exempted citizens from six different counties from direct taxation if they had been captured or had their lands overrun by the Mexican army. Stressed that the exemption was limited to such citizens and only to one league of land per person.

To exempt from direct taxation, certain citizens of certain Counties.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas in Congress assembled, That the citizens of the counties of Gonzales, Victoria, Goliad, Refu-

gio, San Patricio and Bexar, now actually residing in those counties, and those citizens of said counties who have been carried captive by the enemy, and those citizens of said counties who have been compelled by the incursions of the Mexicans, and Indians to abandon their homes be, and they are hereby exempted from direct taxation, from the date of the passage of the law to raise a revenue by direct taxation, up to the first of January, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine. Provided, That his law shall not exempt from taxation, more than one league and labor of land, belonging to the same individual, nor any other species of property.

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That this law shall not be so construed as to exempt from direct taxation any person or persons who are not actually residing in one of the before mentioned counties, widows and orphans excepted.

JOHN M. HANSFORD,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

DAVID G. BURNET,

President of the Senate.

Approved, December 21, 1838.

MIRABEAU B. LAMAR.

Source Copy Consulted: "An Act," December 21, 1838, reprinted in H.P.H. Gammel, The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897, 12 vols., (Austin: Gammel Book Co., 1898), 2:11-12. http://texinfo.library.unt.edu/lawsoftexas