YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

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An Engraving by Davignon, made in 1853 while Houston was in the
United States Senate

THE REPUBLIC
OF TEXAS
A Brief History of Texas from the First
American Colonies in 1821 to
Annexation in 1846
By
CLARENCE R. WHARTON

*$

Published by
C. C. YOUNG PRINTING COMPANY
This edition printed and bound especially for
Foley Bros. Dry Qoods Co.,
Houston, Texas
Copyrighted 1922 by Clarence R. Wharton

"Give me a land where the battle's red blast
Has flashed to the future the fame of the past,
Give me a land that hath legends and lays,
That tell of the memories of long vanished days,
Yes, give me a land with a grave in each spot,
And names on the graves that shall not be forgot."
Father Ryan.

CONTENTS

PAGE
Louisiana Purchase  7
Texas Traded for Florida  17
The Colonies  .'  27
The Revolution  97
The Republic  169
Annexation of Texas  :  215

PREFACE

When the Austins came in 1821 and opened the way for
people from the States, Texas history had its real begin
ning. Fifteen years later San Jacinto was fought and won
and for ten years more Texas was a Republic. Then after
one of the greatest political battles in American history,
it became a State. This twenty-five years is the heroic
period of Texas history.
When the Democrats met in convention in Baltimore in
1844, the Whigs had nominated Henry Clay and declared
against the annexation of Texas and ignored the acquisi
tion of Oregon. Powerful forces among the Democrats, led
by Van Buren and aided by Benton, worked to commit the
party to the same course. But the Southern leaders seized
the machinery of the convention, overthrew Van Buren,
and named James K. Polk, of Tennessee, and boldly de
clared for the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of
Oregon. The election of Polk committed the American
people to both propositions. The advent of Texas into the
Union was followed not only by all the country west to
the Pacific, but North to the present Canadian border.
San Jacinto set the tide of Saxon supremacy toward the
Pacific and was indeed one of the decisive battles of the
world.
Clarence R. Wharton.
Houston, Texas.
January 1, 1922.

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
The Proclamation of La Salle.
The evolutions in History; the various changes in sove
reignty through which Texas passed from the primitive
plain and wilderness to statehood, must be of interest to
this generation.
It was a strange theory which the European nations em
ployed by which each claimed portions of the Americas
based upon exploration and discovery.
It never seriously occurred to any of these so-called civi
lized nations that the Indian inhabitants who had peopled
these continents for countless ages had any title to their
native land, any rights which need be respected. Strange
even to romance are the events by which the fair land, .
which now bears the name of Texas, has passed from flag to
flag. There was a three-hundred-year race among the nations
of Europe for possessions in the New World, each country
basing its claims upon explorations and discoveries made by
persons flying its flag. Spanish adventurers first reached
the mainland through the Gulf of Mexico, and Spain's title
to the Floridas was recognized because of explorations of
DeLeon and De Soto, about fifty years after Columbus'
first voyage. Then there was a lapse of more than one
hundred years after De Soto, on his fruitless gold hunt,
discovered the Mississippi River, until La Salle, the French
man, coming from Canada, sailed down it to the sea.
On April 9, 1682, La Salle stood on the bank of the
great river, surrounded by a small company of daring
Frenchmen, and by a process verbal named and claimed

The Proclamation of La Salle
the country far and wide for his monarch. Mark Twain
describes this vast real estate transaction in his "Life on
the Mississippi":
"Then to the admiration of the savages, the French
men set up a cross with the arms of Prance on it, and
took possession of the whole country for the King, the
cool fashion of the time, while the priest piously conse
crated the robbery with a hymn, and they drew from
the simple sons of the forest fealty to Louis over the
sea. No one even smiled at this colossal . irony. "
How far this verbal proclamation reached, and what
were the boundaries of the new province, were matters
much debated, though never settled in the centuries to
come. Some said they crossed the Rockies to the northwest
coast. Others that they extended east including west Florida.
Others that they embraced all Texas down to the Rio
Grande. This last claim was given much force by the fact that
LaSalle came again to the Gulf Coast in 1685 and founded
a colony on Matagorda Bay, and lost his life here in
Texas. After his death and the failure of his Colony, the Span
iards through Mexico made feeble, futile efforts at settle
ments here, claiming the country as part of Mexico, but
they succeeded little better than the .French had done.
Another hundred years rolled around and Louisiana and
Texas were yet wild, vast and unknown. France had made
settlements in Canada, and controlled the St. Lawrence and
the Great Lakes. The English had colonized along the At
lantic seaboard, and the Spaniard yet held the Floridas
and all Mexico, or New Spain, as it was called. There were
8

The Proclamation of La Salle
some French settlements on the Mississippi, and New Or-.
leans had become a port of some importance.
Then came the French and Indian wars in the middle
of the Eighteenth Century, and France and England fought
for long bloody years over the valley of the Ohio.
Seeing that England would win, France hurriedly handed
Louisiana over to Spain in 1762 to keep it from falling into
the hands of England, and, curiously enough, Napoleon
hurriedly sold it to the United States forty years later to
keep it out of England's hands. And the United States
annexed^ Texas in 1845 to keep England from dominating
it. After this cession to Spain in 1762, and while Spain
held Louisiana, the title to Texas was conceded to be
Spanish, whether it be treated as part of Louisiana or
part of Mexico. At the close of the American Revolu
tion Spanish sovereignty was acknowledged over Louis
iana, the Floridas, Texas, Mexico, and all the lands
around the Gulf of Mexico. Spain claimed all of North
America west of the Mississippi, and there was no one then
to seriously dispute this claim.
But while the Colonies (now become the States) did not
then covet more land, they did set great store by the right
to navigate the Mississippi River. They claimed the coun
try west to the river and south to the 31st parallel, or about
to a line from Natchez, Miss., east, following certain ob
jects to the Atlantic. Since, however, the lower river and its
entrance to the Gulf ran through Spanish territory, it was
a matter of much moment to have for the people of Ken
tucky and Tennessee and all the territories west of the Al-
leghenies the right to navigate the river to its mouth and
reach the Atlantic seaboard by way of the Gulf.
After some years of negotiation, a treaty was concluded in
1795 between the United States and Spain, giving us the

Napoleon's First Effort at King Making
right to navigate the river, and depot facilities for goods
on the west bank of the river at New Orleans. For the time
being this seemed all our country could want. The close
of the eighteenth century saw England in control of Canada,
and the United States of the country to the Spanish pos
sessions south and west, and Spain' the nominal master of
the greater part of North America.
Thus far little detail had been given to boundaries, and
fully four-fifths of all North America was uninhabited and
more than half of it yet unexplored. Texas was little more
than a name on a map at the close of the eighteenth cen
tury. In a feeble way Spain had exercised a nominal au
thority over the country for a century or more, and in an
effort to reclaim it had built missions at various places
where Franciscan Fathers labored to tame and save the Red
Brother. But the Indian did not take kindly to being
tamed and saved and the missions were failures. Some of
them still stand after another hundred years have rolled
around, the last mute evidence of Spanish sovereignty.
Napoleon's First Effort at King Making.
The dawn of the nineteenth century saw strange things.
transpiring. throughout the world, and perhaps the strang
est was the case of the young islander who had come to
France and during the Revolution made himself master of
that bloody, turbulent country.
Napoleon, then thirty years old, was First Consul of the
Republic, and planned to become, as he shortly afterwards
did, an Emperor. He had lately led victorious armies in
Egypt and. Italy, and assumed a mastery over the Italian
cities and states. Down in Italy not far beyond the Alps
was the old Roman City of Parma, which had withstood

10

Napoleon's First Effort at King Making
the wars of centuries and had been made a dukedom or
Duchy by some of the Popes four hundred years before.
In the course of the eternal conflict which had prevailed
among the so-called great powers of Europe, this had be
come an appendage of the Spanish Crown, and at this time
the Duke of Parma was the nephew and son-in-law of
Charles IV, the Bourbon King of Spain. ,
The Duke of Parma wanted to be a king, and this fact
was related to Napoleon, who had the same ambition on a
larger scale. And it suited the purpose of this strange, rest
less person to make a king out of this degenerate Bourbon
Duke. So that it came to pass that a kingdom, warranted
to contain not less than one million souls, was created by
Napoleon in Northern Italy about Parma, and named Etru-
ria, following in part the boundaries of a Roman Province
of the same name. And the young Duke of Parma and his
pretty little Spanish bride, the daughter of twenty kings,
came down to Paris to apply to Bonaparte, the Republican
First Consul, for a kingdom and a crown. Amidst festivi
ties and gayeties such as have often prevailed in Paris,
Napoleon began his career as a king maker, and made this
youthful pair King and Queen of Etruria, and bestowed
upon them the hereditary title of Rulers of an Italian King
dom of one million human souls over which he had no sem
blance of right to rule, and yet less to bestow upon others as
a bounty. But the Duke of Parma was happy to be a king,
and his pretty little Spanish bride, daughter of so many
kings, was glad to be a queen, and the young Corsican was
glad to begin the experiment of setting up kingdoms and
making kings, for that was to be his chief occupation in the
years to come.
But in the hurried recital of these interesting things, I
almost overlooked relating an incident, for such it was. Na
il

The Deal Is Closed
poleon exacted a fee from the Spanish King for the bounty
of this Italian kingdom of one million souls, and King
Charles, who was land poor, gave him Louisiana.
And so it happened on October 1, 1800, that the Secret
Treaty of San Ildefonso was signed (for this was before the
blessed day of open covenants), and his Catholic Majesty
receded all of Louisiana to France, from whom Spain had
acquired it forty years before. And the wild province which
had been proclaimed and named by La Salle to embrace all
the lands traversed and watered by the Mississippi and its
tributaries became French again. What were the bound
aries of the vast realm bartered for a petty Italian king
dom ? Some said they crossed the Rockies to the northwest
coast. Others that they extended east and embraced west
Florida. Others that they embraced all Texas down to the
Rio Grande. And so it happened that Texas and some ten
other of our now American States were lightly bartered to
make a petty duke a petty king in a land thousands of miles
from these shores.
The Deal Is Closed.
Rufus King, our Minister to England, heard rumors of
the secret recession of Louisiana to France in return for
an Italian kingdom, as early as March, 1801, and wrote to
James Madison, our Secretary of State, advising of the
report. Our ministers to England, France and Spain were at once
charged to learn the facts, for this country was deeply in
terested in the affair. But the contracting parties were very
reticent about giving out information, and though Mr. Liv
ingston, our Minister to France, was very diligent and in-
12

The Deal Is Closed
quisitive, it was nearly a year before he had a first hand
confirmation of the secret bargain.
President Jefferson was much moved by the danger of a
powerful neighbor in control of the Lower Mississippi. In
April, 1802, he wrote Livingston: "There is on this globe
a single spot the possessor of which is our natural habitual
enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of
three-eighths of our territory must pass to market. France,
placing herself in that door, assumes to us the attitude of de
fiance. Spain might have retained it quietly for years. Her
feeble state is such that her possession of the place would
hardly be felt by us and it would not be long before some
circumstance might arise which would make the cession to
us worth her while. The day France takes possession of
Louisiana, we must marry ourselves to the British fleet. ' '
Then came a long year of negotiations for the purchase
of a site at the mouth of the river. Livingston was unable
to get the French statesmen to talk to him with any free
dom. At one time after the terms of the treaty of San Ilde-
fonso were generally known Talleyrand sought to deny to
Livingston that France had acquired Louisiana, and ad
vised him to apply to Spain if he wanted to purchase any
part of the territory. Just at this juncture the Spanish
Interidant at New Orleans aggravated matters very much by
annulling the treaty of 1795 between the United States and
Spain, and closing New Orleans to ships bearing American
merchandise and products.
This caused a tremendous stir in all the western country,
and Livingston promptly advised Talleyrand that since
Spain still owned Louisiana, as he ' intimated, we would
know how to deal with her, and if she would permit a petty
official at New Orleans to annul a national treaty, we would.
take possession of the port and open it to our commerce and
13

The Deal Is Closed
deal with Spain on the ground. This prompt direct state
ment soon brought an admission that Louisiana had passed
back to France, but they said that it was not for sale. The
act of the Spanish Intendant at New Orleans in 1802 annul
ling the privilege of depot facilities for American goods,
caused much excitement in the United States, and Pres
ident Jefferson knew that if this country could not pur
chase New Orleans and the unrestricted right to use the
Lower Mississippi, that it would only be a matter of a few
years when the westerners would take it by force. In
fact a resolution was offered in the United States Senate
suggesting the latter course, and it was only kept from pas
sage by assurances that the administration was using every
effort" to reach an agreement with France and Spain.
In order to give due emphasis to the activities that were
being put forth to accomplish this result, Jefferson named
James Monroe, of Virginia, Envoy Extraordinary to
France and Spain, charging him to hasten negotiations for
the purchase of New Orleans and the Spanish territory
east of the Mississippi River.
In all the correspondence that passed between our Gov
ernment and Livingston and Monroe during these long
negotiations, there was scant mention of the territory
west of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans, for no
one was interested in it. In one letter it was suggested
that if we had to purchase it, we might be able to sell it for
enough to recover the price paid for the whole. Napoleon
was a visionary person at thirty, and had many schemes
for the use of Louisiana.
At one time he was going to found a vast colonial em
pire, and an expedition was being fitted out for that end.
Livingston wrote Madison in March, 1802, " It is a darling
14

The Deal Is Closed
object of, Napoleon, who sees in it a means to gratify his
friends and dispose of his enemies."
But just then his eternal quarrel with England renewed it
self, and it was currently reported that the British Govern
ment was planning an expedition to occupy New Orleans.
This quickly determined him to employ his colonial ex
pedition in his war with England and to hurriedly sell
Louisiana to the United States, to keep it from falling into
English hands.
Forty years before, when France and England were near-
ing the end of the French and Indian wars, and it was evi
dent that England would triumph, and after Canada had
been taken from the French, Louisiana had been hurriedly
ceded by France to Spain to keep it out of English hands,
and now for the last time it was bartered about in the politi
cal game of European nations.
And the country that had been claimed and named by
La Salle in his verbal proclamation made on the Missis
sippi one hundred and twenty years before, and that had
been bartered back to France for an Italian kingdom, be
came a part of the United States of America.

15

TEXAS TRADED FOR FLORIDA
During the centuries since the English, Spanish and
French explorers had first come into North America and
laid the claims of these nations to the continent, there had
been no settlement of the western boundaries, and no one
could say with any approximate accuracy what was in
cluded when France ceded Louisiana to Spain in 1763, or
when Spain receded it to France in 1800, or when it was sold
to "the United States in 1803. Livingston asked the French
diplomats if the Spanish cession to France at San Ildefonso
had included the Floridas, and they told him they supposed
so. Pinckney, our Minister to Spain, made the same in
quiry at Madrid, and was told they supposed not. No one
seemed to know or care very much.
Livingston wrote in 1802, while negotiations for purchase
were pending: "As part of the territory of Spain, Louisi
ana had no precise boundary, so it. is easy to foresee the
fate of Mexico. The boundary between Canada and Louisi
ana is alike unsettled."
While there was much concern as to how far east Louis
iana could be extended, no one connected with our Govern
ment in these negotiations seemed to care a rap how far
north and west it went. Livingston wrote President Jeffer
son in October, 1802 : "Joseph Bonaparte asked me wheth
er we would prefer the Floridas to Louisiana, and I told
him we had nO wish to extend our boundary across the Mis
sissippi" ; and again in 1803, he wrote : "Talleyrand asked
me today if we wanted the whole of Louisiana, and I hold
him no, only New Orleans and the Floridas. ' '
17

Texas Traded for Florida
In fact Jefferson and Madison wanted nothing but the
mouth of the Mississippi River and west Florida, through
which the rivers from our then western and southern States
flowed to the Gulf.
At one time it was suggested by Livingston that the
Island and City of New Orleans be made an independent
state under the joint sovereignty of France, Spain and the
United States, in which event this country would not be
further interested in the purchase of Louisiana.
When Monroe reached Paris in 1803, Napoleon had in
dicated to Livingston his willingness to sell, and insisted
on selling^the whole territory, so it happened that our Min
isters had it fairly forced upon them.
After the bargain was closed, Livingston was much
worried for fear the Washington Government would cen
sure him for having agreed to take the country west of
the Mississippi River.
On May 13, 1803, a few days after the treaty was signed,
Livingston and Monroe wrote Madison an apology for hav
ing accepted the whole territory. "We well know (they
wrote) that the acquisition of so great an extent was not
contemplated. ' '
But they pointed out that they were unable to escape tak
ing it all without endangering the whole negotiations, that
Marbois, the French Minister, was obdurate. And when after
concluding the bargain, they came to examine Monroe's
commission, they found it restricted him to the purchase of
territory east of the River, this gave them a new fright.
But Jefferson and Madison were indulgent and did not
complain at them for having been bullied into accepting
nearly one million square miles more than they were in
structed to buy at the same price. Jefferson wrote a friend
that he might use this western country for the Indians and
18

Texas Traded for Florida
move those east of the Mississippi upon it. But what were
its boundaries ? The American ministers were unable to get
any definite statement from France about boundaries. They
would be told that France got from Spain in 1800 the sanie
territory that it ceded Spain in 1763. Livingston, in his
diary of events surrounding the purchase, says :
"I asked the minister what were the east bounds of the
territory ceded to us." "He said he did not know, we
must take it as they had received it. " "I asked him what
Spain meant to put them in possession of and what they
had meant to take from Spain. " "He said, ' I do not know,
construe it in your own way. You have made a noble bar
gain, make the most of it'."
The American Government felt that the purchase ex
tended to the Rio Grande on the southwest, and included
West Florida on the east, but was so much more interested
in Florida than in Texas that little thought was given the
latter. The Spanish Government was much disappointed at
learning of the sale of Louisiana to the United States, and
the Marquis d'Yrujo, Spain's Minister to the United States,
addressed a series of notes to Secretary Madison declaring
that France had no right to sell the territory. Madison
mildly but firmly told the Marquis to tell his troubles to
Napoleon, and the incident was closed. Spain did not rel
ish the United States as a next door neighbor, and set about
to hold Texas as part of its Mexican possessions.
In order to keep Americans out, it was planned to have
a vast area between the two countries filled with Indians,
who would be friendly with Mexico but hostile to the Amer
ican settler.
The Jefferson administration was contented with the ac
quisition of Louisiana. The days of Madison, who succeed-
19

Texas Traded for Florjpa
ed, were largely filled with other matters, including the war
of 1812.
When Monroe became President, he bent his energies to
the acquisition of the Floridas with the hope of getting
Spain forever out of the territory east of the Mississippi,
When the De Onis treaty was before the Senate, Henry
Clay stated that by right the Louisiana purchase included
Texas to the Rio Grande, but neither he nor anyone else se
riously objected to giving up Texas for Florida.
The De Onis treaty of 1819 gave the United States Flor
ida and released Spain's claims to all lands north of the
42nd parallel, the northern boundary of California.
In return the United States gave up its claim that Texas
was part of the Louisiana purchase, and for the time be
ing all claim to the country west of the Sabine and' south
of Red River was relinquished. And so it came to pass
that Texas, which was in fact a part of the Louisiana pur
chase on account of LaSalle's explorations, was relin
quished in 1819, to be reclaimed by American frontiersmen
in 1821-1836 and re-annexed to the American Union in
1836-1846; The period between the Louisiana Purchase in 1803,
and the De Onis treaty in 1819, was a boisterous one, full
of uncertainty for the future of Texas. If the United
States had at once openly claimed Texas as part of the
Louisiana Purchase, though it may have brought on a
conflict with Spain, it is reasonably certain that the
claim could have been made good, both from a stand
point of rightful title under the French purchase and of
military strength to maintain that title. But the Wash
ington Government neither openly claimed Texas nor
disavowed title to it, and for the sixteen years that
followed the purchase until the De Onis treaty of 1819,
20

Texas Traded for Florida
Spain was in constant apprehension that the States
would claim and take Texas, and there was an ever
growing sentiment, especially in the Southern States,
for such an achievement.
Spain had bitterly resented the cession of Louisiana to
the United States, and, suspicious of the intentions of the
American Government, Spanish soldiers were sent into
Texas immediately following the Louisiana Purchase, and
stationed themselves at . Nacogdoches and other places
near the border. For a time a conflict of arms seemed
imminent between Wilkinson, the American General, and
Herrera, the Spanish Commander, who was stationed at
Nacogdoches with several hundred men. These worthies,
however, patched up a truce, and assumed authority to
agree that the territory between the Sabine and the
Arroyo Hondo should be a neutral ground, over which
neither country would exercise any authority until there
was some definite boundary settlement.
The vast area of unsettled country between the Sabine
and the Rio Grande and the unprotected Spanish frontiers
led many people in the United States to connive at en
terprises to occupy this country. Even before the Ameri
can purchase of Louisiana, an Irish-American by the
name of Philip Nolan came into Texas in 1801, with a
small company of men, and established a camp on the
Brazos above where Waco now stands, and busied him
self in capturing wild horses, though this was not sup
posed to be the real purpose of his expedition. Hearing
of his presence in the country, Spanish soldiers were sent
out from San Antonio and Nacogdoches, and Nolan's
force was surprised, he and several of his men were
killed, and the remnant were carried away and incarcer
ated in Mexican prisons. 21

Texas Traded for Florida
•
The vision of empire that Texas afforded to that
generation of American adventurers caught the fancy
of many men, among them no less a person than the cele
brated Aaron Burr, once Vice-President of the United
States. At the close of his term of office in 1804, Burr
attempted to organize an expedition into Texas, with
the hope of bringing on a war with Spain and invading
Mexico and establishing a Government on the ruins of
Spanish authority in New Spain. It is well known now
that General Joseph Wilkinson shared Burr's visionary
scheme, and encouraged it, although he afterwards re
pented his connection with it, and reported Burr to the
Washington Government and assisted in his prosecution
which followed the failure of Burr's ill-starred enter
prise. In 1810 forces in Mexico began the long struggle for
independence from Spain, and the war raged with vary
ing fortunes for more than ten years. Many fugitive
patriots from Mexico, fleeing from Spanish persecution,
found their way into the United States and undertook
to enlist aid for the revolutionary cause among the ad
venturous gentry they found in Louisiana and along the
border, all willing to take a chance at a military enter
prise. In 1811 the first of these expeditions was fitted out at
Nachitoches, where a young lieutenant in the American
army by the name of Augustus McGee was induced ro
resign his commission and lead the newly recruited army
into Texas, openly espousing the cause of the Mexican
patriots and with the ostensible purpose of aiding the
revolution. This so-called Republican Army was largely
recruited from outlaws and vagabonds who infested the
neutral ground which Wilkinson and Herrera had set
22

Texas Traded for Florida
up some years before. There was with it a goodly
sprinkling of pirates who came from LaFitte 's maritime
enterprise that was then flourishing on the north coast
of the Mexican Sea. Many persons, of various nationali
ties and of yet more varied fortunes, foregathered with
this motley band, and McGee led it as far as San Anto
nio, where, after some successes, it was terribly defeated
in a battle with Spanish soldiers fought on the Medina
River below San Antonio in 1812.
The Spanish army which effected the destruction of the
invading forces was commanded by Arredondo, who had
been sent by the viceroy to repel the invasion. A young
sub-lieutenant with a Vera Cruz regiment, by the name
of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, was in Arredondo 's
command, and was cited by his General for bravery in
the battle of Medina. It has always been said that the
erroneous impression which Lieutenant Santa Anna got in
the battle of Medina of the relative fighting qualities of
his countrymen and men from the United States of the
North led him into a great disaster on the San Jacinto
twenty odd years later.
Although Nolan was killed for coming into Texas and
searching for wild horses, and Aaron Burr was ap
prehended and disgraced for coveting an empire in the
Southwest, and McGee 's expedition was terribly punished
by Spanish soldiers, this did not deter other alventurous
persons from following in their footsteps. In 1816 other
real and feigned friends of the Mexican revolution un
dertook to operate against Spanish authority from a base
established on Galveston Island, and from this advanta
geous situation privateers did large damage to Spanish
shipping and made the Island the headquarters for an in
dustrious period of piracy. In 1816 Jean LaFitte, lately
23 .

Texas Traded for Florida
a leading citizen of New Orleans and for many years
an avowed buccaneer, finding himself on unfriendly re
lations with President Madison, moved the base of his
operations from the Louisiana coast and established him
self at Galveston, where for the next four years he op
erated with great vigor against Spanish commerce.
The news of the De Onis treaty, by which Texas was
traded for Florida, was received along the Louisiana
border with great chagrin, for it was the fond hope and
(he open boast of many an ambitious adventurer to oc
cupy Texas and claim it as a part of Louisiana. Among
those covetous of such a result was a young physician of
Nachitoches by the name of James Long, who married a
niece of General Wilkinson. This brave and brilliant
young American had visions of empire as gaudy as those
of Aaron Burr, and in 1819 he undertook to organize an
expedition into Texas and established a settlement at
Bolivar's Point at the end of the peninsula across the
channel from Galveston Island. He spent his personal
fortune in the expedition, and in 1820 came again to
Bolivar, this time accompanied by his young wife. The
day they reached Bolivar's Point they could see a con
siderable activity across the channel at the pirate settle
ment of Jean LaFitte, and Mrs. Long went over to pay
a visit to the commodore. She found everything in hurry
and bustle, for LaFitte 's men were abandoning Galveston
and setting sail for the Southern Seas. The pirate chief,
however, could not miss the opportunity to be courteous
to a visiting lady, so he held his squadron for a few
hours while he entertained her at dinner, after which she
rowed back to Bolivar, and the pirate fleet quit these
shores forever.

24

Texas Traded for Florida
General Long went into Mexico the next year, and was
there when the revolutionists succeeded in overthrow
ing the Spanish authority. He expected to be well re
ceived by his compatriots, for his expedition had avowed
the patriot cause, but he was assassinated in the City of
Mexico by some of his own "friends" the following
year.

25

THE COLONIES
First Colonial Grant to Moses Austin.
When John Quincy Adams and the Spanish Minister,
De Onis, concluded the Texas-Florida trade m 1819,
Spain for the first time felt that its title to Texas was
clear. During nearly three hundred years it had claimed the
vast area north of the Rio Grande as part of Mexico,
it had been unable to people it with Spanish subjects.
Mexico, which for three centuries had been governed by
Spanish viceroys, was a vast country, greater in area
than any nation of the world save Russia and possibly
China. It was divided into twelve intendencies, the sixth
of which was San Luis Potosi, which was itself divided
into four provinces and four districts, one of which
provinces was Texas. Texas remained practically unin
habited except by roving bands of Indians. In 1821
there were squalid Spanish or Mexican settlements at.
San Antonio, Nacogdoches, La Bahia and a few other
places, remnants of the old Spanish missions which had
failed. The seat of Government for this province was
San Antonio, which had been founded nearly a century
before. In 1819, when news of the De Onis treaty was pub
lished, Moses Austin was living in Washington County,
M;s«ouri. He was a native of Connecticut, and had
moved into Missouri while it was yet a part of Louisiana
during the time it was under Spanish sovereignty, and
he had become a Spanish subject. He conceived the
great idea of leading an American colony into Texas, and
it seemed to him that, since Spain's title to Texas was
27

First Colonial Grant to Moses Austin
now recognized by the United States, its objection to col
onization of the country would be withdrawn. The Span
ish Cortes passed a decree in 1820 authorizing the Span
ish authorities in Mexico to grant colonization privileges,
but this fact never seems to have been related to Austin,
nor was it known in the States, or even generally known
in Mexico. He planned to go to San Antonio and
make his application in person. Like most men who
nourish a great enterprise he had faith in its success and
faith in himself. He began to plan for taking his colony
into Texas before he applied himself to the Spanish au
thorities for permission. He sent his son, Stephen, with
equipment and men enough to open a large plantation
on Red River, just across from Texas in Arkansas at a
place called Long's Prairie. His thought was to es
tablish a kind of gateway there, through which emigrants
Would pass, • and to furnish supplies and facilities for
forwarding people who would apply for entrance into
Texas. In December, 1820, he made the trip on horse
back from Missouri to San Antonio, and presented him
self to the Spanish Governor at that place, seeking per
mission to found a colony in Texas.
He was ordered to forthwith leave the country, and,
when about to obey this mandatory instruction, he met
upon the military plaza the Baron de Bastrop, a Prussian
soldier of fortune, who had spent many years in the
Spanish provinces, and was then in the service of the
Spanish Government. Bastrop and Austin had met in a
restaurant in New Orleans some years before, and re
newed their chance acquaintance upon the plaza just
as Austin was about to resume his long, doleful journey
back to the States.

28

The Last of the Viceroys
Bastrop interceded with the Spanish Governor, and
that dignitary, being convinced that Austin was riot a
foreigner, received his petition for permission to settle
three hundred families in Texas, and forwarded it, with
a letter recommending its acceptance, to the Superior
Government at Monterey. 
¦ Thinking that his petition might be long delayed, yet
believing it would be granted, Austin ' started back to the
States about January 1, 1821, following the Old Spanish
Trail from Sail Antonio to Nachitoches, Louisiana, where
he met his son* Stephen. These long journeys, with the
hardships incident thereto, so imperiled the elder Aus
tin 's health that he reached home .in Missouri an invalid,
and died early the' following June.
His petition sent from San Antonio, with the recom
mendation of its acceptance made by Governor Martinez,
was received at Monterey, and on the 17th day of Janu
ary, 1821, the Spanish Commandant, representing the
Supreme Government of the Eastern Internal Provinces
of New Spain, granted the request, and sent Don Erasmus
Seguin to San Antonio to notify Austin that his petition
had been granted, and to officially conduct him and his
three hundred families into Texas.
Moses Austin received information that his petition
had been granted while on his deathbed at his home in
Missouri, and be bequeathed to his son, Stephen F. Aus
tin, the legacy of fulfilling the commission.
The Last of the Viceroys. ¦ ¦
The act of the Spanish Commandant at Monterey in ac
cepting Moses Austin's petition and according him the
privilege of colonizing three hundred American families
29

The Last of the Viceroys
in Texas, was the first and last of its kind ever made by
the Spanish authorities of Mexico or New Spain. It was
among the last acts of Spanish sovereignty in Mexico.
The war for Mexican independence had been raging for
more than ten years.
Augustin de Iturbede was a Spanish officer of great
ability and led the royalist forces. He had been called the
Prince Rupert of the Spanish Army. On Febuary 24th,
1821, he suddenly changed allegiance and announced him
self in favor of the patriot cause. On that date he pub
lished the celebrated plan of Iguala, which is regarded as
the official beginning of Mexican independence. From
that time on it was obvious that the Spanish authority in
North America was practically at an end. In August, 1821,
Don Juan O'Donoju, the 62nd and last of the Spanish
viceroys (and he was an Irishman), arrived at Vera Cruz
to assume the Government of Mexico. He at once saw the
futility of further effort to maintain Spanish sovereignty,
and set about to arrange a peace in which there would
be some advantage to Spain, and sought a compact by
which some member of the Spanish Royal family would be
come ruler of Mexico.
On August 23rd, 1821, Santa Anna arranged a meeting
between the new viceroy and Iturbede, and on September
23rd, mounted on a black charger, Iturbede entered the City
of Mexico amidst a scene of wild enthusiasm. He was ten
dered golden keys upon a silver platter by the first Alcalde
of the city, and Mexico in point of fact became on that date
an independent nation and began that long, pitiful career of
anarchy which with slight intermission has prevailed for
a hundred years. On the 7th of October, 1821, O'Donoju
(O'Donohoo), scholar, gentleman and diplomat, broken in
health and spirit by the loss of New Spain to his country
30

Stephen Fuller Austin
died in the City of Mexico and was interred in the Chapel
of Los Reyes. Bancroft observes that with the celebration
of his funeral rites the last shadow of viceregal presence
and power passed forever.
While these events were going forward in Mexico, Stephen
F. Austin, the first of the Empresarios, was pushing the
enterprise begun by his father, and he did not learn of the
change of sovereignty that was . taking place until he
reached the Guadalupe on his way to San Antonio in
August,. 1821. Upon hearing that his father's petition
had been granted, he left New Orleans in June, 1821, and
went up to Nachitoches to meet Seguin, who came there
as the special envoy of the Spanish Government to con
vey official notice of the grant of January 17th to Moses
Austin. Stephen Fuller Austin, the First and Greatest
Empresario. Stephen F. Austin can easily be recognized as one of the
great colonial leaders of the English speaking people.
When we reflect that it was less than fifteen years from
the advent of his first colony in December, 1821, until the
Battle of San Jacinto and the Republic, one must look in
vain for so great an achievement in so short a time else
where on this continent.
The Spanish Commandant at Monterey had dispatched
Don Erasmus Seguin to the States to inform Austin that
his petition had been granted, and Don Erasmus, with a
small party of Spaniards from San Antonio, had proceeded
along the Old Spanish Trail to Nachitoches, Louisiana,
where they waited to meet Moses Austin. Austin's failing
health had warned him of his approaching death, and he
31

Stephen Fuller Austin.
arranged for his son, Stephen, to come from New Orleans
and meet Seguin and take charge of the enterprise. Ste
phen left New Orleans on June 18th, 1821, and proceeded
to Nachitoches, where he met Seguin and received formal
confirmation of the Spanish grant to his father.
On July 2nd, 1821. Austin and his small party, along
with Seguin 's party, left Nachitoches for San Antonio by
way of Nacogdoches. Austin was accompanied by a few
daring spirits who, hearing of his proposed plans, had
joined him on his first journey to Texas. Among those
who rode with him were Doctor James Hewiston, well known
in the early colonial days. A few years later Doctor Hewis
ton joined with James Powers in founding the Powers and
Hewiston Colony of Irish immigrants in southwest Texas.
The last glimpse we get of Doctor Hewiston was in 1842,
when he was practicing medicine at Saltillo and adminis
tered mercies to the unhappy men of Mier.
William Little, from St. Louis, accompanied Austin. He
afterwards located his headright league in Fort Bend Coun
ty, where he lived for many years, and his plantation be
came a steamboat landing in the later days of Brazos navi
gation. On July 10th, as the party proceeded towards the
Texas frontier, a message overtook them bringing lo Austin
the melancholy news of the death of his father, which had.
occurred in Missouri on June 10th. The party pressed for
ward and on Monday, July 16th, 1821, entered the province
of Texas and rode on to Nacogdoches, which they reached
on July 20th. In Austin's report of their visit to Nacog
doches he says: "This. place was in ruins.. There yet re
mained one church, seven residenc.es, and a total population
of thirty-six inhabitants." .The whole pf this thirty-six
were assembled and received instructions from Don Eras
mus representing his Catholic Majesty, the King, of Spain.
32

Autographed by Austin ten days before his death

San Antonio One Hundred Years Ago
He advised the people of Nacogdoches that it was the King's
pleasure that the whole community move further east to
ward the Louisiana line, and they one and all acquiesced
in this modest request, and agreed to migrate eastward upon
short notice. Don Erasmus advised that he would return
from San Antonio in the early autumn and complete the
details for this exodus. These matters of state having been
properly dispatched, the whole party proceeded on towards
San Antonio, which was the next habitation.
San Antonio — One Hundred Years Ago.
From Nacogdoches to San Antonio is not so far in these
Pullman days, but it was quite a journey one hundred years
ago. Austin and Seguin, along with their little party, left
Nacogdoches on July 21st, following the old San Antonio
road. They supplied themselves with meat by killing deer
and buffalo as they went along.
On Sunday, August 12th, they reached the Guadaloupe,
where they went into camp, and a messenger from San An
tonio met them there bringing news of the independence of
Mexico. There were fifteen or twenty, Spaniards in the
party, and they received this information with manifesta
tions of great joy.
The party arrived at San Antonio three weeks, after leav
ing Nacogdoches and considered that the journey had
been made in a very reasonable time.
Old San Antonio, the most interesting city in Texas,
is rich with rare traditions dear to the student of history.
It had its beginnings more than one hundred years before
the advent of the Austins, and had been the most important
place in Texas during the last century. The chain of mis-
33

San Antonio One - Hundred Years Ago
sions, now in ruins, which one yet sees along the river, are
evidence of futile efforts of Spain to evangelize and colonize
north of the Rio Grande. Authorities vary as to the popu
lation of San Antonio at this time, but from the best in
formation obtainable the population varied about as much
as the reports that we now get. It was a floating and more
or less transient populace and varied from 3,000 to
5,000. A few years before, Colonel Zebulon M. Pike, of
the United States Army, had come through Texas charged
with a mission from President Jefferson, and he gives a
very interesting account of his short visit in San Antonio,
where he reports having met some very refined and cul
tured Spanish people. For the most part the inhabitants
dwelt in miserable houses with mud walls and grass thatched
roofs. During the more than two centuries which had pre
ceded, the Spanish title to Texas had been in much
doubt and the policy of rigid exclusion which had pre
vailed was due to the fear that either French or English ex
plorers would traverse the country and lay claim to it.
Spain was very much in the position of a man who claims
a tract of land with a doubtful title and who is depending
upon its possession . alone to supply the defects in his
title. When it was evident that the Spanish missions would
fail, the whole colonization scheme seems to have been
abandoned. In 1730, nearly one hundred years before the time about
which we write, the Spanish Government made an effort
to transplant people from its island colonies to Texas and
actually brought fifteen families from the Canary Islands
who were permanently located in San Antonio. This plan
was not carried further because of the great cost of trans
planting these people. . The feeble and futile efforts of
34

Austin in San Antonio
Spain to reclaim and colonize the vast territory are shown
in remarkable contrast when we contemplate that it was
just fourteen years from the time that Stephen Austin
first rode into San Antonio in August, 1821, until he led
the patriot army of 1835 which drove the Mexicans out
of that city. Austin and his American colonists did far
more for Texas in these few years than had been accom
plished by Spain and the Spaniards during more than three
centuries. Austin remained in San Antonio from August
12th to the 21st, in conference with the local authorities.
Martinez, who had been Governor in December when
Moses Austin was in San Antonio, was still Governor in
August when Stephen reached there. While it was gener
ally recognized that Mexico had become independent, yet
the actual transfer of authority did not occur until Iturbede
made his entrance into the City of Mexico in September
following.
Austin in San Antonio.
While in San Antonio from August 12th to 21st,. 1821,
Austin and Governor Martinez reached a general under-r
standing as to such details as seemed required under the
original grant made by the Spanish authorities: at Mon
terey in the preceding January. In the letter of acceptance'
which Martinez had written M°ses Austin in February,
1821, he referred to the fact that some of the immigrants
might come by sea, and called attention to a port which the
Spanish Government had recently opened on the Bay of
San Bernardo (Matagorda) and he advised Austin that
this port be used as a place of entry. While Stephen
Austin was in San Antonio, Governor Martinez gave him
a formal letter under date of August 14, 1821, with

35

Austin in San Antonio
meagre instructions as to the country he might explore,
and asking that when he had explored it and decided
upon his exact location, that he report to the Governor.
In this letter Martinez says :
"You can proceed to the River Colorado and examine
the land on its margins which may be suited for the loca
tion of your Louisiana families, informing me of the place
which you select in order that when they arrive a competent
commissioner may be sent out to distribute the lands, and
inasmuch as they may come by sea, they must be landed
in the Bay of San Bernardo, where a port has been opened
by the Superior Government."
The letter continues, giving Austin authority to take
soundings of the Colorado River to its mouth.
Martinez requested Austin to furnish a plan for the dis
tribution of land to the new settlers. Austin proposed one
which would give the head of each family and each single
man over age 640 acres, 320 acres in addition for the wife,
should there be one, 160 acres in addition for each child,
80 acres in addition for each slave. This plan was presented
in writing, and Austin received authority from the Gover
nor to promise that guaranty to his settlers. This plan,
though afterwards materially changed, is interesting as
the one first advertised by Austin in the United States.
There is much that is interesting and romantic when one
cqntemplates Austin as he left San Antonio August 21, 1821,
and went out into a vast and to him unknown country to
seek and locate his empire. The facilities for travel were
so meager, the guides so ignorant and the trails so indis
tinct, that it was indeed a plunge into a wilderness.
If one will take the map of Texas and study for a mo
ment the large area between San Antonio and the coast

36

Austin Explores the Gulf Littoral
and thence to the north and east toward the Sabine, he will
get a glimpse of the great land which lay before the am
bitious young adventurer as he rode out of Bexar on that
August day one hundred years ago. It is the great Gulf
hinterland traversed by the San Antonio, Guadaloupe, Colo
rado, Brazos and various rivers which flow down to the
sea through one of the fairest countries in all of the world.
Unlike all the latter colonial grants, there were no* fixed
boundaries to the first one and Austin was left with few
restrictions to select his own territory in which to locate
the first three hundred. The nearest definite destination
which Austin seems to have had when he left San Antonio
was the port on the Bay, San Bernardo, at the mouth of
the Colorado.

Austin Explores the Gulf Littoral.
The Spanish Governor, Baron de Bastrop, Don Erasmus
Seguin and other local dignitaries bade Austin a formal
good-bye with many protestations of Castillian friendship
as he left San Antonio on the morning of August 21, 1821,
following the road to Goliad.
In those days there still remained a fragment of the La
Bahia mission settlement which had been undertaken in the
last century. An indistinct Spanish trail reached from
the Gulf through La Bahia on toward Nachitoches, Louisi
ana. It had been used by traders and smugglers for more
than one hundred years. At La Bahia Austin divided his
company, sending all surplus horses and mules on to Nachi
toches, after which he explored the coast country. He
reached the head waters of Matagorda Bay on September 6,
1821, and continued skirting the coast toward the Colorado.
On September 10, he passed the site of La Salle's settlement,

37

Austin Explores the Gulf Littoral
where 135 years before the French had made a sad effort to
locate a Colony. There is indeed an interesting picture,
when one contemplates the young American standing at the
ruins of the old fort which told of the failure of the bold
and brilliant La Salle. It was a wild, desolate spot one
hundred years ago, and the nearest human habitation was
the sqyalid little settlement at Goliad which he had passed
a week before. The Frenchman's dreams were to discover
and claim the vast realm west of the Mississippi for his
King. He gave his young life in this hopeless quest and
sleeps in an unknown grave somewhere in South Texas.
Austin, though less romantic- than the French cavalier,
had hopes as high and ambitions as vast as those which
lured La Salle, and had the far better fortune to live long
enough to see his dreams realized.
After passing the grave of the French enterprise, Austin
rode on to the Colorado to seek the port of entry which had
been so warmly pressed upon him by the Spanish Governor.
He reached the Colorado on September 15, 1821, and ex
plored it down to the Bay, and having also explored the
lower Brazos he felt that he had found his land of promise
and hurried back to Nachitoches in order to complete ar
rangements for leading his Colony into the wilderness. Few
men in our history have a higher claim to greatness than
Stephen F. Austin both from the standpoint of character
and merit as .well as. material achievement.
A latter day writer who has summed up his career and
understood his hardships, has said of him, >"He carried out
his father's enterprise with a patience that amounted to
genius and fortitude which was the equivalent of the favor
of Heaven."

38

Austin's Return to the States
Austin's Return to the States..
Austin reached Nachitoches on his return from his first
trip to Texas, October 3, 1821, three months to a day from
the time that he and Seguin with their company had left
that place for Bexar. He felt that everything was per
manently arranged for his advent into Texas with his three
hundred. There had been considerable notoriety given
to his proposed Colony during the summer of 1821,
while he was yet in Texas. Louisiana and Mississippi pa
pers widely published the reports which he gave out upon
his return to Louisiana in October, and the spirit of adven
ture which was rife in those days turned wide atten
tion to the new country, which during the farthest recol
lection of men then living had been closed to all the world
save the Spaniard and the wild Indian. Fairy stories of
the great land west of the Sabine had been told throughout
the States for many years. It was known that its prairies
teemed with millions of wild horses. It was known that
cattle and buffalo abounded there, and little was needed
to arouse universal interest in a land so vast that no man
knew its boundaries.
As early as June in 1821 there were families in Ar
kansas and Missouri waiting the word from Austin to
move into Texas, and in that month) while Stephen Aus
tin was yet on his way to Bexar, several families left
Pecan Point, Arkansas, for somewhere in Texas, and
reached the Brazos in what is now Washington County,
in December, 1921. Upon Stephen Austin's return to
Louisiana in October, 1821, he addressed himself with
his usual industry to organize expeditions to move into
Texas by land and by sea. While the first contingent of
Arkansas and Missouri immigrants were coming across
the country through a trackless wild, the schooner
39

The New Years Creek Colony
"Lively" with people and supplies was sent out from
New Orleans in November, 1821, bound for the Texas
Coast.

The New Years Creek Colony.
There is a mystery about the "Lively" which oue
hundred years has not entirely cleared up, but there is
no uncertainty as to the identity of the little advance
guard which reached the La Bahia crossing on the Brazos
late in December, 1821, and camped on what they called
New Years Creek, in what is now Washington County,
January 1, 1822.
Austin had left New Orleans after arranging for the
voyage of the "Lively," and hurried up to Nachitoches,
from whence he had joined these overland immigrants and
was with them when they lighted their New Year's camp
fires in the wilderness which was to be their homes and
the homes of their children for the centuries to come.
When Austin and his wagon train halted here at the
La Bahia crossing, they found two American families who
had preceded them just a few days. These first arrivals
were Garrett and Higgins, but more than this we have
no detail as to who they were or whence they came. Many
years later, Guy M. Bryan (1852) gave the name of Andy
Robinson, then living in Brazoria County, as the first
settler in Austin's Colony in Washington County. The
names of the first three hundred who constituted Austin's
Colony are well known and are preserved both in Austin's
records and in the records of the land office. If there are
descendants of this New Years Colony yet living who can
from family tradition give any detail as to the first year
of this Colony, they would supply information much needed
40

The Schooner "Lively"
in Texas history. Such descendants, wherever they are,
are entitled to all of the glory that comes from a splendid
heritage — as much entitled to that distinction as the de
scendants of those who came on the Mayflower.
The people of Texas should ever feel a deep interest and
perpetual pride in the memory of those simple pioneer
folk who laid the cornerstone of the commonwealth on
New Years Creek one hundred years ago. Within a few
weeks James B. Austin, Stephen's brother, and Josiah H.
Bell of South Carolina joined this settlement. In after years
Bell and his honored family became well known in Texas.
He located his headright grant of two leagues of land on
the west bank of the Brazos River, in Brazoria County, and
the great Columbia oil field is largely on his grant. Bell's
landing was an important place in the navigation of the
Brazos River for many years. Judge James H. Bell, son
of Josiah, was born in the Colony and was a member of the
Supreme Court of Texas at the outbreak of the war be
tween the States.
As soon as the first details were arranged and the New
Years Creek colonists had begun hewing their houses, the
tireless Austin hurried down the river to meet those who
had come by sea on the ' ' Lively. ' '
The Schooner "Lively."
The first expedition of Austin's colonists by sea left
New Orleans on the ill-fated schooner "Lively."
Joseph Hawkins, who had been a college mate with Aus
tin and who was a prosperous Southern lawyer, enthused
over Austin's Texas plans, financed this expedition. Aus
tin and Hawkins stood on the dock at New Orleans and
saw the little boat, freighted with its immigrant passengers
41

The Schooner "Lively"
and a miscellaneous cargo, sail for Texas on the morning
of November 22, 1821. The next day Austin left New
Orleans by boat for Nachitoches to join the overland party
with which he came on to the Brazos.
The ' ' Lively ' ' carried seed for planting, various imple
ments of husbandry and eighteen immigrants, several of
whom had been with Austin on his journey into Texas in
the preceding summer. The boat had instructions to go
to the mouth of the Colorado and into the port of
entry which had been so highly recommended by Gover
nor Martinez in his official correspondence with the Aus
tins. After many days floundering about in the Gulf,
the vessel unloaded its cargo and most of its passengers at
the mouth of the Brazos in December, 1821, some days be
fore the New Years Creek Colony pitched camp 150 miles
up the river. As the " Lively ' ' came through Galveston Bay,
it encountered a pirate ship which ran away, and saw the
ruins of a schooner which had been' scuttled and beached
on the Island. Piracy on the high seas flourished in those
days and had been a rather romantic pastime for gentlemen
of adventure since the Spanish ships had first begun bring
ing home Mexican gold three hundred years before. This
manly art, however, was in its last stages, and the exodus
of LaFitte from Galveston Island under pressure from the
United States Government only a few years before marked
the beginning of the end of robbery on these seas.
When the Captain in charge of the "Lively" unloaded at
the Brazos, he went further west to find the Spanish port
in the Bay of San Bernardo and to await the coming of
Austin, who was to meet the vessel there. The available
data leaves much doubt as to the course and career of the
"Lively" after it left the little company of immigrants at
the mouth of the Brazos and spread sail for the west. Some
42

The Schooner "Lively"
say it found entrance to the Colorado River and reported a
fine harbor. Others that it never found the river. Others
say that it returned to New Orleans and brought out a
second cargo early the next year and was wrecked on the
end of Galveston Island. (This is the most likely version..)
There are others who say that the Captain sailed away with
the. boat to some Mexican port and sold, it and spent his
thirty pieces of silver in riotous living. And there was
even a rumor among the pioneer folks that it turned
pirate and roved up and down the Spanish Main.
The immigrants left at the mouth of the Brazos River
made their way up the stream on foot and in a small row
boat, and after weary weeks reached a place where the
prairie to the west came down to the river's edge, and lo
cated themselves and began a first settlement upon the
spot which is now the town of Richmond on the Brazos.
¦Richmond may well lay claim to the honor of being the
first settlement in Austin 's Colony, and the first Anglo-
American town in Texas. Before they left the mouth of
the river, they were joined by one William Morton and
members of his family, who had come in a small boat from
Mobile. His boat had been wrecked, and he and those with
him were thrown ashore to begin life with the "Lively"
immigrants. In going up the river the immigrants were on
constant lookout for Austin's overland colonists, whom they
expected to come down the river. William Morton re
mained at the site of this first settlement, and at a later
date located his headright grant of two leagues on the east
side of the Brazos River across from Richmond. The
Southern Pacific bridge across the river spans the stream
at a point where Morton's leagues touch its margin. In
the meantime Austin left his New Years Colony and went
across to the Colorado and down the river to meet the

43

Austin Goes to Mexico
"Lively" at the "Spanish port in the Bay of San Ber
nardo." He remained in this vicinity for nearly three
months waiting and watching for the ship that never came.
It was a long, tedious wait in an inclement winter, but
this tenacious, patient man never wearied in his watch
as long as there was any hope that the vessel would come.
The cargo that it carried seemed indispensable to his first
Colony and its loss seemed irreparable. After these weary
weeks of waiting, he mourned the loss of his entire merchant
marine and hastened on to San Antonio to report progress
to Governor Martinez. He went up the Colorado River to
where the Bahia road crossed the stream and there met a
party including his brother, J. E. B. Austin, and Josiah
Bell and others, and they proceeded on to San Antonio.
He had been almost continuously in the saddle for more
than a year and the trials and hardships that he had en
dured, including the loss of the "Lively," were indeed
severe, but all these things were meager when compared with
the trials and tribulations that awaited him in the immedi
ate years to come.
Austin Goes to Mexico.
Austin reached San Antonio the second time on the 22nd
of March, 1822, and reported immediately to Governor Mar
tinez. It had dawned upon the Governor in the interim
since Austin went away in the preceding August, that the
change of sovereignty in Mexico might affect his authority,
and it had also been suggested to him that he had gone too
far in agreeing with Austin upon the quantity of land Aus
tin could promise his settlers. In any event this wortW
Spanish gentleman was reticent and more or less disturbed
when Austin called to see him, and advised Austin that he

44

Austin Goes to Mexico
go to the City of Mexico forthwith and take up the further
details with the new Mexican Government. Iturbede had
been acknowledged as the executive head of the Govern
ment since he entered the City of Mexico in the preceding
September, and had called a Congress which was about to
meet, and it was to this new authority that Austin was di
rected to apply himself. He did not speak the Spanish
language. He had not come prepared for such a journey,
his presence seemed indispensable to his colonists, but with
his characteristic promptness, . he left immediately for the
City of Mexico, leaving Josiah H. Bell in charge during his
absence. A journey from San Antonio to the City of Mexico in
those days was one of hardship and peril. It was a dis
tance of 1200 miles through a wild country infested with
Indians and brigands of all kinds. He rode out of San
Antonio accompanied by Doctor Andrews, who went with
him a portion of the way. On the second day out they were
surrounded by Comanche Indians, but Austin knew enough
of the Indian language to make his peace with them. They
got away, however, with some of his chattel effects, among
them a Spanish grammar that he carried on his saddle so
that he could study the Spanish language as he went along.
Just what the Comanches wanted with this Spanish gram
mar is not clear, but at any rate it was found in the pos
session of a roving band of Indians north of the Red River
several months later. Austin 's name and address were writ
ten in it, and the rumor got back to his home in Missouri
and to his relatives there that he had been murdered by the
Comanches. After crossing the Rio Grande, he was advised it was
not safe to proceed without an armed guard, but he and
his companion, Christie, left Monterey on foot disguised as
45

Austin Goes to Mexico
beggars. They improvised a story that they were poor pa
triots who had served in the revolution that had lately suc
ceeded, and that they were making a pilgrimage to the
Capital to ask the new Government to remunerate them
for their services. On the 29th day of April, 1822, after
thirty-six days spent on the way, Austin first saw the
City of Mexico. He found the city in a turbulent, noisy
mood, for Iturbede was concluding his arrangements to
assume the title of Emperor.
The plan of Iguala under which Iturbede had operated
since the preceding February, tendered the Mexican throne
to Ferdinand VII, then the Bourbon King of Spain, con
ditioned, however, that he would remove to Mexico and
bind himself^to support a constitution to be promulgated
by the Mexican people. Ferdinand declined the honor un
der the onerous conditions named, and it occurred to Itur
bede that it would not be well to let the proffered crown go
by default, so he contrived with much shrewdness to have
himself proclaimed Emperor. Austin was present in the
city and saw this done on the 18th day of May, 1822, when
Iturbede annexed the euphonious title of Constitutional
Emperor of the Mexican Nation and Grand Master of the
Imperial Order of Guadaloupe.
The first Mexican Congress had assembled at the call of
Iturbede in the previous February, and was in session when
these things occurred, and though the Congress was sum
moned by him and supposed to be composed largely of his
creatures, it did not approve of his imperial designs, and
immediately after he assumed or usurped this high author
ity, there began a many cornered fight between the Em
peror and the Congress and various other factions which has
proceeded with remarkable regularity even unto this day.
46

The Emperor Iturbede"
In the midst of these scenes of national chaos, Austin,
a perfect stranger in a wild, weary land, without money and
without friends, and bereft of his Spanish grammar, en
tered the City of Mexico seeking the proper authority to
confirm his grant.
And back on the Brazos, fifteen hundred miles away, the'
advance guard of the old three hundred, as his first' colonists
were called, fought hardships unspeakable as they awaited
his return.
The season was unfavorable and the venison lean that
year in the Colony, and Austin 's persistent patience at the
Mexican Capital was no greater than that of his people
whom he had left behind.

The Emperor Iturbede. ..,; L .
When Austin first reached Mexico in the last' days of
April, 1822, the first Mexican Congress was in session, and
the supreme authority was supposed to be vested in a Junta
or committee with Iturbede at its head. Within a very
few days after his arrival, he saw the Junta, or the regency,
as it has sometimes been called, converted into the Empire.
Iturbede, who had himself declared Emperor in May, 1822,
assumed the title of Augustin I, and many other high
sounding titles. The Empire over which he ' figuratively
ruled was the third in territorial extent of all the nations of
the earth. It reached from Yucatan in the tropics to the
far north along the Pacific, probably to Oregon, and its
eastern and northern borders between '¦ it and the United
States included with Texas nearly seven of our present
western States.
The first Congress continued in session for some months
after the Empire wag proclaimed, and at the urgent instance
47

The Emperor Iturbede
of Austin and other persons from the United States who
were there seeking similar concessions, a colonization com
mittee was appointed for the purpose of framing a suitable
colonization law. At that time no active opposition to per
mitting colonization in Texas seemed to have, manifested
itself, although it is now known that many prominent
Mexican leaders doubted the wisdom of this plan from the
beginning, and in a very few years they succeeded in bring
ing about legislation which was designed to stop further
immigration from the north. The publication in the papers
of the United States of Austin 's first concession in the sum
mer of 1821, caused a number of more or less prominent and
adventurous Americans to flock to the City of Mexico for
the purpose of getting similar concessions, and the presence
and activity of these persons materially embarrassed Austin
in his plans. Austin immediately filed a memorial with
the colonization committee giving the history of his and his
father's activities, and pointing out that he had gone so far
as to bring his first colonists into Texas, and urging im
mediate ratification of the grant made to his father on
January 17, 1821. This concession would probably have
been promptly ratified but for the presence of these other
persons seeking similar concessions, and on this account it
was thought best that the Congress pass a colonization law
governing all such grants, and in the usual tedious, tardy
way that such things have from time immemorial been han
dled in all countries, the matter dragged itself along through
the entire summer. There were many committee meetings
and proposed drafts and redrafts of a colonization scheme.
Austin was present at many of these meetings, and had
made such progress in learning the Spanish language dur
ing the first few months, despite the loss of his Spanish
grammar en route, that he was enabled to materially assist
48

The Emperor Iturbede
the committee in drafting the first colonization law. In
fact there is a pretty fiction that during this time he made
a tentative draft of a constitution for the Republic of
Mexico which was used as a model in the formation of the
Mexican constitution of 1824. This may, or may not, be
a pure fiction, but it is well known that he assisted in
forming the first colonization law, and that he got the
first and only national colonial grant.
The first Mexican Congress, however, was a very un
stable institution. It seemed to sit more or less during good
behavior, and the pleasure of the Emperor, and though
Austin sought to hasten his matters, haste was not an at
tribute of the first Congress and especially of the coloniza
tion committee of that Congress. His first efforts were
directed toward a special act confirming his grant for the
reasons set forth in his memorial. But failing in this, he
succeeded in having matters so advanced that the commit-^
tee all but finished a colonization law in October, 1Q22.
Austin's frankness and persistent patience had won him
not only the respect of the congressional committee but Hi?
warm friendship of some of the more substantial Mexican
leaders, including Herrera and Andres Quintana. The
proposed colonial enactment was completed all but the
last few sections in the latter part of October, 1822, and it
was promised passage through Congress within a few days.
Austin now saw what he deemed the end of his labors in
Mexico, and after six months of weary waiting, expected
to take his way homeward within a week. But the storm
which had been brewing between the Emperor and the first
Congress burst in all its fury in the latter days of October,
and on the last day of the month, an officer from the Em
peror's Army entered the Congressional Chamber and
read a message from his Imperial Highness, Augustin I,
49

The End of the Empire
dissolving the first Congress sine die and giving the members
thereof ten minutes, Mexican time, in which to disperse.
And within this incredulously short time it did disperse.
In parliamentary language, his decree of dismissal or dis
persal had the emergency clause attached. This incident
is without parallel in Mexican history. The only thing the
Mexican people have ever since been known to do in ten
minutes was to start a revolution. With the going of the
Congress went the colonial committee, and went also the
first draft of the proposed national colonization law, fin
ished all but the last three articles.
Poor Austin was left to begin all over again and doomed
to other long weary months of work and waiting. And
back on the Brazos there was a deep malarial gloom.
The End of the Empire.
The reign of Iturbede was short, but while it lasted he
was an Emperor of the old school. He dissolved the first
Congress on the last day of October, 1822, attaching the
emergency clause to his decree of dissolution giving the
members ten minutes to vacate and with positive instruc
tions to remain vacated.
The American colony in the city which had been lobby
ing for the passage of a colonization law, with the hope of
getting colonization contracts, were much discouraged, and
some of them left the city and abandoned the enterprise.
When the Emperor had dissolved the Congress, he deter
mined that Mexico should be ruled by himself with the as
sistance of a Junta, the members of which he would ap
point, and he proceeded to name this committee or Junta,
called in Mexican literature, the Junta Instituyente, and
this high sounding institution, composed of the Emperor's
50

The End of the Empire
select men, proceeded to administer the affairs of Mexico
for a few brief weeks.
Austin made haste to address himself to the Junta Institu
yente, to whom he presented his memorial and urged his
suit. He went over again the long story that he had told
the congressional committee. The Emperor's Junta In
stituyente was less unwieldy than the Congress, and through
the influence of Herrera and Quintana and others whose
friendship Austin had made, his petition had a favorable
hearing, and the matter proceeded with unusual dispatch
for Mexican affairs. The draft which had been all but com
pleted at the time of the dissolution of the ten minute Con
gress, was resuscitated and the last three articles added,
and on January 14, 1823, almost two years from the date
his father had received the first grant (January 17, 1821),
Austin received a favorable report from the committee
recommending the historic colonization law of 1823. But
the committee could not pass the law, only the Emperor
could give it final sanction, and it went to his Majesty with
a favorable recommendation.
On February 18, 1823, Augustin, by divine providence
Emperor of Mexico, etc., etc., formulated his decree per
mitting the law to become effective insofar as a grant to
Austin was concerned but no further. In view of the special
merit and the equitable reasons that surrounded Austin's
case, his grant or concession was ratified, but the Emperor's
decree did not put the law into general effect or permit
other colonial grants.
Now at last it seemed that Austin's hopes were realized,
and again he was ready to start to the north, but before
he could get out of the city, the fall of Iturbede 's Govern
ment was manifest. 51

Austin's Grant Confirmed
Santa Anna, Bravo and others had begun a revolution
against the Empire which was thundering away in many
parts of Mexico. On the 19th of February, the very next.
day after Austin got his decree, Herrera, his friend and
counselor, and who stood high in the Emperor's Government,
fled -from the city in the night and joined the revolution.
Before Austin could get away, the storm broke in all its
fury and on the 21st of February, 1823, Augustin, Emperor
of Mexico and Grand Master of the Imperial Order of
Guadaloupe, who had a few short months before entered
the city in a blaze of glory, mounted upon a black charger,
and had received from the first Alcalde a golden key upon
a silver platter, marched out the Puebla Road never to re
turn.

Austin's Grant Confirmed.
The fall of the Empire left Austin in much uncertainty
as to the status of the colonization law and of his grant.
The Junta Instituyente had passed it on the 14th of Jan
uary and the Emperor had approved it in so far as Austin 's
concession was concerned on February 18, but no man knew
what the status of any of the legislative or executive acts
of the late Government would be upon the incoming of the
new regime. There was nothing that Austin could do but
watch and wait. Still more of the members of the American
colony who were there urging their claims for grants be
came discouraged and went away.
In March, the National Congress met, the same which on
the last day of the previous October had been dissolved by
the Emperor under the ten minute order. One of the first
acts of the new session was to nullify everything that had
been done during the enforced recess of the Congress. A
52

Austin's Grant Confirmed
triumvirate was named and vested with supreme power.
Austin lost no time in presenting himself again to the new
Congress. He had now become almost a perpetual petition
er. Governments had risen and fallen so rapidly during
his stay in the city that one could scarcely keep account of
the swift changes, but he found some of his old friends in
the new session, with whom he had labored on the colonial
committee at the previous session. In course of time the
law which had been passed by the Emperor's Junta In
stituyente was resurrected and the new congressional com
mittee determined to approve it far enough to authorize
Austin 's concession, and then suspend it as to all other ap
plicants until further notice. Both Congress and the new
executive triumvirate approved the concession to Austin
that had been made by the late Emperor in the preceding
February, their approval being given April 14, 1823. The
concession to Austin thus finally approved by the National
Government was the first, last and only national grant ever
made to lands in Texas. After this concession was approved
it was the policy of the National Government to place upon
the Mexican States the responsibility of colonial legislation,
and under the system subsequently adopted all future
grants were made by the legislature of the State of Coahuila
and Texas. Thus for the fourth time in two years Austin
had seen the ever-changing Governments approve his con
cession, and he hurried out of Mexico, and remembering
the fate of Lot's wife, did not dare look back for fear that
he would see another revolution on the horizon, and indeed
he did live to see many more, though his career was brief.
Many strange and adventurous characters had foregathered
in the Mexican Capital in those days, lured by the hope of
getting grants similar to that made to the Austins.
53

Austin's Grant Confirmed
When Stephen first reached the city in April, 1822, he
found a group of this gentry, some of whom remained dur
ing the entire. time that he was there. Among them were
Haden Edwards, a prodigal Kentuckian who afterwards
made history and trouble in and about Nacogdoches ; Green
DeWitt, who in later years founded DeWitt's Colony on the
Guadaloupe; General James Wilkinson, who at one time
had been Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United
States, and whose name has always been more or less mixed
with Aaron Burr in his supposed conspiracy. But the most
pathetic of all the supplicants who gathered there was a
committee of Cherokee Chiefs who came from East Texas
to urge their claims upon the new Government, and to beg
a home for their wandering people. The Cherokees were
a relatively docile and semi-civilized people, who at one
time had occupied a vast region from Virginia to Georgia,
but who had been driven west of the Mississippi. These
poor people had come to know that a man must have some
kind of a paper title in order to hold land, and they con
ceived the idea that if they could get a grant from the
Mexican Government that they might bold their hunting
grounds in the land where they had located north of the
old San Antonio Road and east of the Trinity. There is
yet in existence a pitiful letter written by Richard Fields,
Chief of the Cherokees, voicing their woes. It is interesting,
yet pathetic, when we reflect that it comes from a people
lately and rightfully lords of the continent. It is so unique
that this generation might well read it, the last wail of a
now vanished race :
"Feburey the fust Day 1822 Apaeation mad to Sub-
sprem Governer of Provunce of Spain.
"Dieor Sur I wish to fall at your feet and omblay ask
you what must be Dun with us pur Indians. We have som
54

The Terms of the First Grant
Grants that Was give us when we live under the Spanish
Govt and we wish you to send us news by next mal whether
tha will be reberst or not and if wer committed we will
com as soon as posble to persent ourselves befor you in a
manner agreeable to our talants, etc.
"Richard filds
"A Chaf of Charkee Nation.**
But the Chief of the Cherokees, Edwards, DeWitt and
the various other applicants who presented their claims at
Mexico during these troubled times, were made to await the
colonization law passed the next year, 1824, and only
Austin, out of all the petitioners, was permitted to enter.
The Terms of the First Grant.
A study of the first Mexican colonization law finally
passed by Iturbede 's Junta in 1823, though subsequently
suspended, is one of the most interesting chapters in Texas
history. It never actually became operative, but it formed
the groundwork of subsequent legislation covering land
grants during the whole colonial period. Many of the
terms and expressions found in the act of 1823 have come
down to us as household words. • >
Governor Martinez had no instructions from any supe
rior authority giving detail as to the lands Austin could
offer his colonists. In fact this subject never seemed to
have been considered in the earlier correspondence or at
any time prior to Stephen Austin's first visit to San Antonio
in August, 1821. Martinez at that time asked Austin to
outline a plan for distribution of land, and he proposed
for each' single man or head of a family, a section one mile
square, or 640 acres', and 320 acres additional for the wife,
55

The Terms of the First Grant
160 additional for each child, and 80 for each slave. Mar
tinez acquiesced in this proposal, and Austin seems to have
had no doubt as to its authenticity, and advertised it ex
tensively, and this was the bounty which the first colonists
expected. When Martinez reported these things to the
Superior Commandant at the City of Mexico the question
was at once raised as to his authority to make this arrange
ment, and the Governor urged Austin to go on to Mexico
and straighten the matter out when the latter reached San
Antonio the second time in March, 1822. All of the va
rious Governments and Departments of Governments with
whom Austin dealt during the more than one year he re
mained in the City of Mexico on his first visit declined
to ratify Martinez's agreement as to the quantity of land,
though they were all willing to recognize the merits of Aus
tin's claim, and anxious to facilitate, him in carrying out
his colonial scheme. This promised to embarrass Austin
very much, as his word had gone out to his colonists, and
his plan had been widely advertised in the United States.
He urged and explained these things to the colonial com
mittee of the first Congress, and yet it was obdurate in
refusing to accede to his wishes. The colonial committee
named the labor, which was a survey 1,000 varas square
and containing 177 acres, as the unit of quantity. This
quantity was the amount to be assigned to each person who
proposed to engage in agriculture. It was explained to the
committee that this would be inadequate for those who pro
posed to engage in stock raising as well, and some ingenious
person made a motion that the act be so drafted as to permit
a larger quantity to be given to those who proposed to be
come herdsmen and engage in the ancient avocation of
stock raising. This suggestion found favor, and the act
was so drawn that while a person who would engage in
56

The Terms of the First Grant
farming alone should be given a labor and no more, yet if
the colonist also contemplated stock raising he should have ,
in addition to his labor a sitio or a league of land, as
we have come to call it. It may be remarked in pass
ing that Austin's colonists all seem to have been stock
raisers and took the league along with the labor.
They developed a wonderful predilection for this pastoral
profession. There is much humor in this situation. Aus
tin urged the colonial committee to ratify a plan under
which he had offered 640 acres of land to each head of fam
ily, and a possible additional quantity of several hundred
acres which in no event could amount to more than half a
league, and though the committee stubbornly refused to
authorize such an arrangement, it nevertheless provided for
a plan by which each colonist could and practically all of
them did get a league and labor. He asked, for a sec
tion and they gave him a league. In fact the act was so
drawn that if the colonist proposed to raise much stock, he
could have more than a league, and in many instances
two leagues and even larger grants were made. The John
Austin survey, upon which a very large portion of the City
of Houston is located, is a two league grant, and William
Morton, whose headright lay on the Brazos opposite the
City of Richmond, had a two league grant. There were
many such in the Colony.
There were many other interesting provisions in the
law of 1823, not the least of which was one regulating
slavery, which provided, "after the publication of this law,
there can be no sale or purchase of the slaves which may
be introduced into the Empire, and the children of slaves
born in the Empire shall be free at fourteen years of age. ' '
This act of 1823 is the one which was finished all but
three sections on the last day of October, 1822, when the

57

Austin's Great Achievement
Emperor dissolved Congress under his emergency order.
Tt was completed and adopted by Iturbede 's Junta in Jan-:
uary, 1823, and sanctioned by him in February. The
Congress which assembled on the fall . of the, Empire in
March thereafter first revoked this law by general order,
then recognized it for the purpose of confirming the grant
to Austin, then suspended it after ratifying Austin's con
cession under it with the notation, "that hereafter said
colonization law passed by the Junta Instituyente shall be
suspended until a new resolution on the subject. ' '
• This new resolution on the subject was a national coloni
zation law passed in 1824. It will be seen, therefore, that
the law of 1823, with its unusual stormy career at birth,
all but passed in October, adopted in January following,
ratified by the Emperor in February, set aside by the ten-
minute Congress in March, reaffirmed by the same Congress
in April, in order to authorize Austin's grant, suspended by
tlfe same Congress immediately after Austin's concession
was adopted, and thereafterwards postponed, though it
never became a general law, nevertheless constituted the
framework of subsequent Mexican legislation, and its pro
visions had a material bearing upon all of the Texas
colonies.

Austin's Great Achievement.
One cannot follow the course of events just narrated
without developing the greatest admiration for Austin
and the highest respect for his character and genius.
He went to Mexico in April, 1822, without money, with
out acquaintances, unable to speak the language, and even
robbed of his Spanish grammar, and at a turbulent time
when no man's mind. was normal. He found the city full
58

Austin's Great Achievement
of adventurers using influence and intrigue to get colonial
concessions in Texas. Without any of these blandishments,
he alone succeeded. Every department of every Govern
ment which he approached during the many changes of the
eventful year, heard him with approval and ultimately
granted his concession. At the time he reached the City
of Mexico, he was only twenty-eight years old. He had
left school at seventeen, and when scarcely twenty-one
had been elected a member of the Legislature of Mis
souri Territory, in which body he had served for six
years. In 1820 he was appointed Federal Judge in Arkansas,
and in 1821 was about to engage in a newspaper venture in
New Orleans, when called to take up his father's enter
prise. There was nothing in his education arid training
which fitted him for the unusual mission upon which he
went to the City of Mexico. When he rode north in
April, 1823, with his grant finally approved, he was not
yet thirty,' but all other suitors who had not abandoned
the quest remained behind to await later, legislation. No
greater tribute to Austin's genius can be paid than by the
simple recital of these historical facts.
' Governor Martinez, in August, 1821, sent Austin ft way
into the Gulf Coast country with a wave of the hand to find
a location for his Colony along the Colorado River!
There was much discussion between Austin and the au
thorities in Mexico while he was there in 1822-23 as to
what should be the boundaries of his first Colony. ' It was
finally settled in the Emperor's decree of the 18th of Feb
ruary, and later approved by the Congress as follows :
"With respect to the demarkation of limits for : the new'
establishment described by Austin in his memorial, the
council are of the opinion that it need not be granted be-
59

Austin's Great Achievement
cause there is not sufficient data to ascertain the extent of
the territory and because the Colony will be composed of
the land granted in full property to the colonists."
'in other words, the lands granted to the individual set
tlers wherever they might locate would constitute the ex
tent of the first colonial grant. Three hundred and. seven
separate colonial land grants were made under this decree,
and they were scattered over the wide area now known as
the following counties: Fayette, Burleson, Austin,
Washington, Waller, Grimes, Harris, Chambers, Fort
Bend, Brazoria, Matagorda, Wharton, Colorado and
Brazos. The outside limits of this territory are as
wide as the boundaries of the State of Massachusetts,
and show the aversion that our ancestors had against
being crowded. The only limitation imposed was a
restriction against any grant within the "littoral border"
or within ten leagues of the Gulf Coast. None of the
grants of the first Colony were within this zone. It was
reserved from settlement for the time being with the idea
that the Government should control the coast line. This
policy was relaxed a few years later, and Austin's fourth
Colony covered the entire Gulf littoral from the Lavaca to
the San Jacinto. It is evident now when looking back upon
events which transpired one hundred years ago, that but
for two things there would have been no colonial grant
prior to the national law of 1824, and possibly not then.
There is even a possibility that there would have been no
national law authorizing colonization but for the influences
which brought about the first concession. These two things
were: First, the character and personality of Austin and
the great impression he made upon all the official bodies
with which he came in contact during his year's stay in the
Capital. 60

Austin's Great Achievement
Second, there was a spirit of fairness involved which these
Governments were willing to recognize. The Spanish
sovereignty had made a concession to Austin and his fa
ther which he had spent a year in fulfilling. It was far
performed on his part and his reputation and fortune were
wrecked if it were not carried out. The Mexican officials
manifested a spirit of fairness and equity toward Austin
in these matters which is indeed commendable. The other
would-be Empresarios who haunted the ante-chambers
of these Mexican Governments did not inspire so much
confidence, nor did they have any claims upon the Gov
ernment as Austin did. There was even in those days a
current of grave suspicion among many Mexican leaders
against the wisdom of allowing colonists from the United
States to settle in Texas, and looking back upon the situ
ation now one is led to wonder at the great stupidity of
the Mexican Governments in ever permitting this move
ment. In less than six years from this very time
Mexican leaders boldly spoke out against it and would
have undone all that had been done, if it were possible.
Had it not been for the ever-recurrent revolutions which
followed each other in Mexico during these years, it is
more than likely that the first Colony would have been
wiped out long before it reached a point where it could
maintain itself.
It was manifest to those Mexican leaders who gave the
subject much thought that these American colonists could
never become Mexicans, either in sentiment, politics or re
ligion, arid these thoughts may well have turned the scale
against colonization entirely but for the great interest
and confidence that Austin inspired and the masterful Way
in which he urged the justice, of a ratification of his first
concession. His name and influence and character gave
61

The First Colonists
a coloring as it were to the whole colonial scheme, and in
the wake of his coming the other Empresarios crept in.
And now, after the lapse of one hundred years, it is not
too much to say that the hand of Stephen F. Austin, raised
at this time and under the circumstances here detailed, de
termined the fate of all the country north of the Rio
Grande, and that Texas and the Western States were to be
Saxon rather than Latin. This is not merely fulsome
praise. It is rather a tardy acknowledgment of the real
merit and great work of this remarkable man.
Surely very few men in American history have wrought
so much, and his achievements and their effect upon our
history class him as a national f igure — a national hero.
The First Colonists.
The first colonial grant to Austin, of February 18, 1823,
afterwards confirmed by the ten-minute congress on April
14, 1823, directed him to collaborate with the Governor of
Texas or a Commissioner appointed by the Governor, to
designate and divide the land among the colonists. Austin
was authorized to locate a town at a place central to the col
onists, which should serve as the Seat of Government for
the Colony. Above all, the colonists must be Roman Cath
olics of steady habits. This was supposed to be indispensable.
He was authorized to' organize the colonists into a militia,
and until the Government was further organized, he was
charged with the adriiinistration of justice, a settlement of
all differences which might arise among the inhabitants, arid
the preservation of good order arid tranquillity. It must
be Temembered that this first grant, with its broad powers
conferred upon Austin, was made before the Mexican Con
stitution of 1824, and more than three years before there
62

The First Colonists
was a Constitutional State Government for Coahuila and
Texas. , ,
Austin stopped at Monterey on his return, for a confer
ence with the State authorities, and was designated as a
Lieutenant Colonel, and was afterwards known as- Colonel
Austin, until he was elected Commander-in-Chief of the
colonial forces at Gonzales, in 1835, after which he was
called General Austin.
The Governor of Coahuila and Texas, Don Luciano Gar
cia, appointed that genial soldier of fortune the Baron de
Bastrop Commissioner to issue the titles to the colonists,
and in 1823, Austin and Bastrop arrived in the Colony.
This same Don Luciano issued a letter of instructions to
Bastrop on July 23rd, asking him to locate and lay out
the town called to be established in the colonial concession,
and named San Felipe de Austin.
During the year which lapsed since the first colonists ar
rived, and while Austin was in Mexico, some progress had
been made toward permanent settlements. Emigrants had
come singly and in companies, by land and by sea, and had
squatted at various places, from LaGrange to the mouth
of the San Jacinto. There is a poetic interest when one
reflects upon the prospect which confronted these ances
tors of ours, as they wearily wended their way into a vast,
strange, virgin land and selected sites for their homes,
as convenience, or fancy, or accident suggested. One
family would be attracted by a beautiful grove, another by
a charming landscape. All of them kept an eye single to
fertile lands and gravitated to the alluvial river fronts.
One hardy Tennesseean, who had come overland nearly a
thousand miles, stopped on the Brazos early in 1822, and
was about to make his permanent location. After a few
days, he heard that a fellow from Alabama had located five
63

The First Colonists
miles below him, and in disgust at such unseemly crowd
ing, he folded his tent and moved across to the Colorado.
The details of surveying and locating the lands and is
suing the titles called for a vast amount of work. The
names of Samuel M. Williams and Horatio Chrisman should
ever be remembered in connection with the location of the
first Colony. Williams came from Maryland, in 1822, and
in his application for a land grant it is recited that he
spoke both the Spanish and French languages, as well as
the English. He was made Secretary of Austin's Colony
and labored with Austin throughout all the colonial period.
The volumes of land records made during these years were
all in Williams' handwriting. Chrisman and Ingram and
the other surveyors who made the first locations would write
their field notes as the work progressed, in English. These
field notes were often written on odd scraps of paper. But
before the grant could issue, the field notes had to be trans
lated into Spanish and all of the official records, including
the grants themselves, were in the Spanish. Williams,
however, preserved the original field notes, and they have
been bound into a volume, which has been kept even unto
this day.
The first survey in the Colony is said to have been the
one made for Josiah H. Bell, on the west side of the Brazos,
a few miles below the La Bahia road. This work was done
on the tenth of February, 1823, by Horatio Chrisman. In
gram's first survey was made for Sylvanus Castleman, on
the west side of the Colorado.
The first year in the Colony was a very hard one, and
this eight-cylindered generation can never know the hard
ships and privations which these people suffered. Many'
families were without bread until the first corn crop was
matured. The talented Horatio Chrisman wore a leather
64

The Government of the First Colony
hunting jacket all summer because he had no shirt. The
family of William Morton lived largely on lettuce for
months. But the mustang ponies were fat and more eas
ily killed than deer and meat was reasonably abundant.
The Government of the First Colony.
While Austin was yet in Mexico in 1822, the first colonists
having settled on the Colorado and Brazos Rivers, Governor
Trespalacios, who had succeeded the Spanish Governor,
Martinez, took authority to divide the new Colony into two
districts, that of the Colorado and of the Brazos, and named
an Alcalde for ea,ch\ district. This was the first political
recognition of the new Colony, and James Cummings, Pro
visional Alcalde of Colorado, appointed by Don Felix Tres
palacios, in 1822, was the first Anglo-American civil officer
ever named in Texas.
When Austin and Bastrop returned to the State in
1823, a letter had preceded them from Saucedo at Bexar,
advising the Alcaldes of the appointment of Bastrop.
The letter to Alcalde Cummings is printed among Aus
tin's papers and directs him to assemble his people at
the house of Sylvanus Castleman, on the Colorado, to
hear instructions regarding the grant to Austin and
Austin's authority. The Alcalde is a petty Spanish judi
cial officer. The office is one of great antiquity and the
, Alcalde is supposed to be as indispensable to a Spanish
community as a justice of the peace is found in an English
neighborhood. Austin accepted the Alcalde arrangements made for him
in advance, and set about the location of his Capital and
-the promulgation of a civil and. criminal code, which were
published in 1824. , These codes, entirely written by him,
65

The Government of the First Colony
remained the law of the Colonies, until the first Ayunta-
mientos were established in 1828 and Constitutional Alcaldes
chosen. His criminal code consisted of twenty-six articles,
and is dated January 22, 1824. N The five first articles are
devoted to the proper handling of Indians, and provide
that if Indians are found, in a neighborhood and their con
duct leads to the suspicion that they intend to steal, they
should be apprehended and taken before the nearest Al
calde, who is given power to punish them if he deems it
necessary. Article five concludes the treatise on Indians,
in this unique language :
"No person in the colony shall ill treat or abuse any
Indian without just cause, under a penalty of one hundred
dollars, but shall treat them at all times in a friendly
manner, so long as they deserve it."
After thus disposing of the Indian question, the law-giver
proceeds in article six to fix the status of other criminals,
making it the duty of all persons to apprehend them be
fore an Alcalde. If the criminal makes a resistance, it is
lawful to kill him. Gambling of every description is pro
hibited under a heavy fine, but horse racing, "being cal
culated to improve, the breed of horses, ' ' is not classified as
gambling. In article nine he made it a high misdemeanor for a
man and woman to live together without being married,
but suspended this section until sixty days after the arri
val of the first priest, who was expected to take up his
residence in the Colony in due time.
Five sections of the penal code were devoted to offences
concerning slaves and slavery and by slaves, and it was
made a heavy offence to steal a slave. The code named the
crimes of theft, assault, slander, counterfeiting, and pro
vided for a jury trial in the Alcalde's Court. All fines col-
66

The Government of the First Colony
lected were to go to the benefit of a school fund and other
public purposes.
This miniature code, promulgated by Austin in Jan
uary, 1824, was the law of the land for more than four
years, and is interesting as the first ' English code ever
written in Texas.
In his civil code, Austin provided for a constable in
each district, to serve the process of the Alcaldes. Here
was a rare blending of the English and Latin forms of
jurisprudence. Think of an English Constable serving
the process of a Spanish Alcalde. The civil code provides
for the form of the Alcalde's docket, and there are yet
in existence a number of these old dockets, which bear some
very interesting recitals. I have examined the old Al
calde registers of Brazoria, which bear the names of the
attorneys who practiced in those remote days, and fre
quently among them appear such names as John A. Whar
ton, R. J. Townes, Elisha M. Pease, and others afterwards
well known in the early history of Texas.
The twenty-third section of the civil code provides that
in case no property of a debtor can be found by the Con
stable, that his body should be seized and the Alcalde
should examine into his circumstances, and in case it should
be found that he had fraudulently conveyed away or con
cealed his property, then the Alcalde may hire out the de
fendant to the highest bidder, until his wages pay the debt.
During these four years, Austin's life was an extremely
busy one. In a sketch recently written by Eugene Barker,
the following glimpse is given of his unusual activities:
"It would be impossible to exaggerate Austin's labors in
the early years of the Colony. A letter to the political
chief, in 1826, gives a clue to their character and variety.
He had left San Felipe on April fourth, to point out some
67

The Government of the First Colony
land recently conceded to one of the State officials, and
had been detained by excessive rains and swollen streams;
until the twenty-ninth. On May first, he began the trial
of an important case, that lasted seven days. At the same
time, he had to entertain a delegation of Tonkaway In
dians and make preparations for a campaign against another
tribe; to talk to and answer questions of many foreigners
who had come to look at the country, explaining and trans
lating the Federal Constitution and laws for them; to re
ceive and pass upon applications for land, hear reports and
issue instructions to surveyors; and to correspond with
superior civil and military officers at San Antonio and
Monterey. Much of his time was consumed in settling
neighborhood disputes about cows and calves. During
these years, he gathered, by painstaking surveys and per
sonal observation, data for a map of Texas, published by
Tanner, in 1829, charted Galveston Bay and the harbors
and navigable rivers of the State, promoted trade with
the United States, and kept a stream of immigrants flowing
into -the Colony; encouraged the erection of gins and saw
mills and the establishment of schools; exercised through
out a most remarkable influence over the legislature at
Saltillo, in matters affecting the interests of the colonists."
In addition to the affairs of his own Colony, he was
called upon in every critical situation that arose in the
other Colonies, and especially De Witt's and Edwards'
Colonies. His high standing with the Mexican officials and
the great deference they paid him gave him an influence
that was sought, not only by his own colonists, but all other
Empresarios. He established the Seat of Government for
his Colony at a site located on the Brazos River, now in
Austin County. A tentative location was first made on the
Colorado, where Columbus now stands, but this was aban-
68

Empresario Grant's
doned for San Felipe, and a five-league grant of land was
made by the Mexican Government, on which to locate
the town. San Felipe remained the seat of Government
until the advance of Santa Anna's army in 1836.
Empresario Grants.
The word empresario means contractor, and was ap
plied to those who were given contracts to locate col
onies in Texas.
Austin's first grant was finally approved on the four
teenth day of April, 1823, but the same Act which ap
proved it provided that no other grant should be made until
the passage of a State Colonization Law for Coahuila and
Texas, and that all subsequent grants should emanate from
the State Government. The other Empresarios (or con
tractors) were therefore compelled to await the organiza
tion of the State Government. These would-be Empresarios
who foregathered at Mexico in 1821 migrated to Saltillo,
the little Capital of Coahuila, and in March, 1825, when
the first State statute wag passed authorizing such grants,
there was no dearth of applicants at Saltillo. On the fif
teenth day of April, 1825, ,the first State grants were made.
On that day, Green De Witt received the contract to locate
four hundred families between the Guadaloupe and the
Lavaca; Robert Lef twitch, four hundred families north Of
the San Antonio Road and between the Brazos and the Col
orado ; Frost Thome, four hundred families in East Texas.
On the eighteenth; Hayden Edwards, who had been wait
ing and watching four years for such a concession, had
permission to locate four hundred families in East Texas,
in the neighborhood of Nacogdoches. On the twenty-sev
enth of the same month, , Austin received a concession for

69

Empresario Grants
his second Colony, which gave him permission to locate
three hundred families, within the bounds already occupied
by his scattered first colonists.
Many other grants were made during this and succeed
ing years, so that between 1825, when the Land Office was
opened at Saltillo, and 1835, when it was closed by the
Revolution, there had been thirty-two grants, covering al
most the entire territory now embraced by the State of
Texas. The great majority of them were never fulfilled. Aus
tin afterwards received two other colonial grants, his third
Colony covering the territory between the Brazos and the
San Jacinto. During the first few years, no grants were
made within the Gulf littoral, which included a strip ten
leagues in width, from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the
Sabine. When Austin came to locate his fourth Colony,
, however, he got permission to locate it entirely within this
Gulf littoral and it extended from the mouth of the Lavaca
i to the mouth of the San Jacinto. Of all the other Empre
sario grants that were made during these years, only those
"to Austin were entirely fulfilled. De Witt's was probably
more nearly fulfilled than any of the others.
Martin DeLeon, a Mexican, procured permission in 1825
to locate a Colony, and did locate it, founding the City of
Victoria, which was settled at first by Mexican colonists.
McMullen and McGloynes procured a grant, between the
Nueces and San Antonio Rivers, south of the San Antonio
Road, and located an Irish Colony there. Some of these
grants were early forfeited and re-locations made. Many
of them were made the basis of wild land speculation in the
United States.
Three large contiguous grants, covering practically all
of Southeast Texas east of the San Jacinto River, were
made to Burnet, Vehlein and De Zavala. The land cov-

70

The Fredonians
ered by these grants extended from Galveston Bay along
the Sabine River to the Nacogdoches Road, and Burnet's
grant lay north of that road. The three grants embraced
1000 leagues, a territory almost as vast as one of the
Southern States. These gentlemen conveyed their holdings
to trustees, among whom were William H. Sumner, of
Boston, United States Senator from Massachusetts; and a
Company was formed, known as the Galveston Bay and
Texas Land Company, which took the title of the Em
presarios to the property, and stock was issued and offered
for sale. They procured the opinion of no less an authority
than Chancellor Kent as to the validity of these grants, and
their plan of operation, and started on a scheme of rather
wild land speculation. Austin protested very bitterly
against these things. It created a bad impression in Mexico.
He had started out to bring in bona fide colonists, people
who would settle and develop the country. This land specu
lation, which began as early as 1826, is often given as one
of ,the causes of the Revolution.
The Fredonians.
Hayden Edwards was in Mexico,- seeking a grant, when
Austin went there in 1821. Yoakum says of him that he
kept open house and entertained very lavishly. It appears
from Austin's correspondence some years later that Ed
wards operated a roulette wheel in this open house, which
probably increased the lavishness of his entertainments.
Edwards was an impetuous, quick tempered person, the
very kind of a man that would not be calculated to get
along well with Spaniards or Mexicans. He made his
headquarters at Nacogdoches, where he found a very small
remnant of a town which had thrived there years before,
71

The Fredonians
but had been destroyed in 1818. When Austin came there
in 1821 the town contained but half a dozen houses and
thirty or forty inhabitants. The news of the opening of
Texas to American emigrants, however, caused a great in
flux of people into all East Texas, and Nacogdoches soon
became a relatively important place.
During 1825 and 1826, there was a gathering of renegade
Mexicans in East Texas and about Nacogdoches— refugees
who had left Mexico for its good — and the same class of
gentry from the States soon foregathered there and formed
a congenial society for evil. Edwards and his emigrants
soon came into conflict with this element, and as is usually
the case, there was a harmony between the bad elements,
both American and Mexican, which ' came into direct an^
tagonism with Edwards . and bis well-meaning colonists:
j Nacogdoches Was the only place in Texas, except San An-
[ tonio, where there was any Mexican population worth men;
(' tioning, and of course the only place where there could be
any friction between the inhabitants and the newcomers.
That such' friction was inevitable must have been ap
parent to everyone, and that it manifested itself at the very
beginning is but natural.
A Mexican rogue named Sepuiveda, more or less skilled
in forgeries in general and in land forgeries in particular,
and an American rogue named Norris, skilled in many
forms of villainy, conspired together "so that Norris was
chosen Alcalde of the new settlement.
Edwards, with a frankness, and in good English, informed
Governor Blanco at San Antonio of the deeds and mis
deeds' of Sepuiveda and his gang. Governor Blanco thought
a bad Mexican was much better than a good American,
and on this score sided with the renegades and cancelled
Edwards' Empresario grant and expelled him from the
72

The Fredonians
Colony. Colonists were coming in in great numbers to lo
cate under Edwards' concession and he had spent almost
a fortune in the enterprise, and this turn of affairs meant
his ruin. He and his brother, -Benjamin, determined to defy
Blanco's authority, and on December 16, 1826, Benjamin
Edwards rode into Nacogdoches and declared the exist
ence of the Republic of Fredonia, and unfurled its flag,
in the grim wake, of a Texas norther, which howled in the
East Texas pines that night.
In desperation for an ally in this emergency, the Ed
wards turned to the Cherokee Indians, who dwelt in the
woods north of the San Antonio-Nacogdoches Road, and
an offensive and defensive alliance was formed, by which
the Fredonians and the Cherokees were to work their inde
pendence and then divide East Texas equally.
There was a rather celebrated globe trotter named John
Dunn Hunter, whose journeys and voyages through the
world had been more thrilling, if possible, than those of
Sinbad the Sailor. At this particular time, he was in some
way connected with the Mexican Government, as an agent
among the Cherokees. Hunter and Richard Fields, the
Cherokee Chief, manipulated this new alliance with the
Fredonians. Austin had foreseen this trouble and as early as March
of this year, 1826/ he had written Edwards a long, scathing
letter, frankly telling him that his course of dealing and his
indiscreet utterances would get him into serious trouble.
After reviewing various rumors as to Edwards' doings and
sayings, the young Empresario warned the old man thus:
"One moment's reflection will show you the imprudence
and impropriety of such utterances as those attributed to
you." Edwards and those associated with him, foreseeing
this crisis, had sent letters to many influential men in Aus-
73

The Fredonian Rebellion
tin's Colony, urging them to join in resistance to Mex
ican authority, and most of these letters had been for
warded to Austin, or called to his attention. Austin knew
the utter folly of Edwards' course, and foresaw that if any
suspicion attached to him or his colonists, that the whole
colonial scheme would be wiped out. He therefore used
every endeavor, not only to suppress the rebellion, but to
show the Mexican authorities that he was in accord with
them, and that he had no sympathy with the Fredonian
movement.

The Fredonian Rebellion.
When news of the arrival of Edwards, with his Fre
donian army of fifteen persons, was carried to the au
thorities in Mexico, there was a great hurrying to and fro,
and military preparations to- suppress the rebellion were
begun on a large scale. It was confidently believed by
the people of' Mexico, and by many of the Mexican leaders,
that this was the first effort of the United States of the
North, as they called our country, to claim Texas, and
they confidently believed that they would be at war with
the United States, as soon as their forces reached Texas.
The Mexican Congress voted a large sum of money to de
fray the expenses of the campaign and an expedition of
troops was arranged to be sent by Vera Cruz, to land in
Galveston Bay and march overland to Nacogdoches. Ar
rangements were put on foot to send an army across the
Rio Grande. Long before these ambitious plans were under
way, however, the rebellion had collapsed with its own
weight and under the pressure of the local military au
thorities.

74

The Fredonian Rebellion
Colonel Ellis P. Bean, who had come into Texas with
Nolan in 1812, and who had spent several of the interven
ing years in a Mexican dungeon, and had in this way be
come a naturalized Mexican citizen, resided near Nacog
doches in those days. The story of Bean is an interesting
and romantic one, but I will not stop to relate it here. He
carried the title of Colonel of Militia under the Mexican
Government, and had authority to look after matters per
taining to the Indians. Being an American, he was mis
trusted by the Mexican authorities, and being a Mexican
official, he was mistrusted by the American colonists. But
Colonel Bean assumed authority to take action against the
Fredonian rebels and moved on to Nacogdoches.
Saucedo, the Mexican Political Chief at Bexar, sent a
detachriient of two hundred men by way of San Felipe.
From San Felipe, and after a conference with Austin, Sau
cedo issued a mighty manifesto to the colonists, reviewing
the entire Nacogdoches trouble and advising that on the
morrow, January 22nd, 1827, he would march on to Nac
ogdoches. Austin felt that the fate of his Colony was at
stake and that if there was the least suspicion of his loyalty,
or his sympathy with Edwards, that all was lost. There
were no more than a thousand American families in all
Texas at that time, and the destruction of the entire colo
nial venture would have been an easy matter. Then, too,
Austin was under the deepest obligations to the Mexican
Government. Whatever the treatment of Edwards might
have been, yet the authorities at Mexico had been fair to
Austin, and held him in high esteem. In order to give
public evidence of his position in the matter, he raised a
detachment of men from his Colony, to accompany Sau
cedo 's Army. In addition to this, Austin sent a commit
tee to Nacogdoches, composed of Richard Ellis, James
75

The Fredonian Rebellion
Cummings and James Kerr, with instructions to investigate
and report, and to use their influence to induce the revo
lutionists to forbear. Austin's committee made an inter
esting report, advising that they had met Edwards and
John Dunn Hunter, and that they were unwilling to accept
amnesty, but would insist upon absolute freedom of all the
country north of the Rio Grande.
On January 4th, before Saucedo's men, along with the
colonial troops, could reach Nacogdoches, Alcalde Norris
had raised an army of sixty-seven loyal men, and with
this force marched into Nacogdoches to give battle to the
Fredonian forces. The Fredonian army had disbanded
for the day, not expecting any hostile activity, and when
Alcalde Norris' army appeared, only eleven white men and
nine Indians were available for defense. They rallied, how
ever, and defeated the Government forces, this being the
only active engagement that was fought. One Fredonian
was wounded and one of Norris' men killed.
In the meantime Colonel Bean had started a counter in
trigue with the Cherokees. Austin and Saucedo wrote
letters to Fields and Hunter, but these leaders were bent
on revolution. Through Bean's influences, however, dis
sension was brought about among the Cherokees and they
held a council of war and decided to rescind their late agree
ments with the Fredonians and ally themselves with the
Mexican authorities, and as evidence of their good faith in
this new alliance, they ruthlessly slew Dick Fields, the
Cherokee Chief, and John Dunn Hunter, the celebrated
globe trotter.
After some skirmishing, and shorn of their Indiau al
lies, the. Fredonians fled, and the Mexican flag again
floated at. Nacogdoches. The revolution was at an end be-
76

The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion
fore Saucedo 's army arrived, and that doughty warrior was
denied the pleasure of military triumphs.
Edwards and the Fredonians, and their premature, ill-
starred revolution were gone, but like the song of John
Brown of Osawatomie, their souls went marching on; Men
of more judgment and discretion wrought what they sb
wildly aimed.

The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion.
The rise and fall of Fredonia. though apparently a small
matter, of local significance only, was in fact far otherwisei
It was the first skirmish in the trouble which ended at
San Jacinto, to be renewed again in the Mexican war with
the United States, twenty years later. Its importance was
not overlooked at the time, either, in the United States or
Mexico. There were wild rumors all through Mexico that
it was an instigation of the Government of the United;
States, with designs to clairii the Rio Grande as a boundary.'
So strong was this feeling in Mexico that in 1827 Henry1
Clay, Secretary of State in the Cabinet of John Quincy
Adams, addressed' a letter to Obregon, the Minister from
Mexico to the United States, expressing regret at the occur
rence, and disavowing any sympathy with it. Mexico was
so profoundly stirred that great preparations were made
to invade Texas by land and by sea, for i the purpose of
putting down the Fredonians i arid warring with the peo
ple of the United States, whom they confidently believed
would come into the fray. One thousand men were mar
shaled to come by. sea; arid, ten ! thousand were designed
to march overland/. When the news of the fall of the Fre
donians was received in Mexico; this.Contemplatfed army of
invasion turned its attention to. an internal revolution which

77

The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion
was brewing. The strange aspect of the Mexican colonial
policy, which invited and admitted people from the United
States to settle in Texas, becomes stranger still when we
fully understand the eternal feeling of suspicion and mis
trust which existed toward the United States in Mexico
during these years, and one must candidly admit that sub
sequent events seemed to justify this suspicion. Those
were the days when the Democratic party, committed to
the domination of the slave-holding element in the South,
was in the ascendancy, and destined to rule the fortunes
of this country and shape its policies, until the outbreak of
the Civil War, in the next generation.
Within two years after the De Onis treaty was ratified
Mexico achieved its independence, and the question arose
iwhether it was bound by the treaty or could insist upon
lits recognition by the United States. Just how there could
be. any question about it, I cannot see, but nevertheless it
seems to have, been much debated and it was currently be
lieved in Mexico that the United States would make the
contention that the Treaty was not binding upon it as
against the new Mexican Nation, that country not having
been a party to it. Then, too, there was a general feeling
in the United States that in some way the Treaty would
either be abrogated, or ignored and set aside, and the United
States would acquire Texas.
The very first Minister from Mexico to the United States,
in 1822, discovered this feeling and hastened 'to- warn his
Government of it and to exaggerate it into a widespread
conspiracy to occupy all the country north of the Rio
Grande. As early as October, 1822, Zazaya, first Mexican
Minister, wrote his Government, after he had been in the
United States only a few weeks, that he had discovered am
bitious designs with reference to Texas, and this letter and
78

The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion
similar warnings were in the hands of the Mexican officials
when Iturbede and his committee, as well as the Ten-Min
ute Congress, approved Austin's first grant, in April, 1823.
In that year, Torrens, who had become Mexican Minister
at Washington, continued his warnings, and in August,
1823, sent specific recommendations against allowing the
American population to become predominant in Texas.
These reports were so frequent and so alarming as to cause
the Mexican Government to take urgent steps to have the
De Onis Treaty so recognized as to make it binding on the
United States and to work out the boundaries with great
precision. On April 15, 1824, the Political Chief at San Antonio
wrote to the Government at Mexico : ' ' The American Gov
ernment counts Texas its own and even included it on its
maps, tracing its boundaries to the Rio. Grande." Yet
on this very day, April 15, 1824, the authorities at Sal
tillo granted Green DeWitt, Hayden Edwards and Frost
Thorne vast colonial tracts, covering large portions of
Texas. The fears of Mexico in this behalf were fanned into
white heat by the Fredonian Outbreak, and after it sub
sided, they were continuously kept aroused by repeated ef
forts of the United States to purchase Texas. From the
beginning of the John Quincy Adams Administration, in
1824, until thj Revolution, in 1836, the State Department
at Washington never ceased its efforts to induce the various
governments, which abode their destined hour in Mexico,
to sell Texas. Joel Poinsett, our Minister to Mexico during
the Adams Administration, was instructed to buy Texas,
and Henry Clay, Secretary of State under Adams, wrote
him volumes upon the subject. He was told to make an
effort to get the Rio Grande as a boundary, failing in that
to try for the Lavaca or the Nueces or the Colorado, or even
79

The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion
the Brazos, and was given a seale of prices for these various
boundaries ; but every offer made to every one of the rapidly
changing Governments in Mexico was met by a flat refusal.
At one time, Poinsett wrote Clay, in 1825, that if the
United States would let up on its efforts for a few years,
the American settlers then pouring into Texas would be
come so boisterous and troublesome that Mexico might be
more willing to sell Texas, to get rid of them. In one of
Clay's letters to Poinsett, he suggested that it be called to
Mexico's attention that the United States was better
equipped to take care of the Comanche Indians than
Mexico, and that if it acquired Texas, it would take it over,
Indians and all, and would look after these troublesome
people. With the incoming of the Jackson Administration, in
1828, these activities were renewed and accelerated. Jack
son sent one Anthony Butler, of infamous memory, as Min
ister to Mexico, and he began a six-year course of treacher
ous intrigue which became the scandal of the day, all de
signed to beg, bribe or steal Texas away from the Mexican
Federation. Mexican leaders during these years became al
most hysterical about the designs of the United States, and
they had much indeed upon which to found their hysteria;
but all of the time, new grants were being made to Em
presarios and the stream of colonists continued unabated,
until 1830. Mexican papers from time to time published
attacks on the Washington Government, and in the Mexi
can Congress it was openly charged that the United States
and its people were natural and deadly enemies to Mexico.
These contradictory things are hard to understand a hun^
dred years after. 80

General Manuel Mier y Teran
General Manuel Mier y Teran. ,
There is an interesting and pathetic glimpse of the times,
1828 to 1832, found in the biography of this brilliant and
gifted man. General Teran had been a leader in the
patriot cause during the Avar for independence, 1810 to
1821, and followed the varying fortunes of the rebel arriiy
during these long, bitter years. He was a man of great
iritelleet, splendidly educated and of sterling character.
The earlier Texas historians have contented themselves
with rude flings at Teran, and indeed he Avas not a prime
favorite with the Texas colonists, but at this date Ave can
look back upon his character and career and realize in him
a really great and patriotic man, Avho tried to serve his
country with as much fairness to the Texas colonists as
seemed consistent Avith his own country's safety.
When the boundary question with the United States be
came acute, the Mexican Congress passed numerous reso
lutions and acts and imposed treaties designed to adjust it,
and a Commission was created, to go upon the ground and
mark the boundary with proper monuments. In 1827,
shortly after the Fredonian incident, General Teran Avas
sent to Texas on this Commission. The purpose of his mis
sion, hoAvever, Avas much broader than the mere locating and
marking of the Texas boundaries. Among the specific
instructions that he is known to have received from the
Minister of Relations in the Mexican Cabinet, was to make
a report upon the desirability of maintaining garrisons and
troops at various points in Texas. He journeyed to Bexar'
and after a visit there, stopped for a time at San Felipe
and visited other points in Austin's Colony. Here he
formed an acquaintance and intimate friendship with
Austin,. Avho seems to have won Teran 's confidence and ad-
81

General Manuel Mier y Teran
miration. From San Felipe, he proceeded on to Nacogdo
ches, where he tarried for some time and studied the local
situation. General Teran wielded greater influence in Texas affairs
than any other Mexican of his day, prior to Santa Anna,
and his activities Avrought much in our destiny. From the
time of his visit to the date of his tragic death, in 1832, he
was the eyes and ears and brains of Mexican officialdom in
Texas. His reports to his Government about Texas form a
chapter of intense interest and can be better understood
now, in the light of subsequent events. Every law and de
cree, as well as every movement or policy towards or affect
ing Texas during these years emanated from him, or from
suggestions and recommendations that he made to his Gov
ernment. At the time of his arrival at Nacogdoches, a
small garrison was located there, under the command of
Colonel Piedras, who had been stationed there in June,
1827, after the Fredonian fiasco, to keep the peace and
resist the aggressions of the United States of the North.
Guadalupe Victoria was the first Constitutional President
of Mexico, and Teran was his intimate friend. From Nac
ogdoches, Teran made a lengthy confidential report to
Victoria, which is a very interesting and important docu
ment, showing a Mexican's insight into Texas affairs. One
reading this letter sees in it seemingly strange contradic
tions, but they are the struggle of a strong man with a fate
which he foresees, but will not admit. In his communica
tion he says that Mexican influence has about ceased in
Texas, in fact that it is scarcely felt at all in East Texas,
where the American population is both aggressive and
thrifty, and the Mexicans poor and ignorant and the very
lowest class. That the Americans maintain a school for
their children, where they are taught in English, but there
82

General Manuel Mier y Teran
is no school for Mexican children. That it would cause his
enlightened countrymen chagrin to see the contempt in
which Mexicans are held by the foreigners, who have nevei
seen or known any other Mexicans save these low, ignorant
and thriftless fellows about Nacogdoches.
After recounting these things in great detail, he pro
ceeds thus: "I tell myself that it could not be otherwise
but that from such a state of affairs an antagonism will arise,
which is not the least of the smoldering fires which I have
discovered. ' ' He then points out the governmental difficul
ties of the colonists and states their grievances fully and
fairly, and suggests the location of an appellate court at
Nacogdoches. He is free in his expressions of admiration
for the honest, industrious colonists, and points to their
love of land ownership as a "strong virtue," but he fore-
saAv the loss of Texas and made many suggestions to avert
the disaster, which one can tell from his whole communica
tion he knew was inevitable. The most urgent of his sug
gestions Avas the strengthening of the Mexican colonies iu
Texas. During the next few years, Teran was Comandante
General of the Eastern Provinces of Mexico, which included
Texas, and he kept an eternal vigil on Texas and the Tex-
ans. In 1829, he wrote his Government (a revolution had
changed its personnel in the interim), giving his grave sus
picions as to the intentions of the United States. In this
letter, he suggests that the Empresarios are instruments of
the United States Government, and he grows almost fran
tic, declaring he who consents to the loss of Texas is an ex
ecrable traitor, who ought to be punished with death. He
hints that war may break out, and that if so, the colonists
should be suppressed in a single campaign, and urges upon
his home government plans to colonize Texas with Mexi-
83

General Teran's Garrisons
cans. He makes many other recommendations, all more or
less visionary, yet in the face of all these facts, he did not
recommend cessation of immigration, though he probably
hinted at it. He would have immigration from the States
restricted, though just what restrictions he would have
were not clearly stated. He would not have Texas left an
unpeopled wilderness, for then it would revert entirely to
the Indians, and the United States might occupy it and
claim it. He would not have it populated wholly by Ameri
can colonists, for he feared they would turn it over to the
United States. He seemed to want a limited immigration
from the States, to act as a buffer against the Indians, and
an immigration from Mexico so that Texas might have an
increasing Mexican population.
And all the while that Teran visited, and wrote and
planned, the stream of immigrants from the States con
tinued.

General Teran's Garrisons.
General Teran's recommendations with reference to Texas
found fayor with the several governments which followed
each other in quick succession in Mexico, for he Avas a friend
of all fhe leaders until the ascension of Santa Anna in 1832.
Teran found a strong ally in all of his activities and sus
picions in Lucas Alaman, the ambitious young Minister of
Relations under the Victoria Government. Working in
¦ harmony with the administration, Teran hastened plans for
establishing Mexican garrisons at various places in Texas,
and Mexican convicts were impressed for this military ser
vice, and forces were stationed at Velasco, Anahuac, Nacog
doches and LaBahia. On April 6, 1830, the Mexican. Con-
84

General Teran's Garrisons
gress, urged on by Teran and Alaman, passed the celebrated
decree which forbade further emigration to Texas from the
United States. It was the inevitable friction between the
colonists and these military authorities which provoked the
first trouble and which kept trouble going until the revolu
tion in 1835-36. Garrisons of soldiers in charge of such
men as Col. Piedras at Nacogdoches and the celebrated
and infamous John Davis Bradburn at Anahuac, precip
itated the strife which verified the worst fears of poor
Teran. In the meantime, however, while Teran wrote fran
tic letters and Alaman wrought powerfully to save Texas,
American colonists continued to pour into the country by
the thousands. There were estimated to be a thousand
families here in 1826 when the Fredonian trouble arose;
ten thousand people in 1828, and probably thirty thousand
people in 1832. A great many strong and influential men
came to Texas during the period from 1828 to 1832, men
who became leaders during the succeeding years. Among
those who came as early as 1828 were R. M. Williamson
from Georgia, familiarly known as "Three-legged Willie,"
and as the "Patrick Henry of the Revolution ;" Gail Borden,
who came from New York; David G. Burnett from New
Jersey; John A. and William H. Wharton from Tennessee,
and many others whose names have become household terms
in Texas. There was soon a wide-spread feeling among the
colonists, and especially the new arrivals, in favor of a more
positive policy, and following the advent of Teran's mili
tary garrisons there were many murmurings and much sub
dued talk of independence. The colonists continued to
prosper, hbwever, and the prosperity was in no small meas
ure due to the slave-holding element, who were able to
raise large crops of cotton for export.
85

General Teran's Garrisons
After the organization of the Mexican Government un
der the Constitution of 1824, Texas had remained a part of
Coahuila, and Avhatever semblance of a State Government it
had depended upon the authorities at Saltillo and Mon-
clova and such other Mexican places as Avere from time to
time the capitals of Coahuila, a thousand miles away from
the Colonies.
Prior to 1828, Austin Avas the Government of the Colonies.
In 1827, a constitution was formed for Coahuila and Texas,
and in the folloAving year there Avas an organization of the
State Government under this constitution. The first elec
tion ever held in Texas was for members of the Ayuntamen-
to of San Felipe in 1828. This council, when chosen, had
jurisdiction between the Lavaca and San Jacinto Rivers
and the sea. It composed all of Austin's Colony, and the
new municipal body became the first authoritative local
government, succeeding to many functions Avhich had there
tofore been exercised by Austin alone. Two hundred thirty-
two votes were cast, and Avhen the ballots Avere sent to
Austin at San Felipe, it was found that Thomas M. Duke
had been chosen Alcalde; Thomas Davis and Humphry
Jackson, Regidores, and Rawson Alley, Sindico.
These officials Avith strange sounding names composed a
local council with such functions as are necessary for local
government. But in point of fact this council did very
little, for the colonists required little government.
There was no system of taxation, for the colonists were
never required to pay a direct or advalorem tax to the
Federal or State Government, and the effort later to col
lect customs at the ports of Anahuac, Velasco and elsewhere
on the coast met Avith such violent opposition that it was
in effect abandoned after 1832.

86

Bradburn at Anahuac
Bradburn at Anahuac.
One of Teran's garrisons was in charge of Col. John
Davis Bradburn at Anahuac at the eastern end of Gal
veston Bay. This Bradburn was a renegade American, who
began life as a small merchant, but his mercantile business
languished somewhat and he was caught in an effort to
steal some slaves from a Tennessee planter and incarcerated
in the Columbia, Tennessee, jail. He escaped prison by the
assistance of a saAV which someone smuggled in to him, and
found his way to Mexico, where he joined the revolution
and gained some distinction as a patriot, and the favor of
Iturbede, under whom he fought. At a later date he got a
commission from the legislature of Coahuila giving him the
monopoly of operating steamboats on the Rio Grande River,
but his efforts at navigation prospered little better than
his endeavors at slave stealing. In the meantime he had
become a Colonel in the Mexican Army, and we find him
now in charge at Anahuac, where there was a considerable
settlement of American colonists. Early in 1832 the popu
lation at Anahuac embraced a number of persons who
afterwards became well known in the Colonies, among them
Monroe Edwards, William Barrett Travis, R. M. William
son and Patrick C. Jack. Bradburn, who was a low-flung
fellow, soon began a series of intolerable tyrannies. He
went up to Liberty, suspended the functions of the local
Ayuntamento, and strolled up and down the coast country
with a great show of military authority. Travis and Jack
were heard to say something unkind about him, or something
derogatory to his greatness, and he sent a squad of soldiers
to arrest them and had them incarcerated, announcing that
he intended to send them to Vera Cruz or some remote Mex
ican place to be court martialed. This act of tyranny
87

Bradburn at Anahuac
brought on Avhat was probably the first political meeting
or gathering designed to protest against Mexican tyranny
ever held in Texas. There was a gathering at Brazoria,
Avhere it was decided that a committee should be sent to
Anahuac to demand the release of Travis and Jack. A
committee composed of William H. Jack and Branch T.
Archer went over to Anahuac and demanded a surrender of
the prisoners. Negotiations' for their release were unsuc
cessful and a small company was raised at Brazoria, for
the purpose of going over and forcibly effecting it. At
that time there Avas a Mexican garrison stationed at
Velasco at the mouth of the Brazos, in charge of a Mexi
can Colonel by the name of Ugartechea. The Brazoria
committee waited on this military person and told him that
they intended to go over to Anahuac and have a settlement
with Bradburn, and requested that he remain quiescent
and offer Bradburn no assistance during their absence.
Among those who went from Brazoria were John Austin,
Warren D. C. Hall, William H. Hall, William J. Russell,
and others. On the Avay they were joined by Wiley Martin
from Fort Bend, and F. W. Johnson and other persons from
along the Brazos. Bradburn heard of the approach of the
colonists, and that they intended to effect the release of the
prisoners, and dispatched a small company of cavalry to
intercept them. The men from the Brazos, liOAvever, sur
prised and captured all of the cavalry and then proceeded
to Anahuac, Avhere they made an armistice Avith Bradburn
which he hastened to violate. As they approached Ana
huac, William J. Russell saw a Mexican sentry . standing
under a tree some hundred yards away and by crawling in
the grass he got close enough to him to kill him at a single
shot ; and this Avas the first blood shed in the long series of
conflicts that ensued between Texas and Mexico. The men

88

The Battle of Velasco
from the Brazos, however, were without artillery and fell
back to Turtle Bayou, while they sent over to Brazoria for
a small cannon. While they were waiting at Turtle Bayou
they had an opportunity to ponder over the situation. Here
was a small handful of colonists about to bring on a con
flict with a Mexican garrison which would bring down upon
the people of Texas the entire Mexican Nation. NeAvs had
reached Texas about this time that Santa Anna had started
a revolution in Mexico' and that he had proclaimed himself
the friend of the constitution of 1824, and while this little
company awaited the return of the men sent for the ar
tillery, the happy thought possessed R. M. Williamson that
they should put in writing the causes for which they Avere
contending, and he then and there presented to those with
him for adoption the celebrated "Turtle Bayou Resolu
tions." These resolutions set forth that the people of Texas
were loyal to Mexico, that the taking up of arms Avas against
the tyranny of Bradburn and other small military tyrants,
and they declared against the Bustariierite Government and
in favor of that great champion of the liberty of people,
General Santa Anna. These resolutions served a very
useful purpose, as we shall later see. In the meantime re
inforcements arrived and the men from the Brazos moved
on to Anahuac, captured the town and sent the Mexican
soldiers back home and put Bradburn in the road to Louisi
ana, giving him a very limited time in which to reach the
frontier. The Battle of Velasco.
The men of Brazoria had put business before pleasure
aud had gone over to clean up Bradburn at Anahuac, before
doing the same honor to Colonel Ugartechea and his.com-
89

The Battle of Velasco
mand at Velasco, at the mouth of the Brazos. They ex
acted a gentlemen's agreement from the Colonel that he
Avould "stay put" and would not send any reinforcements
to Bradburn, or as it 'were, that he Avould be dormant while
they captured Bradburn and ran his garrison out of the
country. After this they plarined to come back and do the
same thing to Ugartechea, but it is not recorded that they
told him in so many words that this was their plan, al
though he well may have surmised it. After they had
gotten away and sent back for the cannon that Avas to be
brought up while the men of Brazoria Avaited at Turtle
Bayou, Ugartechea repented of his inactivity and refused
to allow boats carrying guns to Anahuac to pass out of the
river. In addition to this, the Colonel shoAved some signs
of activity about his fort, which indicated that he Avas put
ting himself in a high state of defense, and as soon as the
business at Anahuac Avas done, these same Brazoria per
sons turned their attention to Ugartechea 's garrison at
Velasco. William J. Russell, who had shot the Mexican
sentinel at Anahuac, was one of the leading spirits in the
Velasco Campaign.
The volunteers who enlisted for. the siege of Velasco
selected John Austin Captain. He was no kin to Stephen,
but had come to Texas from New England, at the beginning
of the colonies. The fort was attacked by land and by sea.
The navy was a small schooner Avhich Avas temporarily an
chored in the harbor, and which Admiral Russell impressed
into the service for the occasion. They turned this simple
little three-master into a man-of-AArar, placing tAvo small
cannon on its deck and eighteen rifle-men mid-ships, who
under the command of Admiral Russell, opened a bombard
ment from the river side of the fort. After the battle had
raged for a night and a day, the fort surrendered. Seven
90

The Battle of Velasco
Texans were killed and twenty-seven wounded. The Mex
ican losses were forty-tAvo dead and more than seventy
wounded. The terms of the surrender were, that Colonel
Ugartechea and the small remnant of his forces able to
migrate were to go back to Mexico. A feAv Aveeks later,
Colonel Piedras of Nacogdoches, who commanded the only
remaining garrison in Texas, was subjected to considerable
trouble by the colonists in East Texas ; and after some forty
of his men had been killed, and as many Avounded, he ac
ceded to the suggestion that he go south, and moved out
with the remnant of his garrison. With the passing of Pie
dras, the last of poor Teran's men were driven from Texas.
This spontaneous uprising on the part of the colonists, and
the bloody expulsion of the Mexican garrisons from Texas,
would undoubtedly have brought disaster to the colonists,
had it not been for the miraculous intervention of a timely
revolution in Mexico.
Upon the fall of Iturbede, in 1823, the ten-minute Con
gress assumed authority/ until the formation of the con
stitution, in 1824, and Guadalupe Victoria, a great and good
man, had been chosen first Constitutional President. Near
the close of his term, in 1828, a revolution resulted in Don
Manuel Pedraza being named President; but he Avas not
permitted to hold the office. Before he could get comfort
ably seated, another revolution, fomented by Santa Anna
and headed by Guerrero, took the Presidency vi et armis.
Bustamente Avas Guerrero's Vice President, and he
promptly started a new revolution which in the folloAving
year raised liim to the Presidency, and Avith the ascension of
this boisterous usurper, Guerrero, one of the purest of all
the Mexican patriots, Avas shot as a traitor.
It Avas during the term of Bustamente that the Decree of
1830 was promulgated, prohibiting the further immigration
91

Mejia's Fleet
of people from the States into Texas.. In 1832, Santa Anna,
who had backed Guerrero against Pedraza, who had coni
sistently plotted against every Government that had pre
vailed in Mexico since he was old enough to bear arms,
started the annual revolution against Bustamente. News
of Santa Anna's revolution reached Texas about the time
the men of the Brazos were on their way to Anahuac. The
people of Texas hoped and probably believed that Santa
Anna was an improvement on those who had been President,
and that he would keep his promise to maintain a Constitu
tional Government. At any rate, they declared for him and
this was the excuse that they offered for the expulsion of the
Mexican garrisons.
Mejia's Fleet.
The news of the forcible expulsion of the Mexican sol
diers from Texas made a terrific impression in Mexico. It
was received there with the same apprehension that was
felt at the Fredonian outbreak in 1826. Though Santa
Anna and Bustamente were in the death struggle for the
mastery of Mexico, both parties and all factions took a
moment's armistice at the receipt of the ill news of the
uprising in Texas. Teran had remained true to Bustamente
and commanded his forces in the Eastern Division. Santa
Anna sent Montezuma to assume command in that Division,
and a battle between him and Teran, fought in 1832,
gave Montezuma the advantage. Teran saw the sure suc
cess of Santa Anna, and ill news was coming to him from
Texas, all his worst fears now came upon him, and this tal
ented and valiant man fell on his sword at Perdillo, in June,
1832. Montezuma assumed charge of affairs, in the East
ern Division, in the name of Santa Anna, and since this
92

Mejia's Fleet
Division included Texas, he gave anxious heed to the wild
rumors of rebellion Avhich came thick and fast from Texas,
in the midsummer of that year. Like all the other Mexican
leaders, he assumed that the long looked for rebellion had
come to pass in Texas, and he saw behind it the AA'icked
schemes of the United States of the North. A temporary
truce was arranged between the warring factions in Mex
ico, who were so strenuously striving for each other's utter
extermination, while Montezuma organized and dispatched
a strong detachment to quell the rebellion in Texas.
Colonel Jose Antonio M^jia (Mexia) left Tampico in July
with a squadron of six ships and four hundred men and
with plenary powers to restore order and Mexican sove
reignty in Texas. As he came past Matamoros, he stopped
to confer with his arch enemy, Colonel Manzamores, who
still held that small corner of the earth for Bustamente, and
that worthy bade Mejia God-speed in his crusade against
the common enemy.
During these troubled days, Stephen F. Austin was down
at Saltillo, in Coahuila, where he was attending a session
of the Legislature, of which he was a member from Texas.
Poor Austin was not in sympathy with many of the hot
headed leaders in Texas, who were bent on war and sepa
ration from Mexico. He had been absent from home some
weeks and had not followed the trend of events. He was'
picked up at Matamoros by Mejia's fleet and came on with
them to the mouth of the Brazos, which they reached on
July 20th, a few Aveeks after the battle of Velasco. This
afforded Austin a splendid opportunity to impress upon
Mejia his fidelity to Mexico, and as was ever the case where
the Mexican leaders viewed Texas through an acquaintance
93

Mejia's Fleet
with Austin, the impression of Texas and the Texans Avas
decidedly improved.
The approach of Mejia's fleet, supposed to bring with it
the ire of Mexico, seemed to forebode dark days for the
colonists, and indeed there was much apprehension through
out the country during these summer days of 1832.
Colonel John Austin, Admiral William J. Russell, Wil
liam H. Wharton, and others who were awaiting the com
ing of Mejia's fleet, artfully met the situation by hastening
to meet and receive the Colonel as an accredited envoy of
Santa Anna, for Avhom they proclaimed in loud terms. In
order to duly impress Mejia with their sincerity, they or
ganized a mass meeting at Brazoria and with much cere
mony read in a loud tone of voice the "blessed Turtle Bayou
resolutions." Stephen Austin and Colonel Mejia Avere
everyAvhere received Avith transports of great joy and were
wined and dined up and down the Brazos. A banquet of
great dimensions was held at the plantation home of Wil
liam H. Wharton, at Eagle Island, just beloAv Brazoria,
where there was rhetoric, both in Spanish and English, and
music, and many good things to drink. Under these felici
tous environments, they gave cheers for Santa Anna and
the constitution of 1824, of which he Avas heralded as the
champion and preserver. Of course they did not knoAV
that in trading Bustamente for Santa Anna, they had
swapped the devil for the witch, or possibly I should say
the witch for the devil, but at any rate this turn of affairs
gave the colonists a respite of three or four years, during
which many things happened to improve their situation and
opportunities for successful resistance.
Colonel Mejia visited San Felipe and Nacogdoches and
other points in Texas and finding everywhere prepared
evidences of loyalty and devotion to Mexico and to the

94

Mejia's Fleet
constitution of 1824, and especially to Santa Anna, he went
home happy. One cannot but wonder what would have been
the result had this good natured, hard drinking Mexican
Colonel been a man of Teran's ability and foresight, but
' ' God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. ' '
Though Colonel Mejia was in those days a champion of
Santa Anna, things changed about in later years, and in
1839 he led an expedition outfitted largely at New Or
leans against Santa Anna, Avho Avas again in power.
At the battle of Hcajete, near Pueblo, he Avas defeated
and captured, and Santa Anna sentenced him to be shot in
half an hour. ' ' He is very kind, ' ' said General Mejia, ' ' had
I taken him I Avould have shot him in five minutes."

95

GENERAL SANTA ANNA.

THE REVOLUTION
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
It is Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-Two. The scenes are
now set for the great drama of the Revolution. It has been
ten years since Austin and his little company of first colo
nists camped on NeAV Years Creek and since William Mor
ton burned aAvay the cane brake and planted the first corn
crop on the banks of the Brazos across from where Rich
mond now stands. Yet these ten years have seen won
drous changes. In 1832 there were 30,000 people in Texas,
settled all the way from the Sabine to the Guadaloupe, all
for independence from Mexico, and many of them intem
perate and outspoken in their plans and purposes. They
had a contempt for the prudence and patience of Austin
and were open in their criticism of him.
As we are about to study this very important quadren
nial, 1832 to 1836, it is interesting to sketch an outline of
some of the remarkable characters who played upon this
stage. Biography must ever be one of the most important
forms of literature and history, for what is more interesting
to men than the relation of the deeds of other men of action
who have been upon. this mortal stage before we came Lo
play our petty. parts?
Of the many names we encounter in the drama of the
Revolution none is heard more often than that of Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna, who Avas born in Jalapa, Mexico, in
1792, and who died in the City of Mexico in his eighty-
fourth year, in 1876. FeAv men have had a more interest
ing and varied career. He entered the Spanish army at fif
teen, and fought against the patriot cause until he saw the
97

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
finish of Spanish sovereignty in 1821, when he, like Itur
bede, turned patriot. He supported Iturbede at first, but
as soon as that person eame into poAver Santa Anna began
to plot against him, for plotting was ever his chief enter
prise. As early as December, 1822, he openly revolted and
led the revolution which overthrew the empire and sent
Iturbede into exile. At the close of Victoria's term (he be
ing the first constitutional President), Santa Anna led a
second revolution against the seating of Gomez Pedraza,
who had been declared elected by Congress to succeed Vic
toria, and this revolution resulted in having Pedraza driven
out. Santa Anna played a leading part in placing the
patriot Guerrero in power instead of Pedraza. This was in
1828. The following year the Spanish Government made a
last feeble attempt to re-conquer Mexico, and landed a
force at Vera Cruz. Santa Anna led an army against the
Spaniards and defeated them, earning for himself the plau
dits of his country. It Avas currently rumored that he had in
fact assembled this force to overthrow Guerrero, whom he
had only a few months before placed in the presidency ; but
the Spanish invasion gave him a timely pretense to turn his
revolutionary designs into patriotic purposes. After his
military success against the Spaniards he retired to his es
tate at Jalapa. But Bustamente beat him to the next
revolution and made himself President in 1829. Naturally,
and very promptly,. Santa Anna now turned his attention
and his designs to Bustamente, for he was perfectly impar
tial in his plotting and consistently contrived against all
persons in power. In January, 1832, he declared openly
against the government of Bustamente and led the revolu
tion which culminated in this year, the effects of which were
felt throughout Texas. After his defeat of Bustamente
in December, 1832, he had himself elected President along
98

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
Avith Gomez Farias, Vice-President. Instead of going to the
capital and assuming the duties of the Chief Magistracy,
this strange, intriguing person invested Gomez Farias, the
Vice-President, Avith supreme power and again retired to his
estates in Jalapa to plot against his own administration.
His love of duplicity and intrigue Avere so great that he
relished such a role more than the realization of supreme
power. Then, too, he had in his campaign against Busta
mente posed as champion of constitutional government and
had allowed his name to be linked with a desire to restore
the constitution of 1824. i
This he had no notion of doing, and he did not dare
unmask at once after his elevation. BetAveen 1832 and
1834, while he was President in retirement, he actively en
gaged in several campaigns against spasmodic insurrections
here and there, always keeping the control of such military
organization as the country possessed. In 1834 he would re
sume the presidency, but though he were the lawful. Presi
dent and had the right to leave his estate and come into the
city and become President, yet force of habit was so strong
with him that he preferred to do so through the medium of
a revolution. So he led an insurrection against his Vice-
President, Gomez Farias, and took active charge of the
Government. During the tAvo years he had been President
in retirement he had alloAved all the odium of misgovern-
ment to accumulate against Farias. In January, 1835, he
had himself declared President by the Mexican Congress,
but almost immediately retired to his Jalapa plantation
and arranged for General Barragan to act as Provisional
President. He probably hoped that it would be necessary
to hatch a plot and start a revolution to put Barragan out.
From his estate in Jalapa he continued to arrange a plan
by which he would at the right time become absolute ruler
99

The First Texas Convention of October, 1832
of Mexico, and gradually, but thoroughly, he had all forms
of constitutional government abolished, dismantled the
State Governments to the extent that the Governors were to
be appointed by, and dependent upon, him, and "scrapped"
the constitution. Some of the State Governments resisted
the open attempt at subversion and stood out against him.
Coahuila Avas one of the last to fall. All hope that he would
protect the constitution of 1824 was now gone, the mask
was off ; and in 1835 Texans knew that the hour had struck.
This was the man whom they hailed as their deliverer in
1832, and whom they faced and fought as a tyrant in
1836.

The First Texas Convention of October, 1832.
We come now to the interesting epoch when the people
of Texas first began to assemble in convention and to discuss
the common weal. The mass meeting, and convention, as
these institutions had developed in the States, had become
a powerful medium of free speech. Such institutions were
unknown among the Latin people. In Mexico and I he other
Spanish^American countries, a mass meeting where men
assemble and discuss principles without coming to blows,
was unknown and impossible. In August, 1832, Horatio
Chrisman, first Alcalde of San Felipe, joined John Austin,
the second Alcalde, in a call for a general convention of
all the Colonies of Texas. The call indicated that it Avas to
discuss the misrepresentations that had been circulated con
cerning the purposes of Texas in driving out the garrisons
in 1832. The people wanted to go on record against the
rumor that Texas sought independence and to give some
public declaration of fealty to Mexico. It Avas also stated
in the call there was to be a discussion of Indian affairs.

100

The First Texas Convention of October, 1832
Fifty-six delegates . from sixteen districts assembled at
San Felipe, on the Brazos, Bexar alone being unrepresented.
The Mexican population of San Antonio could not be in
duced to join in such enterprise. Austin and William H.
Wharton Avere nominated to preside over the convention
and Austin Avas chosen President. The delegates came all
the way from the Sabine to Bastrop. When the conven
tion assembled it was discovered that there Avas a well-
divided and well-balanced division of sentiment, there
being a radical party that secretly favored independence
though they openly avowed the contrary, and a very con
servative party that did not favor separation from Mexico.
Austin Avas in all respects the soul and leader of the con
servatives. The. Whartons were the representatives and
leaders of the more radical element.
The first topic which came up for discussion Avas the de
cree of 1830, Avhich prevented the further settlement of
Americans in Texas. This had been the severest trial to the
colonists of all of the Mexican decrees. Though it had
been generally disregarded and people from the States
came freely during the period from 1830 to 1832, yet the
fact that they were denied the privilege of coming and ac
quiring a status of citizenship Avas a matter of grave
concern to the colonists. A committee of five Avas appointed
to prepare a mehiorial to the Mexican Republic praying for
a repeal of the exclusion law and to Set forth the trials and
dangers encountered in efforts to colonize the country, and
to emphasize the respect and attachment that the people
bore for the constitution and laws of the Republic.
William H. Wharton was made chairman of this commit
tee and AA-rote its report. An executive committee was ap
pointed to draft a petition for the reduction of the duties
on necessities. Another committee composed of Luke Leas-

101

The First Texas Convention of October, 1832
sier, William McFarland, William Menefee, Samuel Bruff
and Thomas Hastings Avas appointed to prepare a petition
to tbe State Government for a donation of land to Texas
for the creation of a school fund for the maintenance of
primary schools. This is probably the first legislation, if
it may be so called, bearing upon the topic of public schools,
that was ever formulated in Texas. But it must be remem
bered that this is the first public representative assemblage
that was ever held in Texas. The question uppermost in
the minds of those Avho sat in this convention was that of
separate statehood for Texas. It Avas discussed informally,
and there was an effort made to keep it from being brought
before the convention because there were those who foresaw
that a move in this direction would mean trouble. On the
third day, however, it was presented and debated with
much interest. A vote of 36 to 12 was registered in favor
of appointing a committee of tAVO from each municipality
to report the expediency of petitioning for a State Govern
ment. A memorial requesting a separate State Govern
ment was prepared, and William H. Wharton was chosen
messenger to present it, and it was suggested that Juan
Raphael Monchola, of Goliad, accompany him. It Avas nev
er, however, formally presented, and the question came up
again in 1833, and again in 1834, when Austin went to
Mexico to present such memorial and was imprisoned for
treason for having done so. After a six-day session the
convention adjourned. Before doing so, however, it ap
pointed a standing central committee in San Felipe which
was to be subordinate to the local committees in the dis
tricts represented in the convention. F. W. Johnson, whose
name is conspicuous during the revolutionary period,
was made chairman of this central committee with author
ity to call another convention, if necessary. The memorial
102

The Convention of 1833
requesting separate statehood Avas couched in the most
respectful and genteel terms ; its language Avas selected and
guarded. Yet strange as it may seem, not only the Mexican
authorities but the Mexican citizens of Texas looked upon
this simple, respectful petition as a declaration of war and
as treason of the first order. The political chief at San An
tonio, Don Jose de la Garza, wrote the Governor of Coa
huila referring to it as a wide-spreading insurrection, and
suggested, "that a true Mexican could but bitterly deplore
his misfortune and feel sore at the foreign hand that had
come boldly to rob him of his rights, employing physical
force when even rational arguments from such a source
ought hardly be tolerated. ' ' No clearer glimpse of the Mexi
can mind can be shown than these chance expressions found
in Garza's letter. A Mexican could not understand how it
were possible that there would be such a thing as a law
ful loyal assemblage to voice public sentiment. Such a thing
seemed as paradoxical to him as a lawful riot or a peaceful
fight. To hiin all such meetings Avere per se treasonable
and revolutionary.
The central committee provided by this convention was
the first State Governmental machinery devised in Texas.
Through it another convention Avas called the folloAving
year. The Convention of 1833.
The news of the San Felipe Convention of 1832 produced
as great a commotion in Mexican political circles as the
Fredonian Rebellion had done six years before. All official
Mexico regarded it as seditious and treasonable that the
colonists should assemble in a public place and state their
grievances. The patriotic utterances found in the journal
103

The Convention of 1833
of the convention seemed to have been accepted as a chal
lenge to Mexican sovereignty. When the matter Avas called
to the attention of Santa Anna, who was at the moment in
supreme authority in Mexico, he wrote: "I am satisfied
that the foreigners who have intruded themselves into the
province of Texas have a strong tendency to declare them
selves independent of the republic, and their remonstrances
and complaints are but disguised to that end." He sug
gested that General Filisola be sent into Texas with a suffi
cient force ' ' to- secure the integrity of our territory. ' ' The
Minister of State wrote the political chief at San Antonio :
"Your Lordship will make use of all means in your poAver
to cause these Texans to understand that such excesses
among them as have recently come to light must inevitably
bring ruin upon them." In the meamvhile the colonists
were utterly oblivious to the storm that the San Felipe Con
vention of 1832 had produced in far away Mexico, called
and planned the second convention of all Texas, which as
sembled at San Felipe on the Brazos in 1833. The central
committee which had been constituted by the convention
the year before, issued the call in January. This second
convention was in many respects a repetition of the first.
About the same number of delegates attended. Austin and
Wharton were again candidates for the presidency or chair
manship of the convention, and this time Wharton Avas
chosen, shoAving a tendency towards a more radical course.
Sam Houston appeared in this convention as a delegate
from San Augustine, and this was his first appearance and
participation in public affairs in Texas. The conven
tion the year before had approached the question of separate
statehood delicately and declared for it, and pointed out
provisions of the constitution of Coahuila and Texas which
had been adopted in 1827, which justified the setting
104

The Convention of 1833
up of a separate State Government in Texas. These pro
visions declared that as soon as Texas should be in a con
dition to form a State it should make a declaration to that
effect to Congress for further action. The Convention of
1832 and the one of 1833 seemed, therefore, to have been
following this constitutional provision, and neither did
more than to make a declaration in favor of separate state
hood. The Convention of 1833 Avent so far as to propose a
constitution for the new State". Stephen F. Austin and
James B. Miller, of Gonzales, and Juan Erasmus Seguin,
the same urbane gentlemen Avho had been sent tAvelve years
before to welcome Austin to Texas, Avere appointed messen
gers to bear this petition to Mexico. Austin alone went
on this perilous mission, leaving Texas early in May, 1833.
His good faith and the good faith of his people seemed
sufficient to guarantee the integrity of his enterprise. The
people of Texas did not knoAV the effect that these con
ventions had upon the Mexican mind, else this journey
never would have been undertaken.
The most interesting thing Avhich this convention did
was to form a proposed constitution for the proposed State.
The document is yet in existence and is the first of our
many constitutions. It contains a clause declaring that no
bank shall be established in Texas for 99 years. It is said
that Dr. Archer proposed a plan for creation of a State
bank, and that Sam Houston led the opposition to it. This
Was but a reflex of the fight that had been raging in the
States, and that yet raged, on during the Jackson Adminis
tration over the Bank of the United States.
We all know that Jackson 's fight on the bank was the re
sult of one of his petty prejudices and not from any prin
ciple. But it became a conviction with him, one of his very
articles of faith, and he kept on Avith the fight until he
105

Austin's Second Journey to Mexico, in May, 1833
destroyed the bank and the credit of the country, and
brought on our first real financial panic. Houston was in
all things a devotee and folloAver of General Jackson, and
on his first opportunity in Texas he began a Jackson fight
on the phantom bank Which Avas proposed for incorporation
in the proposed constitution for the proposed State. His
arguments against the bank prevailed, and it was outlaAved
for 99 years. As long as Houston dominated in Texas af
fairs there Avas no banking system, nor Avere there any
banks in Texas until long after it became a State in the
American Union.

Austin's Second Journey to Mexico, in May, 1833.
Eleven years had elapsed since Austin, a youth only
twenty-eight years old, had made his first visit to Mexico
and had gotten a confirmation of his father's colonial
grant. He had spent these years betAveen in unremitting
toil and had seen his colonial enterprise prosper and flour
ish. It was against his judgment that he undertook the
mission thrust upon him by the Convention of 1833, but he
knew that no one else in Texas could do so with any assur
ance of success. At Matamoros he had an intervieAv with
General Filisola and Avas reassured by that gentleman, who
advised Austin that he was about to re-establish military
garrisons in Texas to enforce the revenue laws. After
this conference, Austin wrote back to Brazoria: "I have
pledged my honor that Filisola would have the full support
of Texas in sustaining the laAv, and I have full confidence
that the people will not forget my pledge." This letter
was written just before he took passage for Vera Cruz and
he assures his people of his faith in the Mexican Govern
ment. He reached the City of Mexico in June, 1833, in the
106

Austin's Second Journey to Mexico, in May, 1833
midst of a terrible epidemic of cholera. After a long time
he was able to present the memorial of the San Felipe
Convention of 1833 to the Mexican Congress, then in session,
and he labored through the Avhole summer in an effort to
get some recognition of the plans for separate statehood.
He did succeed in getting a revocation of the Decree of
1830 forbidding further emigration from the States, and
Avhen we understand the circumstances it is marvelous that
he accomplished this much. He continued his labors until
December of 1833, and Avas noAv convinced that Santa Anna
was at heart a despot and that Congress would deny to Texas
a separate statehood. He had not received the warm hand
of cordial treatment that he had been accorded in Mexi
can official circles on his former visit to the city. He found
a general distrust against the Texans, and especially the
people and the Government of the United States. He then
suspected and Ave now knoAv, that this was in part brought
about by the conduct of the American Minister to Mexico.
The Adams administration had sent Joel Poinsette of South
Carolina as Minister to Mexico, and had caused him to
labor unceasingly for the purchase of Texas. Although
his plan of procedure Avas not always commendable, yet
there was nothing particularly vicious or unseemly about it.
But with the incoming of the Jackson Administration and
the spoils system of public office Avhich General Jackson in
troduced, some strange personalities got into power, not
only in Washington but everyAvhere that political intrigue
could succeed in naming an office seeker to place. One
Anthony Butler had been made Minister to Mexico, and
a student of Mexican and American history, after the
lapse of nearly a hundred years, is brought to blush at the
infamy of this individual. He intrigued against every
Government that prevailed in Mexico during his stay there.
107

Austin in Prison
He intrigued against Texas and the Texans, and he helped
circulate false rumors about Austin, and probably con
tributed largely to the failure of Austin's mission, and to
his. subsequent imprisonment. Shortly before leaving the
City of Mexico for his return home, Austin addressed a let-.
ter to the Ayuntemento at San Antonio urging the peo
ple of that jurisdiction to join the other districts of Texas
in requesting separate statehood. He, no doubt, felt that
if the Mexican population of San Antonio would join the
other Colonies in such a request that it would have weight ;
and he also felt some chagrin that the San Antonio people
withheld their influence in this matter. This letter con
tained an expression that was a little injudicious. He
wrote : ' ' All the municipalities of Texas should come
without delay to an understanding and arrange a local
Government for Texas as a State of the Mexican Federation.
Things should be prepared Avith harmony, thus being ready
for the time Avhen the Congress will refuse approval. ' ' He
left the City of Mexico December 10th. This letter which
he had dispatched to San Antonio in October was promptly
returned to the City of Mexico, and as soon as its contents
were made known to the Government officials there, orders
were issued for Austin's arrest, and he was overtaken at
Saltillo and apprehended and carried back to the City of
Mexico and incarcerated in a dungeon which had been left
over from the Spanish Inquisition.
Austin in Prison.
Austin has left among his papers a diary beginning with
the day he left the City of Mexico, on December 10th, and
covering a large part of the time that he was in prison. He
probably wrote his diary during the latter part of his im-
108

Austin in Prison
prisonment, when he was allowed some liberty and subjected
to less Scrutiny. The first pages indicate that they may
have been written upon the dates they bear, as they give
no intimation of his impending arrest. He left the City of
Mexico traveling in a coach Avith several Avell known gentle-*-
men. The party was in constant apprehension of brigands
and went well armed. On December 16th they reached
Quartero, where thirty years later Maximilian met his
fate. He spent the day there and visited the churches and
other places of interest. That he had no forewarning of
the danger that awaited him seems obvious from the follow
ing taken from his 'diary covering his stay in Quar
tero: "16th December.
"We remain in Quartero; visited convents. There are
many and very large. One has a large fountain constructed
by a marquis who has perpetuated his fame and piety by a
statue of himself of his own size which stands in the cen
ter of the fountain ou the base of stone. There are exten
sive baths convenient to this fountain constructed by this
same marquis. One wonders how much sweat and tears
from the Indian slaves it cost which the marquis employed
in the construction of this fountain and baths, but he re
ceived absolution from the monks and went to heaven. In
the orchard there are many pretty cypress trees. I col
lected seeds from them to carry to Texas. They showed
me some of these trees planted by the hands of Rev. Father
Morfit, who had been a monk in this convent and was at
one time a missionary at Nacogdoches, in Texas. This -
monk is very famous, for he has been a second Moses. At
Nacogdoches all the springs went dry and he went out'
with images of the saints and necessary apparatus to per-. '
form miracles. He struck a blow with a rod of iron on a

109

Austin in Prison
rock Avhich stands on the bank of Lanana Creek in Nacog
doches and immediately a stream of wafer gushed out suffi
cient to supply the inhabitants Avith water to drink. This
miracle was canonized in Rome and a print of engraving of
the Father was made. This same padre, when he left Nac
ogdoches for .Bexar, lost a baggage mule which a tiger
killed, and in the morning as soon as the padre kneAV it he
made the tiger come and kneel at his feet and then he
was harnessed and loaded with the baggage of the dead
mule, which he carried to Bexar, and then having received
a pardon for having killed the mule was sent back to the
desert. All this is true because several old women told it
to me in Nacogdoches and in Bexar and we ought never to
suppose that Rome would order an engraving to be made of
.the miracle of the water only to deceive credulous people."
The journal continues Avith this same delightful narra
tive until his arrival at Saltillo on February 3rd, Avhen it
contains the simple memorandum :
"On the third day I was arrested by General Lemus by
orders from the Secretary of War, dated in Mexico, De
cember 21st. ' '
Daily entries covered the return to the City of Mexico.
February 13th: "In Mexico, Avhere I was put in the In
quisition, shut up in the dark dungeon I am not alloAved
communication with anyone. "
"February 14th: Heard cannon fire during the day in
memory of Guerrero, Avho was shot on this day, 1831."
The entry of February 20th is interesting and has since
¦caused much comment : " Is it or not the interest of Texas
to separate herself even if she were at liberty to do so?
No, certainly not. Is it or not the interest of the United
"States of the North to acquire Texas? It is not, because she
would extend her territory too much. And Avhat is Avorse?
110

Austin in Prison
She would annex a large district which would have no in
terest in common with the rest of the republic. All the
rivers of Texas take their rise in Texas at a little distance
from each other and do not enter the territories of the
north so as to form bonds of union as does the River Mis
sissippi in Louisiana and other States adjacent. There is no
market in the north for the produce of Texas, and there
is in Mexico. Texas is more distant to the seat of Washing
ton than from the City of Mexico. As regards the trade
with Europe, the Mexican flag is equal to that of the north.
What then is the true interest of Texas? It is to have
local Government, to cement and strengthen its union with
Mexico instead of weakening or breaking it. What Texas
wants is an organization of a local government, and it is of
little consequence whether it be a part of Coahuila or a
separate State or Territory, provided the organization be a
suitable one."
Whether Austin expressed his real sentiments or whether
he was writing this for the eye of his inquisitors has been
a matter of much speculation, but I am inclined to believe
that he meant what he Avrote, for I do not think that he
was capable of duplicity even though he were in the dun
geon of the Inquisition facing trial for treason.
"February 26th. What a horrible punishment is soli
tary confinement, shut up in a dungeon with scarcely light
enough to distinguish anything! If I were a criminal it
would be another thing, but I am not one. I have been en
snared and precipitated, but my intentions were pure and
correct." "February 23rd: Philanthropy is but another name of
trouble. I have labored with pure intentions to benefit
others, and especially to advance and improve my adopted
country. What have I gained ? Enemies, persecution, im-
111

Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-Four
prisonment, accused of ingratitude to Mexico, Avhich is one
of the most unjust accusations which can be brought against
me." There are many things in this interesting diary which
every Texan should read. Broken in health from the ar
duous labors of the last decade, and now confined in this
dark, solitary dungeon, poor Austin indeed had a right to
feci that his philanthropy Avas the cause of all his troubles.
Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-four.
There Avas no convention or general assembly in Texas
this year. Austin's imprisonment had cast a gloom over the
Colonies. There had been high hopes that when he reached
Mexico bearing the worthy memorials of the San Felipe
Convention of 1833, that the difficulties of Texas would
find solution.
To all thoughtful men his incarceration was the last
challenge, but both popular expression and open action were
arrested for fear that any action or outburst in Texas would
cost Austin his life. In the meantime every semblance
of State Government in Texas and Coahuila was going to
pieces. There was a civil war raging in Coahuila between
two factions, one declaring that Saltillo was the capital of
the State and the other holding forth at Monclova.
Oliver Jones was the delegate from Texas to the State
Congress or Legislature, and in September he wrote from
Monclova that the State Government was gone and that
anarchy prevailed. Though Texas had no State Govern
ment, yet the people of the Colonies were industrious and
orderly and the local Ayuntementos in the different dis
tricts furnished a substantial local government for the
time being. The year before the State had been divided
112

Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-Four
into the departments of Brazos and Nacogdoches, and Henry
Smith of Brazoria had been named political chief of the
Department of Brazos, he being the first American honored
with such an appointment. His elevation placed him in
leadership during the absence of Austin. Upon the receipt
of Jones' letter, Smith issued a long address, the gist of
which was, that since there Avas no State Government in
Coahuila, and since Texas must have a government, there
fore it should take the initiatiAre and organize one. He
suggested another convention. Henry Smith Avas indeed a
worthy patriot. The. year folloAving he Avas chosen Provi
sional Governor of Texas, and the portrait of the old fron
tiersman hangs in our State capitol today as the first of
the American Governors of Texas. But as a political leader
in troublesome times, he was a sad failure.
The people of Bexar had never co-operated with the other
Colonies in any movement looking to the common good,
but there Avere some splendid men among the Mexican citi
zens there. Seguin wrote Smith this year suggesting a
convention at Bexar. Since this was the first time that
any offer of co-operation had been made from that source,
the invitation was seized upon, and there was for a time
considerable hope that a convention could be held at San
Antonio which could probably find avenues of access to
Mexican political life not open from San Felipe. The peo
ple of San Antonio, however, did not act upon the sug
gestion and nothing definite came of it.
In the meanwhile Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, a bril
liant Mexican officer and leader, well known in that day
and generation, visited the Colonies as the representative
of Santa Anna and. assured the people of the benevolence
of this great Republican Chieftain. Almonte came again to
Texas in 1836 and was in the battle of San Jacinto. A Mex-

113

Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-Four
ican subaltern, who afterwards wrote an account of the bat
tle, says that when he reached a bayou Avhere the fleeing
Mexican soldiers were struggling to get across, he saAV
Almonte plunge into the water and SAvim across holding his
sword in his hand above the water as though to keep it
dry. A few days following the battle, a Texas lad picked
up a SAVord on the bank of the bayou and in years later
a son of this boy, then a very old man, gave me the sword,
and I have it. It may be Almonte's sword, but it may not.
At the time of his first visit to Texas in 1834, he Avas only
thirty years old, was a man of splendid appearance and ad
dress, and was just entering upon a long, stormy career
in Mexican political life. Almonte was the natural son of
the Mexican patriot priest Morelos, who started a revolu
tion for independence against Spain in 1811. On one oc
casion when there was grave doubt as to the fidelity of his
followers, Morelos appeared before a gathering or mob
and tried to make an address. As soon as he came and
looked into the faces of those around him, he saw his doom.
Standing at a distance in the audience he saw the eager
face of his son, for whom he had a deep affection. Pointing
to the youth he exclaimed shrilly, "Almonte, Almonte" (to
the mountain; to the mountain). He was warning the
lad to flee for his life, and the boy made his escape. And
when this genial gentleman came to a man's estate he car
ried with him the name Almonte Avith which he Avas thus
tragically christened. When Waddy Thompson was Amer
ican Minister to Mexico in the forties, he became a close
friend of Almonte, and often visited in his home, Avhere he
saAV the portrait of Morelos, represented in the uniform of
a Mexican General, but wearing the priest's mitre. Al
monte was active in Mexican political affairs for thirty
114

The Land Scandals of 1835
years and went down with the ill fated Empire in the late
sixties. While he was in Texas in 1834, Austin was in
prison in. Mexico, and he promised his assistance for his
liberation upon his return, and it is said he made his prom
ise good.
On October 5, 1834, Santa Anna called a council to dis
cuss the state of affairs in Texas. Among those present
were Lorenza de Zavala, then high in Mexican official cir
cles and about to be sent as Minister to France, and they
brought Austin out of prison to sit in this council. Santa
Anna, with his usual urbanity, treated Austin with great
consideration, and Texas' affairs Avere discussed with con
siderable freedom. It was, hoAvever, decided that Texas
should remain attached to Coahuila, and Austin was sent
back to prison. It Avas also decided at this conference to
send a garrison of four thousand troops to Texas to keep
away the Indians. The end of this year found Texas Avith-
out a government and Austin yet in prison.
The Land Scandal of 1835.
The year 1835 was an unhappy and turbulent one in
Texas. Austin Avas still in prison. By midsummer all sem
blance of Mexican authority had disappeared from the
Colonies, The State Government doAvn in Coahuila had
been torn into rival factions openly at war with each other,
and this furnished some pretext for Santa Anna's inter
vention. Before the State Legislature was entirely sup
pressed, it loaned itself to a series of land acts which were
the legislative scandal of those days, and which have come
doAvn to us Avith a forbidding odor even after nearly one
hundred years. 115

The Land Scandals of 1835
We find in these "land grabbing" enterprises the names
of some of our most sterling patriots. It is a story as old as
Egypt, for: "Who can doubt the secret hid
Under Cheops pyramid,
Is that the contractor did
Cheops out of several million?"
Land speculation was rife in those days and the millions
of acres of open domain which lay unclaimed was a tempta
tion which Avould have misled any generation of our an
cestors and which might even tempt us today. But it
must be remembered that the acquisition of real estate ha3
ever been one of the strong characteristics of our tribe.
There is a story of how two itinerant Saxon Chiefs came
to Nortb England centuries ago and bought an oxhide of
earth, and how they cut the oxhide in strips and in the
rainy season stretched it around what is now a large pari
of an English shire.
Well, the oxhide trick was worked overtime down at
Monclova in 1834 and 1835.
In the colonization law of 1825, there was a provision
which was construed to give the State Government authority
to sell land to Mexicans upon such terms as it might See
fit, as much as eleven leagues of land in a single grant.
Eleven leagues of land — how that term sounds to us who
have seen a city lot sell for five hundred dollars a front foot,
or a single oil acre for tens of thousands. Eleven leagues
of land; this is nearly fifty thousand English acres. Enter
prising Mexicans were not long in learning of this privilege,
and soon after its passage, one Juan Antonio Padilla pro
cured the first grant, which was located in 1828. There
Avere numerous grants Avhich sold for as Ioav as -$100.00
116

The Land Scandals of 1835
per league. In 1830, the patriot James Bowie, who is said
to have been the inventor and a skillful operator of the
knife which bears his name, journeyed doAvn to Saltillo
and induced various Mexicans residing there to apply for
eleven league grants, and Avhen they had been made BoAvie
purchased the certificates and they were trafficked about and
locations were made under them. These transactions much
disturbed many of the Colonies, for the locations under
these large grants bearing Mexican names often conflicted
Avith the little land holdings of a stockman farmer who only
had a petty league and labor.
They threatened to hinder Ben Milam's Red River Colony
in a serious way, and he undertook a trip to Mexico in 1834
to protest against them, and was returning from that long
perilous journey in 1835 when he joined the patriot army
on its Avay to Bexar. In the troubled days of 1834 and 1835,
when the State Government of Coahuila was in confusion,
there were a series of these acts which reflect no credit
upon the times.
In 1834, an act was passed designed to grant a bounty
to soldiers who would enlist for service against the Indians,
and under this act Samuel M. Williams, Robert Peeples
and F. W. Johnson obtained a grant for one hundred
leagues. The last Legislature Avhich met in 1835 was un
usually active in this regard. An act was passed on March
14th, which gave the Governor authority in the "present
emergency" to dispose of lands about as he saw fit, and
under it, certificates for about 400 leagues were issued.
S. M. Williams and John Durst got one hundred and
twenty-four of these certificates which they resold. The last
of these land statutes were passed in April, 1835, just before
Cos ' army reached Monclova on its march north for Texas
via Coahuila. It was knoAvn that the army was approaching

117

The Land Scandals of 1835
with authority to suppress the Legislature, and in its dy
ing hours on April 7th, it passed a final enactment which
gave the Governor yet more authority to sell land.
Doctor James Grant, Avho perished in the Revolution
only a feAV months later, came aAvay Avith certificates for
100 leagues Avhich he sold and after his death his estate
listed unlocated and unsold certificates for 300 leagues. As
Cos' army approached there Avas a Avild exodus of legis
lators and land speculators.
Governor Viesca decided to cast his lot Avith the Texans
and left for the Rio Grande along with a company of Texans
who rode out of Monclova just before the Mexican army
rode in.
These land transactions were seized upon by Santa Anna
as a cause for his attitude tOAvards the State Government
of Coahuila and the Texans. It was declaimed that a cor
rupt Mexican Legislature connived with a worse coterie of
Texans in schemes to exploit the public domain, and that
severe military measures Avere necessary to prevent these
Avholesale frauds. Hence these land speculations are often
given as one of the causes of the Revolution, though in
fact we knoAV they were an incident rather than a cause.
But nowhere were they more severely condemned than in
Texas. Almost every public gathering during 1834 and 1835
denounced them in terrible terms. The Provisional Govern
ment, organized at San Felipe in the autumn of 1835,
closed the land office until affairs should become more set
tled. The Congress of the Republic in 1840 conducted a
thorough investigation of these so-called land frauds, and
a vast amount of information Avas gathered and much of it
written in the legislative journals.

118

Gonzales
But for the most part those whose names were connected
with these ventures, earned absolution in the Revolution.
BoAvie fell at the Alamo, Grant at Refugio.
Frank Johnson was in the siege of Bexar. They were
not bad men merely because they coveted land in large
quantities. "Their bones are dust,
Their good swords rust,
Their souls are with the saints,
We trust."
Gonzales. After reducing the State Government in Coahuila Gen
eral Cos came on to Bexar with a considerable army, where
he stationed himself among a fairly congenial Mexican pop
ulation. Through the military authorities there, an order
Avas issued for the arrest of some of the more outspoken men
in the Colonies for seditious utterances. R. M. Williamson
(three-legged Willie) had made a ATery patriotic 4th of July
address which was considered treasonable. Colonel Travis
had led a small force Avhich had forcibly expelled the
Mexican garrison at Anahuac in July. Lorenza De Zavala
had fled from Mexico and taken up his residence on
Buffalo Bayou below Harrisburg. These men and others
were to be arrested and sent to Mexico for trial. Some let
ters which were sent from Cos to Colonel Ugartechea told
of active plans to punish the Colonies, and all Avas at white
heat as the early autumn approached. A general consulta
tion was called to meet at San Felipe in October. The
militia Was being organized everyAA'here, and no man now
doubted that war to the death Avas inevitable. Amid these
stirring scenes so full of apprehensions when the convention

119

Gonzales
Avas about to assemble and men Avere everyAvhere leaving
their homes for military service, a tremendous comet sud
denly appeared and filled the evening skies with a wierd,
sinister light.
In the lonely plantation homes Avhere the husband and
father was away in the gathering army this strange astral
Avanderer left a feeling of terror and awe Avhich was daily
augmented by the Avildest rumors of Mexican invasion and
Indian uprisings.
The storm broke doAvn at Gonzales in October, when
Colonel Ugartechea, the same who was driven- out of
Velasco in 1832, came Avith a small detachment of men to
take away a cannon Avhich the Government had furnished
the settlement some years before for defense against the
Indians. Anticipating this attempt several hundred Texans
had hurriedly gathered, and the first skirmish, sometimes
rcalled our Lexington, resulted in the very hurried return
of the Mexicans to Bexar Avithout the cannon.
There were stirring scenes on the Guadaloupe in these
October days. Colonel John H. Moore with a company of
men from LaGrange was among the first to arrive. Fannin
was there with the Brazoria guards. R. M. Coleman was
there with men from Bastrop. A small detachment from
the Colorado under Thomas Alley were the first to come.
Austin, Avho had been released from prison a few months
before, had landed at the mouth of the Brazos in September,
and had ridden by San Felipe, thence on to Gonzales, Avhere
he arrived on October 10th.
The two Whartons, Wm. J. Russell and Wm. H. Jack
came across from Brazoria.
Years later Russell told of an interesting incident he
witnessed betAveen Austin and Wm. H. Wharton. They
had been estranged and for some years were not on speak-
120

Gonzales
ing terms. Wharton had been a bitter critic of Austin and
had attacked his pacific policies in public print.
When Russell and Wharton reached the log house in
Gonzales Avhere they Avere to spend the night, thej' were
told that Colonel Austin had preceded them a few hours
and was in the next room. Russell, with Wharton's permis
sion, Avent in to speak with Austin and offer reconciliation.
He says that when he entered the room Austin Avas lying
on a blanket utterly exhausted from a long day's ride in
the rain, that his thin, pale face shoAved ghastly in the faint
light of a candle by which he Avas Avriting.
The buoyant boy who fourteen years before had ridden
to Bexar to begin his Colonial enterprise was at forty-one a
broken, dying man.
When Russell addressed him he Avas glad to forget all dif
ferences and in almost sepulchral voice bemoaned the plight'
of "poor Texas."
The next day they chose him .Commander-in-Chief of the
"Federal Army." When he Avas returning to Texas from
his first visit to Mexico in 1823, the military commandant
at Monterey had commissioned him a Lieutenant Colonel so
that during the colonial days he had been Colonel Austin.
He was now General Austin, with an army of 600 men,
and the first order he issued on the day of his. election Avas
to cross the Guadaloupe and on to Bexar.
The most interesting picture of these Gonzales days that
has come to us is found in the delightful narrative of Noah
SmithAvick, a young man Avho Avas one of these volunteers,
and marched with them to San Antonio. Sixty years later
the old man dictated his recollections to his daughter, avIio
wrote in pleasing style :
' ' Colonel Milam joined us at Gonzales. He had recently
escaped a Mexican prison and his Wardrobe was much
121

The Consultation
depleted. He was more than six feet and his pantaloons
and sleeves were far too short for his stature. Buckskin
breeches Avere the nearest approach to uniform, and they
were of every variety and complexion — some too short,
others too long. Here a broad brimmed sombrero over
shadowed a military cap and a tall bee gum Avould ride
along with a coonskin cap Avith tail hanging doAvn behind as
all well regulated tails should do. Here a big American
horse loomed above a Spanish pony or a skittish mustang
pranced along Avith a methodical mule. Here a bulky roll
of quilts jostled a bundle of blankets or more apt a buffalo
robe, or a gaudy counterpane woven by tender hands with
no shadow of presentiment that it should be a Avinding
sheet. ' ' In lieu of canteens each soldier carried a Spanish gourd.
So with the old cannon flag flying and the artillery (the
one cannon) mounted on a wooden Avheeled wagon driven
by teams of oxen, we filed out of Gonzales and took up our
march on to San Antonio. At the Cibola Creek, Sam Hous
ton came up with us. It Avas my first sight of him. I have
a vivid picture of him now as he rode into our camp alone
mounted on a small yellow Spanish stallion, his feet almost
touching the ground. He almost immediately returned to
San Felipe to attend the convention."
And noAV we must leave the buckskin army on its way to
Bexar and foregather with those who sat in the consulta
tion. The Consultation.
In the midsummer of 1835, the local committee of safety
at San Felipe had proposed that each jurisdiction through
out Texas send one member to San Felipe, and that these
122

The Consultation
members compose a temporary committee of safety pend
ing the general convention which was to assemble in the
autumn. This suggestion was acted upon, and R. R. Royal
of Matagorda Avas chosen to preside over this council. It
acted as a kind of clearing house for revolutionary activi
ties and was the nearest approach to a governmental body
Avhich prevailed in the interim.
When the consultation met and was organized, the Gen
eral Council, as the Central Committee was called, Avound
up its affairs and made a final report to the convention,
which assumed governmental functions.
It met on October 15th, but was adjourned from day to
day to November 1st, awaiting the arrival of the delegations.
R. R. Royal called the convention to order, and on motion
of Sam Houston, of Nacogdoches, Doctor Branch T. Archer
was chosen to preside.
It fell his lot to make what we now call the keynote
speech, which he did Avithout unnecessary rhetoric. His
address is copied in the journal of the Consultation, and
one reading it now after the lapse of years is impressed with
its calm dignity. He recommended,-
(a) A declaration of causes.
(b) The organization of a provisional Government.
(c) A military organization.
-. (d) A conciliatory arrangement with the Indians.
/'(e) That the recent fraudulent. land grants be looked
into.
The first brisk discussion arose over the declaration of
causes. The convention was much divided as to whether
there shouMiiilajllciaratie&^f^^

stitutionj^^4,J^ndjjJ:aj^ maintain rela-
Jiansjvjijiji&^

123

The Consultation
John Austin Wharton, delegate from Brazoria, led the
fight for an immediate JjeclariTtion oT independence, but
Sam Houston and other older men urged a last_stanjLioi:
the Federal constitution. Austin favored this course.
There Avas a hope among the Texans, even at this latfijumr,
that there would be a faction in Mexico opposed to Santa
Anna's usurpations, who would. join Texas in a fight to
~p^elierve3h£conI^^
"mfluencgjhejgnve^ sad .effort-to.
uphold the Mexican constitution after every Mexican State
had succumbed,,
Texas was' soon_jmdeceivedin_ this jvain hope, and w_fa&n
the next convention met in the following March, a declara-
tion of independence was adopted at the opening_hour and
lifter that they proceeded to other business. In many re-
"speeti" ThlTConsuHaTion' of 1835 Avas the most interesting
convention which ever assembled in Texas. It was the
third All Texas Convention that had met at San Felipe^
and thejast^jor the one in March met at^WAshuigtQix^Jxn
the JBrazos.
A plan for a provisional government was made with
great care and it provided for a Governor, a Lieutenant-
Governor and a General Council with a member from each
municipality. The names of Henry Smith and Austin were
placed before the convention for Governor. Smith was
chosen, for it was designed to send Austin as a commission
er to the United States. James W. Robinson, of Naeogdo-
ches, was made Lieutenant-Governor. Article 14 of the
Plan for Provisional Government closed the land office
"during the unsettled and agitated condition of the coun
try, ' ' so that no land grants could be made, and none were
made until after the organization of the Republic in 1836.
Among the many worthy things done in this year, none
124

The Consultation
speaks louder in the commendation of that generation of
men than this precautionary act of closing the land office
to protect the public domain.
Tlie new Government Avas without money or credit, and
its land was the only possible source of revenue, and though
they were in a death struggle and kneAV not where financial
support was to be had, they placed the public domain in
safe keeping for their children. Hoav nobly they discharged
this trust should ever be told to their praise.
Only a few years ago a wild scheme was proposed to
found the Bank of Texas upon the credit of the school fund
which came from this domain, but the halloAved memory
of the fathers who kept it intact in the dark hours of the
revolution frustrated the design.
' RtgpJien-J1. AuatJHy— WMiaxa— H — Wharton and Doctor
Branch T. Archer were chosen commissioners to the United
States~arid urged tq_ r^oceedJ.hej^.jLL^flce^and use every
mTOn"s~to' arouse sympajtlvy„iuifl , pxo^mi^-ai5SJ^tanc^in_tjhje^
"SfHesT"

The convention adjourned on November 14th, but issued
a call for another to meet at Washington, on the Brazos,
on March 1, 1836. The difficulties which confronted the
new Government are aptly stated in a single sentence of
Governor Smith's first message to the Council on Novem
ber 16th:
"We have to call system out of chaos, to start the wheels3
of government dogged by discordant interests. Without
funds, without munitions of war, with an army in the
field contending against a powerful foe, these are the aus
pices under which Ave are forced to make a beginning."
In the meantime Avhile the Consultation deliberated and
the General Council sat, the Federal army, as General Aus
tin called it, was investing Bexar.

125

The Siege of Bexar
The Siege of Bexar.
The patriot army reached the suburbs of San Antonio
in the last days of October, 1835. There Avere at that time
about seven hundred men in the command. Austin divided
them in two divisions, one of which was stationed beloAV the
city in the command of James Bowie, the other up the
river under Edward Burleson.
There was much division of opinion as to Avhether the
city should be stormed, and one studying the military tac
tics of the campaign is impressed with the entire Avant of
discipline or vigorous command. Austin's health Avas bad
and he had no military experience. While he Avas neither
lacking in courage nor firmness, yet he was by no means an
ideal commander. Then, too, the volunteer army was an im
promptu affair. Many of the men had left their families
on exposed frontiers and would go home the first opportun
ity. The whole army was in a fair way to have disbanded
and gone home, but was much encouraged by the arrival of
the New Orleans Grays on November 21st. Though there
were only sixty-four men in the company, yet it Avas the
first installment of the effective help which came from the
States to take part in the Revolution. Their arrival marks
such an important and interesting chapter in our affairs
( that 1 feel justified in copying a page from the interesting
Aory of John Henry Brown describing the event :
"Late in the afternoon of November 21st, the NeAV Or
leans Grays, afterwards so distinguished for gallantry, the
first to join the standard of Texas from the United States,
arrived in the vicinity, and on the 22nd, reported themselves
for duty. They numbered sixty-four men and had sailed
from New Orleans in October on the schooner 'Columbus'
for the mouth of the Brazos Avith a supply of provisions and
126

The Siege of Bexar
military stores contributed by the people of New Orleans.
They were received with great enthusiasm at Velasco and
Quintana, where ladies waved their handkerchiefs and men
fired artillery. At Brazoria they were received with a yet
more intense enthusiasm — flowers were strewn along their
line of march and they were entertained there by Mrs.
Jane H. Long, widow of General Long, often called the
Mother of Texas. From Brazoria they marched on foot all
of the way to San Antonio, stopping for a day at Victoria.
Of all the companies which came out from the States,
they stand out preeminently. Many of them were mur
dered with Fannin's men four months later."
On November 24th, Austin and William H. Whartou
.left the army to accept the mission to the United States to
Avhich they had been chosen by the Consultation a few days
before. The army balloted for a Commander-in-Chief to
take Austin's place, and Colonel Edward Burleson was
chosen. Burleson was not a great commander, but he was
a great fighter, and was long identified with Texas, and a
glimpse of his eventful life will be interesting to this gener
ation, for the name of Burleson has been an honored one
in Texas history. He was born in North Carolina in 1798
and lived on the frontier all his long life. His grandfather
and an uncle Avere killed by Indians in Eastern Tennessee,
and an aunt Avas shot, tomahawked and scalped in the Wild
West Avhere the City of Nashville now stands.
The following interesting episode is told of him by his
kinsman, the late Doctor Rufus C. Burleson: "When
EdAvard was fourteen years old, he accompanied his father
on an expedition into Alabama in pursuit of a roving band
of Cherokees. The party was commanded by Jonathan
Burleson, his uncle. The Indians planned to deceive their
pursuers into a pow wow and massacre them, and each war-
127

The Siege of Bexar
rior concealed a knife under his garments ready for this
wholesale homicide. As Burleson's men approached, they
were met by an Indian Avarrior with an invitation to drink,
which was the highest hospitality. The Captain reached
out to take the proffered hand, when the Indian, quick as a
flash, drew his knife and made a lunge at Captain Burle
son, Avho sprang away and escaped injury. The Indian and
the white man stood face to face, but the troopers could
not fire for fear of hitting their Captain. It Avas a tragic
moment Avhen an instant meant eternity for some one. The
boy Avas quicker to think and act than any of them and
sprang forward firing as he did so and the Indian lay
dead. The lad accompanied his father through the Tecum-
seh wars and was at the battle of Horseshoe Bend, where
Houston won a wound Avhich he carried all his life."
In 1826 he came to Texas and settled on the Colorado
just below Bastrop, which for thirty years Avas the most
dangerous of Texas frontiers.
He Avas at the Battle of San Jacinto, and lived for many
years after these stirring days, and served one term as
Vice-President of the Republic. Doctor Burleson was at his
death bed Avhen the old frontiersman had his summons, and
relates his last conversation : ' ' My life has been a rude one,
and I have been a man of blood from my boyhood, but I
have never fought for revenge. I have been in thirty-two
battles but have lived to this old age and go noAV to meet my
Maker." Burleson was chosen commander on the 14th of
November, and on the 4th of December an attack was be
gun which resulted in the capture of San Antonio after
three days assault. But the world will always give the
chief credit for this voctory to Ben Milam, who led the
attack and fell in the fight. 128

^?;;%;^£

OLD ETCHING OF GENERAL HOUSTON, MADE IN 1837

Ben Milam and the Fall of Bexar
Ben Milam and the Fall of Bexar.
It may be an exaggeration to ascribe to a single man the
victory Avon by thousands, but we have come to link the
name of the successful commander or bold leader with the
battle won so that their names become synonyms.
Houston has so thoroughly monopolized the fame of
San Jacinto that for years while he Avas in the United
States Senate he Avas called ' ' Old Sam Jacinto. ' '
And so it Avill be, as long as the story of our colonial days
is told, that Ben Milam Avill be known as the hero of the
Battle of Bexar. He Avas a man of wonderful personality,
taller than his fclloAvs, powerful in mold and as handsome
as one of Arthur's fabled knights.
On December 4, 1835, he returned from a successful
scouting expedition towards the Rio Grande, and found
much indecision as to whether the city should be stormed or
the siege continued.
He walked among his countrymen and heard their quib-
blings. and Iioav some would fight, and others would wait
and go home and renew the campaign in the spring, and
without a council of war he made the bold defiance, "Who
will go into San Antonio v-ith Old Ben Milam?" And hav
ing thus advertised the excursion, he was quick to capitalize
the enthusiasm it produced, and that very day the battle
began which raged for six days and resulted in the capitu
lation of the Mexican Army.
On the third day Milam was killed, and Avas buried Avhere
he fell. And now thousands pass each day along the
busy street of the city just off which stands the soldier's
sepulcher. And as we go on in this narrative and leave behind us
the ashes of our hero dead, I cannot refrain from relating

129

Ben Milam and the Fall of Bexar
something of the life of Milam, for we shall not meet him
again in these pages.
He was born in Kentucky in 1791, a year older than
Austin and tAVO years older than Houston. He was a sol
dier in the war of 1812, and as early as 1817 he and David
G. Burnet were alone among the Comanches out on the
headwaters of the Brazos. In 1819 he joined General
Long and Felix Trespelacios in the ill fated Long's ex
pedition into Texas. He Avas in Mexico at the close of the
Avar for independence, and Avas among the first to apply for
an Empresario contract, but had to await the organization
of the State Government and got his grant in 1825 (along
Red River). In an effort to finance his project, he went
to England in 1827. A nepheAV of his who was a very
small boy at that time and who lived to be a very old man,
once told me the story of Milam's romance. He had a
sweetheart when he left for England and she was to await
his return. But when he was away another frontiersman
rode that way and persuaded her to break her vows with
the absent lover. She had some grounds for apprehen
sion, for Ben was such a rover, and she did not know but
that the next news of him might be that he had embarked
in some enterprise on the other side of the world, or had
gone to war with the Turks.
-When Milam returned to his Red River Colony, he
brought with him silks and laces and much feminine finery
he had bought for his bride, and this nephew told me how
his Uncle Ben gave all these treasures to his (the lad's)
mother, and took another journey down into Mexico.
In 1835 he was again among his colonists on the Red
River. In those days there Avas much confusion caused by
the Eleven Leaguers who were abroad in the land locating
eleven league grants Avhich were being handed out by the
130

Ben Milam and the Fall of Bexar
Coahuila Government, and which often conflicted with the
earlier Empresario grants.
Milam undertook his last trip into Mexico in an effort
to settle these tangled affairs, and left Red River with a
few cold biscuits and some parched coffee to ride to the
City of Mexico. He was at Monclova when the State
Government collapsed in 1835.
I cannot better close this narrative of Milam than by a
literal quotation from the address of William H. Wharton
delivered at the Hall of the Academy of Music in New York
City on April 26, 1836. Wharton, with Austin and Archer,
had gone as Commissioners to the United States in the
preceding December. They had gone through many of the
States rousing sympathy and urging assistance for Texas.
They made addresses in the leading cities. Two of these
have come down to us and are classics of the period of the
Revolution. One is the address of Austin made at Louis
ville, Kentucky, in February; the other Colonel Wharton's
New York speech just referred to, and indeed it is the
great masterpiece of our colonial history. The hall was
crowded with an audience of thousands, for interest in
Texas was very great everyAvhere in the States. NeAvs of the
fall of the Alamo and the Massacre of Goliad had reached
the East and had been published in the daily papers. At
the time this address was delivered, only the most awful in
formation from Texas had reached the outside world,
though the battle of San Jacinto had been fought five days
before. But neither Wharton nor his hearers knew this,
and they hourly expected news of even greater disaster than
the Alamo or Goliad.
Wharton sought to arouse his great audience and all
who would read his address to active support for Texas,
for he kneAV that his people were in the death struggle, and

131

Ben Milam and the Fall of Bexar
he knew of no more stirring story than that of the last days
of Ben Milam.
Here is his narrative : Governor Viesca of Coahuila Avas
overtaken by Cos and imprisoned. It was the misfortune
of the lamented Milam, who Avas returning from Mexico
City to his home in Texas, to be found in company with the
Governor. For this dreadful offence, he too Avas put in
prison. After some months imprisonment, he escaped and started
for Texas. In order to elude pursuit, he travelled six hun
dred miles Avithout a road, prosecuting his journey by night
and secreting himself during the day.
Throughout this dangerous and protracted journey, he
subsisted on some few articles of food Avhich he had con
trived to obtain on his escape from prison, for he dared not
show his, face at any habitation. Early in October he had
gotten into Texas, and as he limped along the road he
heard the approach of soldiers, and thinking he was about
to be overtaken by his enemies, he hid himself by the road
side. To his great joy he heard them talking his own
tongue, and saAV a company of Texas volunteers SAveeping
on their way to Goliad. He made himself knoAA'n to them
and went with them to Goliad and Gonzales. Though he
had been an officer in the Army of the United States and
a soldier in the war of 1812, he joined the ranks as a private
and went on with the patriot army to San Antonio. On
the evening of December 4th, he stepped from the ranks
and beat up for volunteers to storm the Castle of San An
tonio, and began an attack against heavy odds.
"They entered the town to conquer or die,
Firm paced and slow, a fearless front they
formed,
Still as the breeze, but dreadful as the storm."
132

Sam Houston
For six successive days and nights, they grappled with
the foe, but the life of their leader Avas the price of their
victory. "Oft shall the soldier think of thee,
Thou dauntless leader of the brave,
Who on the heights of tyranny,
Won freedom — and a glorious grave.
"And o'er thy tomb shall pilgrims weep,
And utter prayers in murmurs Ioav,
That peaceful be the Hero's sleep,
Who conquered San Antonio.
"Enshrined on honor's deathless scroll,
A nation's thanks shall be thy fame,
Long as her beauteous rivers roll,
Shall Freedom's votaries hymn thy name."
This simple but beautiful poem dedicated to Milam had
beeu published in a NeAV York paper a feAV weeks before.
The surrender of Cos' army left Texas free from Mexican
soldiers. They Avere paroled arid sent south. It Avas noAv
December, but in a feAv short weeks they came again, Cos,
with Santa Anna, Sesiria, Filisola and Almonte, for uoav
we are at the threshold of Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-
six. Sam Houston.
Houston Avill ever be the outstanding name in Texas his
tory. It would be useless to attempt to have it otherwise,
though the student of our annals should reach a different
verdict as to the merit of the men who Avrought in the

133

Sam Houston
scheme of our destiny. His tragic appearance into our
affairs and the critical hour of his coming, the great suc
cess of the campaign of 1836, his long and eventful career,
which only ended with secession, Avhich he bitterly opposed
a quarter of a century later — add to all these a stern, ster
ling character and a personality rarely found among the
heroes of any age, and one will not Avonder Avhy Sam Hous
ton has become by universal consent the hero of our his
tory. He was an actor of great skill, a spectacular man
wholly unlike the modest, reticent -Austin. When Houston
came, Austin was dying. Fourteen years of privation,
labor without ceasing, days and nights on horseback across
trackless Avilds, had written deep traces in the sad, white
face which William J. Russell saw in the flickering candle
light that October night at Gonzales. Houston came Avith
the flush of victory in 1836, and December of that year
Austin died.
In 1832, when the first rumblings of the coming Revo
lution Avere heard, Houston, who was yet under forty, Avas
living among the Cherokee Indians in Arkansas.
He had resigned the governorship of Tennessee and sought
this voluntary exile three years before, and during all this
retirement he is known to have entertained thoughts of com
ing to Texas. Wild rumors of his intentions to lead the
Cherokees in an attack upon Mexican authority in Texas
assumed such proportions as to cause President Jackson,
always his devoted friend, to write him a personal letter of
remonstrance. There has been and will be much specula
tion as to whether there was any understanding between
Houston and Jackson which preceded Houston's coming.
While many circumstances would suggest this, yet I do
not believe it existed. That they both hoped for just such
a result as obtained, is but natural.

134

Sam Houston
Franklin Williams, grandson of General Houston, has
the original passport issued to Houston for his first journey
into Texas, which was then a foreign country.
"Sam Houston Passport
' ' I, the undersigned, Acting Secretary of War, do hereby
request all the Tribes of Indians, whether in amity with
the United States, or as yet not allied to them by Treaties,
to permit safely and freely to pass through their respective
Territories, — — General Sam Houston —
a citizen of the United States, thirty-eight years of age,
six feet two inches in stature, brown hair, and light com
plexion ; and in case of need, to give him all lawful aid and
protection. ' ' Given under my hand and the impression
of the seal of the department of war, at the
City of Washington, this Sixth day of August,
(Seal) in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand eight
hundred and thirty- two, and of the Indepen
dence of the United States, the fifty sev
enth. "(Signed) John Robb,
"Acting Secretary of War."
Armed with this passport, he came from Arkansas via
Nacogdoches and San Felipe to San Antonio in December,
1832, where he had a conference with the Mexican author
ities and with a delegation of Comanche Indians, who were
sometimes roving residents of the States. I have never
been able to find any tangible reason for this strange visit
of Houston under a commission from the American Secre-

135

Sam Houston
tary of War. Upon his return to Nachitoches, Louisiana, in
January, 1833, he wrote President Jackson, advising, ' ' Hav
ing been as far as Bexar in the Province of Texas, I had an
interview with the Comanche Indians; I am in possession of
information which will be of interest to you and may be cal
culated to forward your views if you should entertain any
touching the acquisition of Texas, etc." The entire letter
is .devoted to a discussion of Texas' internal affairs and the
anxiety of the Americans in Texas for union with the
States, with a mere mention of the ostensible mission which
had taken him to Texas. He advised that a convention
would be held in Texas in April, and "I expect to be pres
ent and will advise you of the course adopted." He did
attend the 1833 convention as a delegate from San Augus
tine. In 1834 he was back among the Cherokees in Arkan
sas, but late in that year he took up his residence at Nacog
doches, and we find him a delegate from that municipality
to the consultation which convened at San Felipe in Octo
ber, 1835.
Just before the consultation met, he rode down to the
Guadaloupe for a visit to the patriot army, then on its
way to San Antonio. Noah Smithwick, who was with the
army, tells of his arrival mounted on a yellow Spanish stud,
and that he made a speech and rode back to the Brazos for
the convention.
He was a strong person in the consultation ; a man of rare
experience in governmental matters, and looked upon as
tbe confidential friend of the President of the United States.
He had now definitely decided to cast his lot with Texas
and aimed at leadership. On November 14th, the day be
fore Edward Burleson was elected viva voce to command the
army at Bexar, when Austin left for the United States, the
General Council sitting in San Felipe selected Houston Com-
136

Sam Houston
mander-in-Chief of the Texas armies. But this high sound
ing phrase Avas a bitter mockery for Texas had no govern
ment, no Avar chest, no army.
After the fall of Bexar in December, the volunteers took
leave for their homes, only a small garrison remaining. The
months which folloAved were full of confusion and gloom.
The General Council at San Felipe degenerated into a vi
cious quarrel, poor old Governor Smith writing philippic
messages of denunciation, and a majority against him re
fusing to act upon any plan he Avould suggest. There Avere
those in Texas who yet entertained, the fond hope that a
party in Mexico Avould rise to co-opertitc in resistance to
Santa Anna, and there Avas considerable sentiment imme
diately following the success at Bexar for an invasion of
Mexico, -r %c • »¦$-*- ¦~-» ^ «-*-»¦**, — , e^wJ-J —
James Fannin, Avhose martyrdom a few months later
silenced criticism, was the chief in the proposed Mexican
invasion. Instead of a concerted action for defense against
the large Mexican army noAv known to be mustering for ap
proach by way of San Antonio, Fannin and Doctor John
Grant and others Avith authority from the General Council,
and without co-operation Avith Houston, Avasted the early
months of 1836 and frustrated Houston's plans for an or
ganized defense.
In the mad political strife of the late fifties, when Sena
tor Houston would not go with the extreme secessionists and
left the Democratic party, bitter attacks Avere made on him
and much effort was made to show that he was a coAvard,
that the battle of San Jacinto Avas Avon in spite of him, and
volumes of invectives were written against him. '
I have read all the evidences that are available and am
persuaded that no case is made against the old hero. Those
best able to judge him Avere his comrades in the 1836 cam-
137

Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-six
paign. The first presidential election was held within
four months after the battle. By common consent he was
nominated and elected to the presidency almost by acclama
tion, although both Austin and Henry Smith were his op
ponents. He was again chosen President of the Republic
after Lamar's term; and when Texas was admitted to the
Union he was chosen U. S. Senator almost without dissent,
when the Legislature which elected him was filled with men
Avho went through the San Jacinto campaign.
And as the ages come and go, in remote years yet to be,
when other names of the colonial epoch are forgotten, this
strange, stalwart, tragic man will stand out not only the
most interesting character in our history but one of the most
remarkable men of all time.
Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-Six.
This is the all-eventful year in Texas history.
The Declaration of Independence was made at Washing
ton on the Brazos on March 2nd.
The Alamo fell on March 6th.
Fannin fell at Goliad March 27th.
San Jacinto Avas fought on April 21st.
The first presidential election was held and Houston
elected President in September.
• The first Congress of the Republic met at Columbia Oc
tober 3rd.
Austin died December 27th.
The dawn of the year saAV a small garrison of about 150
men at Bexar, and though it Avas knoAvn that a large Mexi
can army Was being organized for invasion, there was no
plan or concerted action for defense.

13.8

Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-six
The quarrel between Governor Smith and the Council
had reached the riot stage, and he had been deposed and
James W. Robinson, of Nacogdoches, Lieutenant Governor,
reigned in his stead. And in passing I must say a word
about "Lawyer Robinson."
After the Council had ceased to function, when the con
vention mei; in March, he joined the army and was at the
Battle of San Jacinto. He was one of the first District
Judges under the Republic, and in 1842 Avas attending court
at San Antonio when a Mexican marauding force, under
Woll, captured the city, court and all, and Judge Robinson
found himself in a Mexican prison. Tiring of prison life,
he opened an intrigue with Santa Anna, who happened to
be in power again at that particular interval, and wrote the
Mexican President a letter advising that since he (Robin
son) Avas a laAvyer of some prominence in his own country,
he might be useful if allowed his freedom in persuading the
people of Texas to return to Mexiqan sovereignty. Santa
Anna seemed impressed with the idea and allowed Lawyer
Robinson, yet in prison, to open negotiations with President
Houston, who was then serving his second term. Houston
seems to have humored the joke, and Robinson got out of
Mexico to complete his negotiations, which were dropped as
soon as he got home. Shortly after the discovery of gold in
California in 1849, both Robinson and Henry Smith joined
an emigrant train across the desert, and these veteran
enemies travelled together in a wagon train for a thousand
miles, each nursing his old time hatred for' the other. Judge
Robinson's wife, Sarah, a beautiful and accomplished wo
man, who had come to Texas with him in 1828, went with
him to California and Avas still living there fifty years
later. They had gotten their headright league in Vehlein's
Colony and after Robinson's death in California many years
139

Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-six
later, Sarah sold this league. About twenty years ago I
represented one of the owners of this land in a suit brought
by the descendants of James W. Robinson of Ohio. They
alleged and proved that he had eloped from Ohio in 1827
Avith Sarah, leaving a wife and children, and these grand
children came to claim their inheritance from their prodigal
ancestor. Maybe this little bit of scandal should remain
untold. But it is part of the judicial history of San Jacinto
County, where depositions Avere filed proving these facts.
At the beginning of 1836, Lieutenant Governor James W.
Robinson dominated in general council. James Fannin and
Doctor John Grant and Frank Johnson Avere planning an
invasion of Mexico by Matamoros. They had feAver than
500 men, and were without means of transportation or sup
plies. General Houston was unable to exercise any author
ity, though he was in name Commander-in-Chief of the
army. He bided the assembling of the convention, which
Avas called to meet in March, and used the interval in a
series of conversations with the Indians, Avhose attitude was
a matter of much concern at this juncture. If the Comanches
and Cherokees had gone on the war path against the colo
nists early in 1836, the Americans would have been Aviped
out. All available men Avere being pressed to join the army
to repel the Mexican invasion. Families Avere left unpro
tected on a wide frontier, Avhich reached from San Antonio
to the Sabine. There were bands of Indian warriors all
along this frontier who could have SAvept over the settle
ments in a week. Houston went in person' among these
people and held thirteen councils Avith them. He was a
Cherokee Chief, and all his life loved and Avas loved by the
Indians. To him we owe the fact that these warriors did
not draAV the boAv during the campaign of 1836.
140

Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-six
Franklin Williams, a grandson of General Houston, re
cently related in my hearing an account of a pow wow be
tween Houston and the Indians which had been told him by
his mother. A delegation of Cherokees came several days'
journey to see him. They had ridden day and night for
several days. They came within a feAV hundred yards of
the house, and after hobbling their tired horses they sat
in a circle under a tree, leaving an open or vacant space in
the circle. They did not look towards the house or make
any pretense of seeing Houston. Nor did he see them, but
pretended to ignore them for a time. After a while
he moved and occupied the vacant place in the circle, but
no word was spoken, or glance of recognition given. The
pipe was passed from hand to hand and they all puffed it.
And after a long dignified silence, their spokesman began
the conversation and made known the purpose of their
journey. The President heard their story, and promised
them redress, and then he bade them kill a beef for their
refreshment, for they had not eaten during the long jour
ney in which they had ridden day and night, nor had they
slept. After they had gorged the beef Avithout the detail of
cooking it, the entire delegation lay under the trees and
slept for a day and a night, and then they silently mounted
their horses and retraced their long way whence they came,
riding without rest until they reached their people.
One cannot but wish that the white brother had some
thing of this great gift of golden silence.
It would be hard indeed to picture a darker prospect
than fronted our people at the dawn of the year 1836.
The President of Mexico, with an army of most ten
thousand men, was moving towards the border. Fannin,
Grant, Johnson and other visionary incompetents were
141

The Convention of March, 1836
trying to lead five hundred men to an invasion of Mexico.
A mere handful of volunteers garrisoned the outpost at
San Antonio.
The General Council, our governing body, had gone to
pieces. There were not 1000 men under arms in all Texas.
Without a government, without an army, without a treas
ury, without credit, the Colonies faced dire disaster at the
dawn of 1836.

The Convention of March, 1836.
For the fourth time in our history, a convention of all
Texas met on March 1, 1836, at Washington on the Brazos.
Without a moment's delay, a permanent organization was
had with Richard Ellis, from Red River, as Chairman.
The General Council was still in session at San Felipe, but
its conspicuous failures earned it the contempt of the new
convention. An effort was made to have the convention
go into merits of the quarrel between Governor Smith and
the Council, but the convention hurried to the tasks be
fore it and declined to take any notice of the controversy,
and the whole pitiful farce passed into history. It is fair
to Governor Smith to say that that generation exonerated
Ms fidelity and integrity, but probably not his judgment.
As soon as the convention was ready for business, George
C. Childress, of the Red River country, moved the appoint
ment of a committee of five to draft a declaration of inde
pendence. Tradition tells that he had already prepared
the draft of the declaration and that it had been approved
by Houston and others to whom it had been submitted. The
committee brought in the draft the next morning, and when
it was read, on motion of General Houston, it was unani-
142

The Convention of March, 1836 •
mously adopted early in the morning of March 2, 1836,
which by the way was his 43rd birthday.
On the 4th Houston was again chosen Commander-in-
Chief, and on Sunday morning, March 6th, the same hour
the Alamo fell, he left Washington with an escort of four
men riding towards San Antonio. At that time it Avas
knoAvn to Houston and to the convention that there was no
hope for Travis, and that no help could be expected from
Fannin and Grant and those mad, misled men who had
lately moved towards remote Matamoros while Santa Anna's
army marched directly into the heart of Texas.
In a cold March rain, the five horsemen rode west
while sad, sober faces bade them good-bye and turned to
the business of the convention.
Speaking of this occasion, General Houston said many
years later : "The only hope lay in the few men assembled
at Gonzales. The Alamo was known to be under siege, Fan-.
nin was known to be embarrassed, Ward, Morris and John
son destroyed. All seemed to bespeak a calamity of the
most direful character. It was under these auspices that
the General started with an escort of two aides, a captain
and a boy, yet he was sent to produce a nation and defend
a people." Travis' last message sent from the Alamo on March 3rd
reached Washington on Sunday morning, just before Hous
ton left, and about the hour the AlamO fell, and was read
in the convention at its opening session on that day, but
there was nothing the convention could do except to adopt
a resolution that "1,000 copies of the letter be printed," and
this they arranged for.
With independence declared and Houston on the way
west, the convention addressed itself to the formation of
our first constitution, for our fathers were firm believers in

143

The Convention of March, 1836
constitutional government. With them it Avas as natural
for a new government to have a solemnly written constitu
tion as for an infant to be christened and bear his father's
name. In these awful environments, the constitution of March,
1836, was written, debated and adopted, and prepared for
submission to the people for ratification. But no man knew
when if ever there could be a submission at a general elec
tion, and until this Avas done a government ad interim was
provided. David G. Burnet was chosen President and the
Mexican-Spaniard Lorenza de Zavala, lately fled from
Mexico to escape Santa Anna, was chosen Vice-President.
The last hours of the convention, which finished its la
bors late on the night of March 17th, Avere hastened by a
rumor that a Mexican army was near at hand. News of
the fall of the Alamo had come by a courier on the 15th,
but there was no unseemly haste on the part of the con
vention. The constitution Avhich was formulated by this convention
was never formally enrolled or engrossed, and the original
draft was taken aAvay by H. S. Kimball, the Secretary, who
was instructed to enroll it for presentation. He took it to
Nashville, Tennessee, Avhere it Avas published in one of the
papers, from which it was republished in a Cincinnati pa
per, and from this Cincinnati publication it was copied in
the first issue of Borden's paper, which was printed after
the Revolution at Columbia on August 2nd. Late in the
afternoon of the last day, the President left for Harris
burg, and there was only one family left in Washington on
the Brazos.
There are fifty-eight signers of the Declaration of In
dependence which this convention promulgated on March
2nd. Forty of them were under forty years of age. Many
144

The Alamo
of them were men highly educated and of rare experience.
Nearly all of them came from the Southern States, eleven
from the Carolinas. There were tAvo native Texans, Jose
Antonio Navarro and Francisco Ruis, both from Bexar.
There was an Englishman, a Canadian, a Spaniard born
in Madrid, an Irishman and a Scotchman.
The leaders in Texas during all these years Avere for the
most part slave-holding planters, and though that oft-called
slave-holding oligarchy paid the extreme penalty in the
next generation, yet its aggressiveness and love of dominion
and empire won Texas and the great southwest for the
American Union.

The Alamo.
At the beginning of the Revolution and for many years
theretofore, an old Spanish Mission fortress stood on the
San Antonio River about a mile from the center of the
little city. It derived its name from the cottonAvood trees
which grew about it. Adjoining the chapel was a stone
Availed enclosure of about two city blocks, which had been
erected as a protection against the Indians. After the
patriot army had captured the city in December, 1835,
many 01 the volunteer soldiers had gone home, and those
remaining were disorganized and without supplies.
Colonel Neill remained nominally in charge of the gar
rison quartered in the Alamo, which, on January 14th,
consisted of eighty-six men.
Immediately following the fall of the city to the Texas
army, the wild scheme was advanced for the invasion of
Mexico by Matamoros, and Frank W. Johnson, and the ill
fated Scotchman, Doctor John Grant, persuaded a large
number to join them in this fool's enterprise, and they

145

The Alamo
forgathered at Goliad, San Patricio, and other places in
that direction.
All Texas kneAV at the daAvn of 1836 that a large Mex
ican army Avas being formed to march upon Texas, and al
most daily rumors and confirmed reports came that these
armies Avere approaching the Rio Grande. In the face
of this deadly disaster, a sad state of affairs presented it
self. Governor Smith wrote letters and sent couriers and did
his utmost to get reinforcements to the Alamo, but the
council deposed him and commissioned Fannin, Grant,
and Johnson to invade Mexico, though there were not 500
men in sight for such an enterprise. Houston, Commander-
in-Chief, had no army to command nor prospect of any.
He advised that the garrison at the Alamo destroy the
fortress and retreat east of the Guadaloupe, but his advice
Avas ignored. He urged Fannin, who with several hundred
men was near Goliad, to retreat to Victoria, but Fannin
refused to recognize his authority. In January, Governor
Smith sent Colonel Travis, who Avas recruiting on the Colo
rado, to relieve Colonel Niell in command at the Alamo, and
in this way conferred on this young officer the boon of
martyrdom and immortality. In February, as the Mex
ican army approached, Travis and James Bowie, who Avas
now with him, began sending out couriers begging franti
cally for help, but always declaring that whether relief
came they would defend to the last.
As late as February 12th, after Travis knew that Santa
Anna's army was approaching, he wrote Governor Smith,
"With two hundred men I believe this place can be main
tained." On February 23rd, Travis reported the enemy in sight,
and on that day a large army camped on the main plaza, a
146

The Alamo
mile away, and the siege began and continued in a desultory
way for ten days, during which time a bombardment was
kept up, and the Mexican forces entirely surrounded the
beleaguered fortress.
In the early morning of March 1st, Captain Albert Martin
with thirty-one men came through the Mexican lines from
Gonzales, and took their places with the defenders, and
near noon 011 March 3rd, the gallant James B. Bonham, who
had been sent as a messenger to Fannin, rode back through
the enemy lines to report no aid from that source. So that
there were something more than one hundred and eighty
men in the command at the end. Almost the same hour that
Bonham came Travis sent John Smith with the last of his
series of bold messages, which reached the Colonies only
after the Alamo had fallen.
A council of war was held on March 4th, at which the
Mexican Command decided to storm the fortress at dawn on
Sunday morning, March 6th. General Castrillion was put
in command of the immediate assault. The silence of the
early dawn was broken by a shrill bugle blast which sum
moned the charge, and as the tramp of the on-rushing
troops filled the March morning, a band from a nearby bat
tery struck up a Spanish air which was known as the assas
sin 's song, and meant no mercy. In sight of the besieged
men, a black flag floated from a steeple. Less than an
hour elapsed from the first assault until the last defender
had fallen.
Castrillion led the assault, and Santa Anna remained Avith
a battery from Toluca camped to the south and safe from
gunshot, where the band played the assassin's song while
the assault went on.

147

The Alamo
On the same day and after the fort had fallen', he made
an official report to the Secretary of War from which I
take some interesting passages :
"The scene offered by the engagement Avas extraordinary.
Twenty-one pieces of artillery was used with most perfect
accuracy and illuminated the interior of the fortress. The
fortress is now in our power and the corpses of more than
six hundred foreigners were buried in the ditches. A great
many Avho escaped the bayonet of the infantry, fell under
the sabres of the cavalry. I can assure your Excellency
that few are those who bore their associates the tidings of
the disaster. Among the corpses are those of Bowie and
Travis, who styled themselves Colonels, and also that of
Crockett. Nor will we hereafter suffer any foreigners,
whatever their origin may be, to pollute our soil. I shall
in due time send your Excellency a circumstantial report
of this glorious triumph."
It is not related whether the band Avith the Toluca Bat
tery continued to play the assassin's song Avhile his Excel
lency wrote this report, but one Avould surmise so as the
strains of that song and sentiment abound in his dic
tion. We first meet and part with Crockett at the Alamo.
He had only come to Texas a few Aveeks before from Ten
nessee. He had been a member of Congress from Tennessee
two terms and had gained a national reputation as a Avhig
and opponent of President Jackson, avIio came from his
own State. In the recent elections he had been defeated and
in his characteristic style said his constituents could go to
hell and he Avould go to Texas. He Avas a stalwart, pictur
esque frontiersman, and those avIio have looked upon his
portrait as it hangs in the entrance to our State House
148

Goliad
at Austin can but be impressed that he Avas a splendid
specimen of frontier manhood.
The outstanding feature of this great tragedy was the
grim determination of the defenders to sell their lives in
what they kneAV was a futile effort to hold the fort.
Travis and his folloAvers could have escaped to Gonzales
and retreated with Houston, but this fact, though obvious
to them, was never given a serious thought. They Avere
determined to die in the Alamo at the threshold of
Texas. But the nearly two weeks theydelayed the advance of the
Mexican army was as valuable to Texas as the sacrifice of
Belgium in the path of the Kaiser's armies which saved
Paris. .It allowed the settlers between the Guadaloupe and
the Brazos time to escape. While the Alamo was falling,
the convention at Washington Avas forming a government
to take place of the poor, miserable General Council.
And as night fell on San Antonio on that beautiful
March day, the roar of battle and the sounds of the assas
sin's song died away, and the mangled forms of our dead
Avere piled like debris in the shadow of the old Mission.
The invading army, over seven thousand men, Avaited or
ders to march on east and exterminate the "foreigners Avho
were polluting the soil."
Goliad. The most terrible atrocity of the Revolution was the mas
sacre at Goliad. One who studies this awful tragedy after
the lapse of years is alternately moved with pity and con
tempt for poor Fannin.. If his blunders had cost him only
his life we could well forget his stubborn stupidity. He had
a little West Point training, and is a conspicuous example

149

Goliad
of the very old truth that "a little learning is a dangerous
thing." But the blood of those Avho fell Avith Fannin may well
be upon the heads of the Council at San Felipe which de
posed Governor Smith and loaned the semblance of au
thority to an invasion of Mexico by way of Matamoros.
Or, as Fannin put it, "carry the Avar into Mexico to keep
it out of Texas."
After the capture of San Antonio in December, Fannin,
who was with the army, visited San Felipe and succeeded
in getting a commission from the General Council which
authorized him to concentrate forces at Copano, a port on
Aransas Bay, and in January he issued a call to volunteers
to join him in such an enterprise. Just at this time Major
William Ward, with the Georgia battalion, arrived at
Velasco, and Fannin being a Georgian and known to many
of them, they hastened to join him. In the meantime Doc
tor John Grant, who was with the army at Bexar, conceived
the idea that he Avould lead an invasion into Mexico on his
own account, and not desiring to march with Fannin, he
got permission from the Council and moved to Goliad
with feAver than two hundred men bent on carrying the
AA'ar into Mexico.
Several hundred volunteers had arrived at the mouth of
the Brazos since the opening of hostilities, and they were
being diverted to Copano and other places towards the
southwest for this enterprise. All supplies and munitions
which Avere being shipped by sea for the patriot army were
being landed at points along the Gulf, and for the most
part, they were being taken over by Fannin or concentrated
for use in his campaign.
The small garrison at the Alamo remained isolated Avhile
Johnson, Grant and Fannin rushed their mad schemes for

150

Goliad
a descent upon Matamoros. In January, General Houston,
who had been named Commander-in-Chief by the General
Council in the previous November, went down to Goliad
and San Patricio in an effort to organize these wild, dis
cordant elements, but nearly every man he met had a
commission from the General Council at San Felipe 1o act
independently, and none of them would act with the others
or with Houston.
He returned, therefore, to aAvait the action of the con
vention, which Avas to assemble in March. But the invading
army would not await the action of the convention. Santa
Anna was early advised of the purpose of the Texans to at
tack Matamoros, and sent General Urrea there with a sub
stantial force, and while the main army marched from La
redo towards San Antonio, Urrea, with probably 1500 men,
came into Texas from Matamoros. On February 27th,
only three days after the Mexican army reached San An
tonio and began the siege of the Alamo, the advance guard
of Urrea 's division reached San Patricio, where they at
tacked . Frank W. Johnson 's small command, who were
scouting' about the. country in an aimless fashion. John
son was one of the commanders commissioned by the un
happy council at San Felipe to lead an invasion into Mexico.
All of Johnson's men were killed except himself and four
others who escaped. Urrea 's men next located Doctor
John Grant and his men.
On March 2nd, the very day the convention at Washing
ton declared independence, Grant's command was attacked
about twenty miles from San Patricio, and all but one were
killed or captured. Urrea reported forty-one killed and six
prisoners. 151

Goliad
A story has long been told in Texas that the Mexicans
bound Doctor Grant to a wild mustang, and that he Avas
dashed to death in that fashion.
The surviving Avitness tells that he saw Grant fall and
several Mexican soldiers running their swords through his
body. Grant Avas a Scotchman, but had lived long years in
Mexico, and they seemed to have a particular enmity to-
Avards him. These commanders, Johnson and Grant, had
been styled the advance division of the volunteer army for
the invasion of Mexico, and their early annihilation Avas a
sad blow to Fannin's men at Goliad.
On March 10th, Fannin sent Captain King with twenty-
eight men to relieve some families at Refugio, and hearing
two days later that King's men were surrounded in the
Mission there, he sent Colonel Ward with his one hundred
and fifty Georgia volunteers to aid King. King's command
was destroyed and about one hundred of Ward's men suc
ceeded in retreading to Victoria, where they were cap
tured on March 22nd, and sent back to Goliad to be shot
with Fannin's men.
After making many plans arid abandoning them all, poor
Fannin attempted at the last hour to retreat from Goliad,
and succeeded in getting some miles when they halted in an
open prairie, in a depression away from shelter or water,
and were surrounded by Mexicans and attacked on all sides.
Here the battle of Coleto was fought, where the Texans
defended themselves with great bravery, but without ammu
nition or artillery, they were soon at the mercy of UrreVs
men, and a parley was opened for their surrender. On
March 20th they surrendered, the terms being :
1. That they surrender at discretion.
2. That the wounded and their commander Fannin be
treated with all consideration possible.
152

The Runaway Scrape
3. That the whole detachment be treated as prisoners at
the disposal of the Supreme Government.
They were removed to Goliad, where they were held in
captivity along with a command of men from Nashville,
Tennessee, under Colonel Miller, who had been captured as
they landed at Copano.
Urrea, who . had gone to Victoria, left orders that the
prisoners be treated humanely, but His Excellency remem
bered that the Supreme Government had passed a decree
that all foreigners taken in arms should be executed as
pirates, and under his orders the entire command Avere
•marched out at dawn on March 27th, and shot to death.
The gruesome details of this massacre have so often been
told that they need not be repeated here. About twenty of
them Avere spared, most of Avhom were physicians and who
were thought of some possible use. Thirty-four escaped in
various Avays — three hundred and sixty-four fell.
J. C. Duval, who escaped by dashing aAvay as they fired,
wrote a very interesting account of it in later years, and re
lates that among the prisoners in the Kentucky Company to
which he belonged, was a young man who had been a room
mate at College in Kentucky Avith a Mexican officer in Ur
rea 's command, that these young men found each other
and the Mexican officer professed sympathy and kindness
for his former boyhood friend, but made not the slightest
effort to assist him or save him, and saw him shot to death
without any apparent concern.
The Runaway Scrape.
The colonists returning to their homes after the battle in
April ahvays spoke lightly of the retreat as the "Runaway
Scrape." 153

The Runaway Scrape
An eyewitness who was in Gonzales on the evening of the
eighth of March tells of the terror which was inspired by
the news of the butchery at the Alamo. Many of the vic
tims Avere from DeWitt's Colony, and the twilight was
filled with the screams of women and fatherless children
bereft by that disaster. When General Houston reached
Gonzales on March 11th, he found three hundred and seven
ty-four men half fed, half clad, half armed and unorgan
ized. Every Avagon available but one was employed in mov
ing the women and children, for all Texas began to move
eastAvard. One wagon with four oxen was devoted to the
removal of the munitions of war, and it was not over
loaded. As the retreat from Gonzales proceeded, one hundred and
tAventy-five reinforcements came up at Peach Creek, but
news of the Alamo caused twenty-five, of them to desert the
same night.
When the retreat reached the Colorado, there Avere five
hundred men with Houston, but they had no artillery, not
a cartridge or a ball. When they reached Nevada Creek
they heard that a blind mother with six children had been
left some miles beloAV and a detachment Avas sent to bring
her away.
The "army" halted at the Colorado until all fugitives had
crossed. On the Colorado news came of Fannin's fall at
Goliad, and a detachment of the Mexican army under Ses-
ma came in sight on the western bank of the river. There
was an expectation that certain ordnance from the mouth
of the Brazos would reach the camp at the Colorado. With
out it Houston dared not risk a battle, and we now know
that a battle with Sesma would have decided nothing. The
army as well as the whole population of Texas fell back
to the Brazos. The men with Houston were in a bad hu-

154

The Runaway Scrape
mor. He had taken no one into his confidence, and in fact
never did do so until the very last. At times it seemed as
though there would be open mutiny and that the whole
command would go to pieces, and this would no doubt have
resulted but for the constant pressure of the invading army,
which now approached San Felipe. In fact there was very*
little command, and heavy April rains retarded both armies.
Houston effected a crossing of the Brazos some miles north
of San Felipe, but the Mexican army could not follow for
the awful condition of the ground and dropped down to
Richmond, Avhere an advance guard under Santa Anna
crossed. There have come doAA-n to us some graphic pictures of
those days which intervened betAveen the fall of the. Alamo
and San Jacinto. In the first volume of the Texas Histori
cal Quarterly, Mrs. Rosa Kleburg, avIio Avas, at the time she
related the incidents, eighty-five years old, tells a story
Avhich will fairly illustrate the plight and flight of all
Texas. Her husband and brothers joined the army, and Ihc
women in the family, Avith the father, migrated towards the
east. "Most of the families travelled separately until they
reached the Brazos, Avhere all were compelled to halt for a
crossing. I helped drive the cattle and carried my infant
daughter in the saddle before me. When the families and
their horses and cattle reached the crossing, the noise Avas
terrible. There was only one small ferry boat, Avhich Avould
carry one vehicle at a time. Deaf Smith's Mexican wife Avas
in a cart with tAvo Avooden Avheels made from an entire
cross-section of a large tree, Avith her tAvo pairs of twins,
but had no team to pull her cart. My brother carried her
for a distance Avith his yoke of oxen. The next day after
Ave crossed over the Brazos Ave camped near Clear Creek,
155

The Runaway Scrape
where Louis V. Reader, my brother's child, Avas born in
a corn crib."
Hundreds of refugees reached and crossed the Sabine.
Lieutenant Hitchcock, avIio Avas Avith General Gaines at
Camp Sabine, says the temporary camp of fugitives from
Texas made of sheets and quilts spread from tree to tree
extended up and doAvn the east bank of the Sabine for
twenty miles, presenting a picturesque but painful spec
tacle. The Government ad interim Avhich was organized at
Washington on the Brazos left for Harrisburg, hurried by
the report that Sesma's army Avas approaching. President
Burnet hurriedly sent back messages to Houston to stop his
retreat and fight, but continued to retreat until he reached
Galveston Island. And indeed he only escaped by a hair's
breadth, for as he pulled off from Lynchburg in a skiff,
Mexican soldiers were in sight and hastened his voyage
with some target practice.
Gail and Thomas H. Borden published a paper at San
Felipe known as the Texas Telegraph & Register. It played
a conspicuous part in those troubled days. As the Mexican
nrmy approached San Felipe, the town was deserted and
destroyed, and the Borden printing business, loaded on an
ox-wagon, started across the water logged prairie for Har
risburg, folloAving the fugitive footsteps of the fleeing Gov
ernment ad interim.
On April 14th, it was temporarily housed at Harrisburg,
and as there Avas no hostile army in sight, the plucky pub
lishers, delayed by this removal, started their weekly paper
with an apology for the delay and the reassuring salutation,
"Our subscribers on hearing the ruin of San Felipe and
seeing the delay in the appearance of our paper, have per
haps thought it at an end."

156

The Runaway Scrape
After recounting the difficulties in the way and the great
need of a newspaper just at this time the weekly publica
tion under date of April 14th was begun. It recounts the
doleful news that the Mexicans had scoured the country as
far as the Brazos, Avith an army at San Felipe, and one at
Brazoria, while the central division had crossed at Rich
mond. Just here the April 14th edition of the paper stops,
for at this point advance scouting parties of Santa Anna's
army were reported near Harrisburg, and Borden took a
few copies of so much of the paper as had been struck off
and moved on. There arc a half dozen or more copies of
this half finished edition of April 14th yet in existence.
His press was destroyed, and I have it from the Borden
family that they threw it in the Bayou to prevent its fall
ing into Mexican hands.
There was a further suspension of the publication from
April 14th, but on August 2nd, these same indomitable
Bordens published the next issue at Columbia, where the
Government ad interim was then sojourning, and the next
year they followed the neAv Government to Houston, where
the paper was published for many years.
All Texas was iioav east of the Brazos. The Mexican
army had been divided into divisions, which swept the
country north as far as the San Antonio-Nacogdoches Road,
south along the coast, while His Excellency with what he
called the flower of the army hurried along in advance and
crossed the Brazos at Fort Bend, and pushed on after the
fleeing provisional Government.
The only armed force Avhich the Texans had Avas the dis
organized, unhappy, forlorn few hundred with Houston,
who were pulling across the muddy prairies from San
Felipe. 157

San Jacinto
General Houston, grim and silent, seemed heading for
the Red Lands, and thousands of fleeing families hurried
their weary Avay on across the Trinity. These fugitives
returned home in April, after the battle, and most of them
planted a crop and reaped a harvest in that year.
San Jacinto.
After the fall of the Alamo, Santa Anna planned to re
turn to Mexico and leave the minor incidents of the fur
ther campaign to Filisola, but was dissuaded by Almonte,
and decided to come on further east. He sent Sesma's di
vision after Houston's retreating army on the Colorado,
with instructions to march via San Felipe and Harris
burg to Anahuac, where they would be embarked for home
by sea. He sent Gaona direct to Nacogdoches. He did not
seem to contemplate any serious opposition anywhere.
Colonel Morales, with four companies, were sent to Goliad
to join Urrea 's army, which had come into Texas by Mata
moros, and Avhich was then engaged with Fannin, Grant,
Johnson and King. His Excellency left Bexar for San Fe
lipe March 29th, where he arrived on April 7th. Houston 's
little army had abandoned San Felipe a week before, going
up the river to Groee's. The Mexicans would have followed
but for high water. The Brazos bottom was as kind as the
Red Sea, in that it allowed Houston's army to retreat but
was impassable for the invading army to folloAV. Santa An
na, unable to follow or cross the river at San Felipe, moved
down to Richmond. Houston crossed at Groee 's on the 1 3th,
and took up his march across the Avet roadless prairie al
most south towards Harrisburg. On the 14th, Santa Annd
crossed the Brazos at Richmond, riding hard Avith six hun-
158

San Jacinto
dred picked men for Harrisburg, where he hoped to cap
ture President Burnet and the Government ad interim.
He was in great good humor, and as they crossed Oyster
Creek, near where Sugarland now stands, he enjoyed the
noise and confusion that the cavalry made as it floundered
in the "Muddy Squshy Creek." As the mules and mule
teers floundered in the mire and the drivers swore as mule
drivers have always done, His Excellency sat on his horse
and laughed as though it was all improvised for his amuse
ment. One cannot overlook the contrast in these tAvo armies as
they converged across the prairies. His Excellency, flushed
with victory, rode with a shining staff accompanied by such
men as Almonte and Castrillion. It was a kind of holiday
excursion for him. The little Texas army, if in fact it can
be called such, consisted of fewer than 1,000 tired, hungry
men, many of whom had not eaten an adequate meal for
weeks. On the night before they crossed the bayou Hous
ton slept on the ground in his wet clothes, Avith a saddle
for a pillow, while a keen April norther added to the dis
comfort. The Mexicans reached Harrisburg on the night of the
15th, and left the next day to scour the country down to
the bay, intending to cross the bayou and the river above
their confluence and go on to Nacogdoches or Anahuac.
Santa Anna sent Houston Avord by a negro that as soon as
he cleaned out the land thieves, meaning the Government
officials, and probably the people east of the Trinity, he
Avould pay his respects to Houston.
A more foolhardy plan than Santa Anna had devised
could not well be imagined. He had come into Texas Avith
more than seven thousand five hundred men, and the mom-
ins of the sixteenth when he rode out of Harrisburg going

159

San Jacinto
down to the bay with only about six hundred men, his forces
were scattered in small divisions all the way to Bexar.
Urrea Avas coming along the coast from Goliad with
one thousand five hundred men. Gaona was near LaGrange
with seven hundred and fifty. Sesma was on the Brazos
at Fort Bend with one thousand. Filisola, with nearly
two thousand, was coming doAvn the river from San Felipe
seeking a crossing. Cos Avith five hundred was trying to
keep up with the mad fool who with his fleetest cavalry
was dashing across the prairie after the Government.
Houston learned definitely on the 18th that the advance
force had passed Harrisburg, and that Santa Anna was
with it, and the Texas army crossed from the north side
of the bayou on the 19th and pushed on doAvn to the conflu
ence of the bayou Avith the San Jacinto River, where it
camped. This point Avas chosen to prevent Santa Anna from cross
ing further up.
It has been charged that General Houston never in
tended to fight; that he expected to continue his retreat
to the Red Lands with the hope of getting help from the
troops under General Gaines of the United States army,
who were camped at the border, and many of whom were
eager to get into this fight. It is evident that Houston
hoped for help from East Texas which never came. Just
before crossing the bayou for the purpose of going after
Santa Anna, he wrote a letter to Henry Rouget of the
Committee of Safety at Nacogdoches, deploring the fact
that no help had come from the Red Lands and announcing
that he was now about to cross the bayou for the purpose
of attacking Santa Anna's army. It has been charged that
the battle ground was selected by accident, and the most
disadvantageous point that could have been found along the
160

Harriz&ur*

-panhAn,

&

j

SCALE OP MILES

Morgan's Point

Hap show/nQ linn of march of Mexican
and Texan armies from Harrisburg to
Battleground from April 17 ft toZO*> 1836.

SA/V JACINTO CAMPAIGN
Map* ahow/ng lint, of march of ftarico
and Texan &r/T>ms from March /f^* foAr-.nt 2/*t /«936.

San Jacinto
bayou. This is not true. In the first place it is high ground
on the banks of the river. Then again it Avas in the edge
of a woods Avhich gave a commanding view of the prairies
across which it was necessary for the Mexican 'army to ap
proach. On the morning of April 20, that portion of Santa Anna's
army which had been scouring the bay shore, turned back
toAvard the bayou and came in sight of the Texas army and
camped in the woods, which can be seen probably a mile
away from the monuments on what Ave call the battle ground.
On the morning of the 21st, Cos Avith his detachment of
something more than five hundred men, joined the com
mand, SAvelling the Mexican forces to about one thousand
five hundred men. There Avas much complaint and criti
cism among Houston's men, and no little distrust of him
had arisen among his under officers. From the time
he left Gonzales until this hour he had communicated
his designs to no one, and his silence gaVe weight to the
thought that he had no defined plans and that he did not
intend to fight. He held a council of Avar with his under
officers on the forenoon of the 21st, in which it was warm
ly debated whether they should attack the enemy or await
the enemy's attack. It was urged that the Mexican army
was composed of veteran soldiers, and it was known that
very few of the Texans had ever seen other than Indian
warfare. Houston got the ideas of those present, but did
not express himself at this council meeting. It was nearly
4 o'clock on the afternoon of the 21st, when he finally
gave the order to Colonel John A. Wharton, the Judge
Advocate General, to form the army for an immediate
offensive. If this order had not been given at 4 o'clock
there would have been a mutiny before sundown. The
army and its leaders Avere on the point of forcing the issue.
161

San Jacinto
The excitement was intense, and if the grim old Cherokee
Chief had a design to Avork his men up to the point of
frenzy for a fight, he managed it extremely well.
There were seven hundred and eightyrthree men in the
battle line when it Avas formed on the high ground within a
few hundred feet of the banks of the bayou. These forces,
facing each other across the distance of no more than a
mile, were alien races that had clashed before in the cen
turies gone by.
As they fronted each other this day they were in a
struggle for the boundary line of distinct civilizations.
Upon the discovery of the Americas, the Spaniard, by his
explorations and bloody conquest, had fastened his domin
ion, his language and his laws on all South America,
and at one time his claims covered more than half of North
America. Even after the Spanish cession of Louisiana to
France and the relinquishment of Florida to the United
States, Spain yet held Mexico, and it included Texas and
the vast country to the northwest to the 42nd parallel upon
the Pacific. In North America, England had become the
dominant poAver, and here on this April day there came the
clash of Latin with Saxon sovereignty.
Sam Houston, Sidney Sherman, Tom Rusk, Edward Bur
leson, John Wharton and hundreds bearing English names
and of English ancestry, were opposed to Antonio Lopez de
Santa Anna, Castrillion, Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, Pedro
Delegado and others bearing high sounding Spanish names.
The ancestors of these combatants had fought each other
when the Spanish Armada sailed into the northern seas to
work the destruction of England. And now they were
come to grips in the contest for a land larger than the
Continental Empire of Charles V, with the British Islands
thrown in. One million square miles of river and forest
162

San Jacinto
mountain and plain were lost to his Imperial Highness at
sundown that day.
The destruction of the Mexican army was complete. San
ta Anna, Almonte and Cos were captured, and Castrillion,
who led the charge at the Alamo, was among the slain.
Houston, on the 25th, made his official report advising that
our losses were two killed and twenty-three wounded, six
mortally. Among the severely wounded was Alphonso Steele, who
was shot through the lungs. Seventy-four years later,
I met him on the battle field — then the last survivor of the
conflict. He related to me how he was shot down and
thought his wound mortal, and that with a dying madness
he took a fallen gun and killed a Mexican soldier who came
within his range and then crawled to the rear to die, which
he did seventy-five years after.
If we accept Cressay's Classification of decisive battles
as correct, San Jacinto must be reckoned as the sixteenth
decisive battle of the world. It decided the fate not only of
the Texas Colonies but pointed the way to the Pacific
Ocean. If our army had been defeated that day the American
settlements would have been wiped out, and Santa Anna
would have returned home a conquering hero with a
prestige which would have sustained him for many years.
The anti-slavery element in the States was bitterly op
posed to the extension of our territory to the Southwest,
for it meant more slave states. They fought the recogni
tion of Texas in 1837 and fought its admission into the
Union for ten long years after it became independent. If
Mexico could have held it until we werfe in the shadow of
our Civil War, the northern and eastern states would have
163

San Jacinto
been their ally and both France and England opposed our
expansion across the Mississippi.
The annexation of Texas to the Union, which followed
San Jacinto, brought on the Mexican war which gave us the
land Avest to the ocean and north to Oregon.
The Battle of San Jacinto, coming after sixty days of
the most intense excitement and following the terrible
reverses of the Alamo and Goliad, filled Texas with
great rejoicing and its tidings were received throughout
the United States with the greatest enthusiasm. Five
days after the battle, General Houston Avrote a message
in lead pencil, which Avas sent by a messenger to General
Gaines on the Sabine. The message read :
"San Jacinto, April 26, 1836.
"Tell our friends all the neAVs, that Ave have beat the
enemy, killed 630, taken 570 prisoners. General Santa
Anna and Cos were taken, three generals slain. Vast
amount of property taken and about 1500 standards of
arms, many swords and one nine-pound brass cannon.
Tell them to come on and let the people plant corn.
"Samuel Houston,
' ' Commander-in-Chief. ' '
This% terse message Avas addressed to no one, and written
on a sheet of paper no larger than the hand. General
Gaines directed Lieutenant Hitchcock to deliver this dis
patch from Houston to the President of the United States,
and on May 1st, he started on his long journey to Wash
ington. Hitchcock was the grandson of Ethan Allen,
of Revolutionary fame. The messenger made his way to
Mobile, but found the northern route through Alabama
so infested with Creek Indians he took a boat from Pensa-
cola, in which he crossed the sound and made his way
164

San Jacinto
to a stage line Avhich crossed through Georgia. The
rumor of Indians Avas so rife that all of the passengers
on the boat turned back except the Lieutenant and a
Scotchman named Anderson, who promised to accom
pany him all the way, and they made their way in the
last coach that went through Georgia for many months.
When he reached Washington, he was at once admitted
to the President, who was recovering from a severe illness,
and who was alone when the Lieutenant handed him
Houston's dispatch.
In his diary he writes:
"I never saw a man more delighted than President
Jackson. He read the dispatch over and dwelt particu
larly on the one from Houston, exclaiming over and over,
as though talking to himself, 'Yes, that is his writing.
I know it well. That is Sam Houston's writing. There
can be no doubt about what he says.' Then the old man
ordered a map and he and I spread it and tried to locate
San Jacinto. He passed his finger excitedly over the map
in search of the name, but it was not there. He Avould
say, ' It must be here. * * * No, it is over there, ' as
he ran his fingers back and forth over the map, but
finally gave up the search. So great was his enthusiasm
that I think he would have promoted me to a captain of
dragoons on the spot had there been a vacancy."
In his old age, and during his last exile, Santa Anna
Avrote his memoirs, with the request that their publica
tion be withheld until all of that generation had passed
away. The manuscript is in the Garcia library now
owned by the Texas University. His account of the
Texas campaign contains many remarkable statements,
but no part of it is more interesting than his account of
the Battle of San Jacinto, of which he writes:
165

San Jacinto
"The campaign should come to an end before the
floods, a condition which made it imperative for me to
advance rapidly against the colony. BetAveen the enemy
and me was the copious Brazos River, which was guarded
by the colonists. Here it was necessary to surprise the
detachment at Thompson's Pass, an operation which Avas
well executed, and which facilitated orir passing easily
with the canoes which Ave had taken.
"Five leagues beyond, in the little town of Arisburg
(Harrisburg), was located the Government of the so-
called Republic of Texas. * * * I marched imme
diately towards that place, with six companies of grena
diers and light troopers and small cannon. In one night
Ave crossed the prairie, and were already approaching the
houses Avhen a gun was accidentally discharged; the ex
plosion aroused the dogs, and frightened the local of
ficials, AA'ho ran to hide themselves in the little steamer
which, as a precaution, they had in the Arroyo del Buf
falo (Buffalo Bayou) with engine fired. This stream
empties into the San Jacinto River, which bathes Gal
veston Island. In the residence of I. Bonnen (Burnet),
the titular president of the Republic of Texas, there Avas
found correspondence from Houston Avhich had arrived
the day before. The latter was in Ioav spirits. In one of
his communications, he expressed himself thus:
" 'The catastrophes of the Alamo and the Llano del
Perdido, with the deplorable loss of the brave Travis and
Fancy (Fannin), have discouraged my men, and they
are deserting in platoons, believing the cause of Texas
lost. This obliges me to seek protection on Galveston
Island until a more opportune time. I shall make use
of the first vessel that enters the San Jacinto River. The
Mexicans continue advancing.'

166

San Jacinto
"I considered it important to pursue Houston, and not
less important to increase the forces which accompanied
me. To this end I immediately ordered my second, Vin-
cente Filisola, General of Divisions, to march Avith the
battalion of sappers with all of his strength, Avith in
structions to his chief to come to me at once, under con
voy of the bearer of my order. Filisola, with consider
able forces, had remained at Thompson's Pass, Avaiting
Urrea 's brigade. I had left him two special Avritten or
ders : First, that he should not send any Avritten dis
patches nor any Avritten correspondence which the enemy
might intercept. Second, that, after uniting with Urrea's
brigade, he should force his marches and overtake me.
Orders dictated with such foresight did not prevent the
lamentable event which the disobedience of Filisola was
to bring about. He seems to have deliberately spoiled a
happy campaign which was near its end.
"Appreciating the situation, I did not wish to lose a
single hour. I looked for Houston along the banks of the
San Jacinto River, and found him under shelter of the
forest, ready to retire to Galveston. I resolved to delay
him, affording time for the battalion of sappers or
Filisola himself, and I camped within sight. I was
Avaiting impatiently when General Cos arrived Avith three
hundred troops from the Guerrero battalion, commanded
by its chief, Don Manuel Caspedes.
"Thoroughly disgusted to see my order disobeyed, and
foreseeing disaster, I determined to counter-march the
same day to try Filisola, and receive reinforcements, but
Avas already too late. The evil was done. The dis
obedient Filisola had sent one of his aides with informa
tion from Mexico, Avho before reaching my camp was in
tercepted, and, when put to torture, told all he knew.
167

San Jacinto
Houston, thus advised of the superiority of his forces
over those which I had at the front, took courage and de
cided to attack. At two o'clock in the afternoon of
April 21, 1836, I had fallen asleep in the shade of an
oak, hoping the beat would moderate so that I might
begin the march, Avhen the filibusterers surprised my
camp with admirable skill. Imagine my surprise, on
opening my eyes, and finding myself surrounded by those
people, threatening me with their rifles and overpowering
my person. The responsibility of Filisola Avas obvious, be
cause he and only he had caused such a catastrophe by
his criminal disobedience.
"Samuel Houston treated us in a way that could not
have been hoped for. His humane and generous conduct
contrasted severely with that of Filisola. On recognizing
me, he addressed me courteously, extending his hand.
Despite his wounds, Avhich he had received assaulting my
camp, he interested himself with regard to. my person,
ordered my tent and cot to be prepared and placed near
his. To those who begged reprisal, he said seriously,
'There is no need of harboring resentment against the
prisoners. They complied with the precepts of their
Government,' I have always recalled with the sincerest
gratitude how much I OAved to this singular man in the
saddest moments of my. career."

168

THE REPUBLIC
The Republic of Texas.
Though the independence of Texas had been declared
at the Washington Convention on March 2nd, it was not
achieved until the close of the day at San Jacinto. The ad
interim government had taken refuge on Gaheston
Island, and General Houston sent a messenger to Presi
dent Burnet, and he and Vice-President de Zavala and
other members of the government came by steamer to
San Jacinto, arriving there three days after the battle.
Houston Avas suffering from a wound in his foot and de
sired to go to NeAV Orleans for medical treatment, and,
at his request, Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War, as
sumed the command of the army, and President Burnet
and his advisers began negotiations with Santa Anna.
The Mexican President had left the battlefield Avell
mounted, and tried to join Filisola 's command on the
Brazos. The country was strange to him, and instead
of riding directly across the prairie and making his
escape, as he could readily have done, he followed the
road by Avhich he had come, by Harrisburg. There Avas
a Avooden bridge across Vince's Bayou, over which both
his and Houston's troops had passed on their way down!
to San Jacinto. Just before the battle began on the
21st, Houston had sent Deaf Smith to destroy this bridge.
When Santa Anna reached ' Vince 's Bayou, finding the
bridge destroyed, he plunged into the muddy stream and
his horse stuck fast in the mire. He dismounted and lost
his boots in the mud. In a report which he made to his
government some years later, he says:
169

The Republic of Texas
"I alighted from my horse and concealed myself in
a thicket of dwarf pines. Night came on and I crossed
the creek with water up to my waist. I found a house
which had been abandoned, and some articles of clothing
which enabled me to change my apparel. About eleven
o'clock the next day I was crossing a large plain and
my pursuers overtook me."
The next morning various parties were scouring the
prairie and all on the lookout for Santa Anna and Cos.
James A. Sylvester, who had come with volunteers from
Cincinnati, and who had worked as a printer on a paper
in that city, relates:
"We were near the bridge on Vince's Bayou, and I
saw some deer and rode nearer to get a shot at them.
When they started, I looked to see what had frightened
them, and saw a Mexican going towards the bayou."
Not suspecting Avho the prisoner was, they took him
into the camp, but his felloAAr-prisoners recognized him in
his disguise, and from their exclamations Avhen they saw
him he shortly became known. He readily agreed to is
sue a command to Filisola to retire to Victoria:
"I have agreed with General Houston on an armistice
until matters can be so regulated that the war can cease
forever." President Burnet negotiated two treaties with Santa^
Anna, one of Avhich was published at the time, the other
a secret treaty. The open treaty provided that all
hostility should cease, and Santa "Anna" wouId~nbT-'*ex^"
ercis^^iil^hujnce,. to ~clfljsIIISim7nrtecjJe ;_takeri lip"
against Jhe people of Texas during the_jpr^sjnt_war foF
ind^e-ade-naa. ' '
Tnjhg_secret treaty^Ji£_iKnjnd_jihnself to "so prepare
thingsin the Cabinet . of __Mexico _that a mission serif
170

The Republic of Texas
thither by the Governmeni_of_Texas_ may be well re^
_ceived and by means of negotiations all differences may
be settled ajnd_jndep_endence acknowledged. ' '
The Rio Grande Avas to be the boundary, and Santa
Anna was to be sent at once by Vera Cruz. These
treaties were executed at Velasco on the 14th day of
May, and within a short time plans Avere completed for
sending the captive President home, and on June 3, 1836,
he and his suite had embarked on the Schooner "Invinc
ible" in the mouth of the Brazos and were ready to sail,
and he issued a friendly farewell to Texas and the
Texans. Just before the- vessel sailed, a steamer arrhred from
New Orleans bearing two hundred and fifty volunteer
soldiers who had come to take part in the reA'olution.
They at once determined that Santa Anna should not be
liberated, and forcibly took him in charge, defying the
Government and setting aside the treaties of Velasco.
The Texas army under Rusk had followed Filisola 's
forces as they retreated toward the Rio Grande, and
Avas camped near Victoria at this time, and President
Burnet, avIio had taken up his headquarters at Velasco,
Avas without power to resist the importunities of these
new recruits who defied the Government and took af
fairs into their own hands. Santa Anna Avas taken up to
the Phelps plantation, at Orozimbo, above Columbia,
where he Avas held until the following November.
Volunteer soldiers and immigrants came into Texas in
great numbers during the summer of 1836 and every
where there Avas excitement and disorder which always
follows Avar. The authority of the ad interim Govern
ment was little respected, and the army which remained
camped on the Navidad Avas a wild, turbulent body of
171

The Recognition of Texas
poorly disciplined men. There were constant rumors all
through the summer and autumn that another Mexican
army was being mustered to invade Texas, and it Avas
not thought prudent to disband our army. President
Burnet did his utmost to maintain order, but with little
success. He called a general election to be held in
September, at which was submitted for ratification the
constitution which had been adopted at Washington on
the Brazos in March. A president and vice-president
and congress Avere chosen at this election. The Constitu
tion was ratified. Houston was chosen President almost
by acclamation over Austin and Henry Smith, who re
ceived only a few hundred votes each. Mirabeau Lamar
Avas elected vice-president. The question of annexation to
the United States was also voted upon, and only eighty-
nine votes were cast against it.
The first Congress met at Columbia on the Brazos in
a barn-like building, which was destroyed in the tropical
storm of 1900 and which this generation remembers "like
a ragged beggar sunning." In poverty almost pitiful,
the new Government began on the tract of land on which
in later years the great Columbia oil fields were found,
and more money has been taken from one of these wells
than would have been required to pay the debt of the
Republic during its whole existence. In December, Con
gress recessed to meet in Houston in May, this place
having been chosen as the capital until 1840.
The Recognition of Texas.
When Ave recall how diligently the Adams and Jackson
administrations had Avrought for years to accomplish the
purchase of Texas, we _w^uld__sujipp£fl_tlte_ Washington
Government would have immediately accepted the offer
172

The Recognition of Texas
of annexation which was almost unanimously adopted by
the people of Texas at their first election in September,
TBHBT^TBuT TfT~polnT^of~Tact, rf~wjs~o1nTy "after ""great
effort that the AmericairTJb!igress~was induced to recog-
lnaze~TEe TnHependence of Texas, and if~riquired "ten
long years"' to~~acc^mpTis'F "lTn^exat]Oj^~~TInT"~rriost "iiri-
portantTEng~6TiirOTLting the new Government was im
mediate recognition by the United States, and President
Houston appointed William H. Wharton of Brazoria
minister to Washington, Avith the hope of procuring im
mediate recognition. There Avas every reason to sup
pose it would be promptly accorded. Houston's lifelong
intimacy with General Jackson and the well-known vieAVs
of the American President would seem to. have guaran
teed most anything that Texas wanted. But Jackson
was in ill health, and was to retire from the Presidency
in a few months, and Van Buren had been elected to suc
ceed him before the Texas envoy reached Washington.
Wharton left Velasco for New Orleans en route to
Washington on the 23rd of November. Two days later
President Houston sent Santa Anna under an escort to
Washington, and his trip was so planned that he would
reach Washington only a few days after the arrival of
the Texas Minister. Santa Anna in his memoirs speaks of
his journey to Washington:
"On taking leave of me, Houston said with emotions
of 'pleasure, 'General, you are no longer a prisoner. From
this moment you are at absolute liberty. I want to ask
one favor, and this I must surely merit: Before re
turning to your country, you visit President Jackson, my
protector and friend. You will be well received by him
because he wishes to knoAv you.' In that helpless state
and in despair of getting aAvay from the filibusterers my
173

The Recognition of Texas
refusal seemed imprudent, and with good grace I of
fered gladly .to comply with his wishes. I received a most
cordial reception from President Jackson.'.'
The veal pircpose— of— Sa.nta Aauia^„mis.sioii_to Wash-
ington was to tell the President of the United States that
Mexico wbuT^makeno further attempt To" conquer Te*Xas,
ai15LiS5t.^LJ,nle«£EP.se(l no 6T5jecti6ri to its iridependeliifigr
The instructions given Minister Wharton were to urge
the recognition of Texas' independence, and its im
mediate annexation to the United States. Before Wharton
reached Washington, he began to see signs of opposi
tion to Texas, fomented chiefly by abolitionists in the
North who saAV an extension of slave territory in Ameri
can supremacy over Texas, and on December 11th, while
en route, he Avrote Austin, the Secretary of State for
Texas :
"Annexation, Avhen offered, will agitate the Union
more than Missouri, abolition and nullification all com
bined." When he reached Washington in December, he found
the President ill and first communicated with Secretary
of State Forsythe, who advised that the President hoped
Texas could get recognition from some European country
first, that the fact that it had offered annexation at its
recent election embarrassed the Government, for it would
lend color to the charge that recognition was a means by
Avhich annexation would be accomplished. For the fifst
time in his whole life, the old warrior President seemed
conservative and did not desire to do anything that
Avould offend Mexico or any European country. On
December 21st he sent a message to Congress :
"Our custom has been to regard the question of
recognition of belligerent countries as questions of fact
174

The Recognition of Texas
and our predecessors have cautiously abstained from de
ciding them until the clearest evidence was in their pos
session, not only to enable them to decide correctly but
shield their decisions from every unworthy imputation:
* * * Recognition at tIris__time^_^herefQrav .would
scarcely be regarded as consistent ^yHh^JJnvL prudent
T^servejw^ith "IvTvTch Ave have heretofore^jtel^d^mu^ejlves.
bound to treat all similar questions."
This message Avas unlike Jackson. Never in his
Avhole life had he been deterred by "prudent reserve"
or by precedent of other days, or by anything else, from
doing or saying anything he Avanted to do or say. He
had labored for eight long years for the annexation of
Texas. He had gone into raptures when Lieutenant
Hitchcock brought him the message from Houston telling
him of the victory of San Jacinto. His attitude at this
time was a surprise to the world, and especially to his
Southern friends. But in December, 1836, Jackson was
ill, Van Buren, his successor, would become President
in March, and the old man seems to have yielded to
political expediency where he had never been1 known to
do so before. On Sunday, December 25th, Minister
Wharton wrote Secretary of State Austin with reference
to this message :
"Some say it is the work of Van Buren. Others that
Jackson hopes when Santa Anna reaches the city in a
few days that a treaty will be agreed upon by which the
United States can buy Texas."
Wharton and Jackson had been lifelong friends in
Tennessee, and as soon as the President was able to see
him there was a long interview, in which Wharton
told President Jackson that he had done Texas and the
Texans as much injury as if he had joined Mexico in
175

The Recognition of Texas
arms against them; that the Mexicans would have his
message printed on satin and circulated through all the
land. The result of this conference Avas a promise on the
part of President Jackson to; send another message to
Congress favorable to recognition. During the con
versation the President told Wharton that Santa Anna
Avould be in Washington in a feAv days, and that if a
treaty could be made with him it Avould be valid.
The Mexican President did not reach Washington until
the 18th of January, and but for his timely arrival and
the messages that he gave Jackson,' the recognition of
Texas Avould probably not have been accomplished at that
time. Wharton had a conference with Santa Anna upon
his arrival, of which he writes :
"General Santa Anna informed me that he had re
quested the American Secretary of State to give him the
amount of claims which American citizens held against
Mexico, and that after ascertaining the amount, he
would promptly state to this Government the additional
sum of money which Mexico Avould ask for a quit claim to
Texas. I then asked Santa Anna what was the greatest
amount the United States Government had offered Mexico
for Texas, and he told me thirteen million dollars. He
told me he knew it was to the best interest of Mexico
and Texas that there should be peace and that he realized
Texas could not be reconquered. That the threatened in
vasion so much talked about was a humbug, and that as
soon as he reached Mexico he would stop it. That what
he had promised while in captivity in Texas he Avould
perform at the capital of his own nation. He concluded
jocularly that the Treasury of the United States was
well filled; that he hoped I, as Minister from Texas,
would not obstruct his Government from obtaining a feAv

176

'"•"..]¦ Li ¦....

WILLIAM H. WHARTON
First Texas Minister to the United States, who was killed by the
accidental discharge of his pistol in March, 1839

PENELOPE JOHNSON WHARTON
(Daughter of Guv. Johnson of S. C. )
Wife of Gen. John A. Wharton (the younger) and their daughter Kate

The Recognition of Texas
million from this Government for a quit claim to Texas.
That he was in accord with recognition of Texas by the
United States, and hoped it would take place before he
left Washington. That this Avould enable him to make a
much more favorable treaty, and take a smaller sum for
Texas and assist him in getting such a treaty ratified in
Mexico. ' '
On the same day that Wharton had this remarkable
interview with the Mexican President, he had a sum
mons to the White House for an intervieAV with Presi
dent Jackson. Santa Anna had called on General Jack
son and had said to him about the same he had said to
Wharton, and Jackson thought the whole thing could be
settled by the United States buying Texas from Mexico.
But Wharton protested that Texas should not be bought
and sold like a chattel. That it was a free country and
in any event should be made a party to any bargain and
sale between the- United States and Mexico. That first
of all it should be recognized as an independent nation
and details of any settlement along these lines might
follow. It would seem now that there .was  hq_j excuse
left to delay Texas recognition, but the influence of Van
"Pfur^nT^noTaa^TsmnT^naTsterjuirpose, not clear at this
time nor apparent then, and the determination of the
abolitionists ^}i,j$go^iji.,,_Ji)n&^g^. And though the
Tr^IHenT of Mexico had gone all the Avay to Washington1
and had admitted iojhe President of the United States
"tliaf'Tjjxg^^ we might
now call a "bloc" in „the.. American. .Congr.ess^,bentj>n. de- __
leafing, or ^ at least , .-POStpomn^J^, recognition during
tEe_..Iernu_af„JCongress wld,cli_wfluld^ex.E,ire^ in less than
thirty— days? 
On February 7th, when the Appropriation Bill for
diplomatic service was on regular call, Waddy Thompson,
177

The Recognition of Texas
Senator from South Carolina, moved that an item be
added, inserting a provision for the expense of an agent
to the "Independent Republic" of Texas. His motion
was lost by heavy adverse vote, but on the last day of
February, while the Appropriation Bill was yet be
fore the House, he renewed his motion and omitted the
word "independent," and added the qualification
"whenever the President of the United States may re
ceive satisfactory evidence that Texas is an independent
poAver and shall deem it expedient to appoint such a
minister. ' '
This seemed harmless and no one could oppose its
principle. Then, tod, Van Buren Avould be President in
four days and he could be counted on to delay the
matter indefinitely, so the utterly academic, harmless
rider to the Appropriation Bill went by. Wharton imme
diately sought the President and urged and implored him
to act under this rider in the Appropriation Bill and
send a diplomatic agent to Texas at once. Only four days
of Jackson's administration remained. He continued his
entreaties until the last day of the term, when the Presi
dent sent a message to the Senate calling attention to the
fact that both Houses had inserted in the General Ap
propriation Bill a provision for the expenses of a
diplomatic agent to Texas "whenever the executive is
satisfied of her independence. Therefore, I name Alcee
LaBranche, of Louisiana, to be Charge d 'Affairs to the
Republic of Texas." It was near midnight on March
3rd when this message of nomination went to the Senate,
and on the stroke of the hour President Jackson, Minister
Wharton and a coterie of their friends drank to the
Republic of Texas. General Jackson said to Wharton:
' ' Texas must clai.m__to_lh.e Pacific, must claim and
hold California. This will paralyze the opposition of the
178

The Passing of Austin
north to annexation, for there are great fishi.ng-^pana-
tionson the Pacific Co^sl-Cfflmaii in the Nortli apd EaatJJ
Eight years later, in the last hours of John Tyler's
administration, a resolution for the annexation of Texas
was signed under similar circumstances.

Passing of Austin.
The construction of a new Government involved a vast
amount of labor and detail, and a very large part of this
work fell to the Secretary of State, and he entered upon
his labors Avith his usual industry.
It was now fifteen years since he first rode down into
the Colorado-Brazos country to select a site for his first
Colony, and since he led the advance of his old three hun
dred into the Avilderness. He Avas only twenty-eight then.
He had given these fifteen years to the enterprise, to the
neglect of all else. For years he was the law of the Colonies,
and his firm, modest manhood had won for him and his
people the respect of Mexico. , He hoped to live in peace

under the Mexican Government, and was one of .tlieJIew.
men in Texas who cherished the hope that Texas could,
and would remain a part of the MexicjuiJBepublic  A free
people hayeejfexJagj^^ to
wards those who have^jeryed them Jbest^
The history of our country teems with conspicuous ex
amples of men who have given their lives to the public
service, and have been scourged into poverty and neglect
in their old age.
Austin had been abused for ten years because he would
not lend himself to mad schemes for. a separation of Texas
from Mexico. He was a reticent, silent man, and often
misunderstood. William H. Wharton was his bitter enemy,
179

The Passing of Austin
and had often said ugly things about him. They were rec
onciled at the outbreak of the Revolution, and went to
gether as Commissioners to the States and became fast
friends. Upon their return in June, 1836, Wharton solicited him
to become a candidate for the Presidency. He was a man
of prodigious energy. Almost at once after his return in
June he took active steps to protect East Texas against
Indian depredations, and was the instrument of procuring
soldiers from the American Army to be stationed at Nacog
doches. He was not disgruntled by the fact that he only received
a few hundred votes for the presidency, and gladly accepted
a place with the administration, Avilling to help work
out the national destiny of Texas, for Texas was his life
labor and love. He had no family, and like Washington,
Providence left him childless that his people might call him
"Father." During his long imprisonment in Mexico in 1834 and
1835, Santa Anna was in power, and on one occasion during
this time had Austin brought out of prison for a conference
regarding Texas affairs, and when the conference was over
the jailer escorted him back to the bastile. And now a short
year later when Austin returned from the States, Santa
Anna was a prisoner at the Phelps plantation doAvn in
Brazoria, and Austin went to Orozimbo to confer with him
about Texas affairs. When the conference was over, Austin
rode back to his home at Peach Point and left his Imperial
Highness in captivity.
As Secretary of State, his work required a vast amount of
correspondence, which he conducted without the aid of an
assistant. There were no typewriters or stenographers in
those days, and when papers were written in duplicate as
180

The Army of the Republic
State papers must be, they Avere most laboriously copied just
as they Avere first written.
The old State House at Columbia was little better than
a barn, and here in a bare room, by the dim light of a flick
ering candle, he worked and wrote far into each night, pre
paring papers with instructions to our ministers and en
voys, avIio Avere being sent on various missions far and wide.
He sat on a chair with a rawhide bottom, and when the chill
of the December night crept into the fireless room he gath
ered his cloak about his frail form and worked on, for there
Avas much to do, and no other man living knew as much of
Texas needs and affairs as the Secretary of State.
Just before the close of the year he sickened, and on
December 27th he died of pneumonia. In the hours of his
dying delirium, he lived over again the years that had gone
before and his last words were, ' ' Texas has been admitted. ' '
And this brings us to the close of his eventful life, and the
all-eventful year in Texas history. The Alamo had fallen
March 6th; Fannin fell at Goliad on March 27th; San
Jacinto was won on April 21st. Houston was elected Presi
dent on September 3rd. The first Congress met on Octo
ber 3rd. And in the last days of the year the great Avhite
soul of Austin went back to God Avho gave it.
The Army of the Republic.
The charge was openly made in the United States by
those who were unfriendly to the Texas Revolution, that
there were not fifty citizens of Texas at the Battle of San
Jacinto ; that Houston 's entire army was composed of volun
teers and adventurers from the United States. William E.
Channing, the Boston clergyman who led a fervent crusade
against Texas and the Texans, made this statement in his

181

The Army of the Republic
celebrated letter to Henry Clay, which was widely circulated
as a political document during the annexation controversy.
It is true that the Revolution Avas wonderfully aided in
every Avay by the people of the Southern States, and within
three or four months after San Jacinto as many as twenty-
five hundred men from the States presented themselves for
service during the war. It has been said on high authority
that there were more men on the Avay to join Houston's com
mand at the time the battle Avas fought, than he had with
him. Touching the matter of foreign aid, Mr. Eugene C.
Barker, who covered the topic in an article written for the
Texas Historical Quarterly in 1906, Avrote: "But when all
is said it was really the old settlers who did almost unaided
all the effectual fighting in the Texas Revolution. They
captured Goliad in the fall of 1835, and assisted by a few
companies from the United States, captured Bexar in De
cember of that year, and practically alone they Avon the bat
tle of San Jacinto. ' '
it was also charged in those days that the Revolution was
the work of what northern writers called the slave-holding
oligarchy. On November 11, 1836, there Avas pending before the first
Senate of the Republic a bill giving bounty lands to sol
diers, and William H. Wharton, Senator from Brazoria,
made the point that the large land owners, the wealthy
planters and merchants, were not at the battle of San Ja
cinto. "I have examined the list of those Avho Avon the battle
(he said), and find that very few men who are esteemed
men of property were there.
"I_find that the battle was fought and Avon_by the poor
men of the country_._at least half of wfrmnTiad never located
aTieadright in Texas." — -— — __

182

The Army of the Republic
It has been said that nearly all of those who came to do
military service remained in the country and became citi
zens. The neAvs of the victory at San Jacinto caused a rush
of volunteers from the States.
Felix Huston, a laAvyer and planter, from Vicksburg,
Mississippi, equipped five hundred men and brought them
ready for service.
Memuean Hunt, from Mississippi, undertook to bring
four thousand men, and was instrumental in procuring one
thousand. Thomas J. Chambers, of Texas, raised several companies
in Kentucky, who came ready for service.
Rusk was named to command when General Houston left
for New Orleans in May to get medical treatment for the
wound he received in the battle. Rusk led the army in
the wake of the retreating Mexicans, and during the sum
mer and autumn of 1836 it was camped at and near Vic
toria, and for several months afterwards on the Lavaca
River. After the Mexican forces were Avithdrawn, Rusk desired
to be relieved, and suggested Felix Huston to succeed him.
President Burnet named Colonel Lamar, who repaired to
the army to take command. Felix was a convivial person,
and had made himself so popular with the men in the ser
vice that they, declined to accept Colonel Lamar, and he re
turned, leaving Huston in command.
A great many turbulent, meddlesome men foregathered
with the so-called army, and little semblance of military dis
cipline was maintained.
At one time a conspiracy was formed to depose President
Burnet and try him at court martial for some feigned griev
ance, and a company of soldiers came all the way to the
183

The Army of the Republic
Brazos upon this fool's errand, but thought better of
it. All the while rumors persisted that another invasion
Avas comiug from Mexico, and though the army was a great
financial burden as well as a menace, it could not be
disbanded. When the first Congress met in the autumn of 1836, the
army Avas its greatest problem. It was thought Avise to
name a man from the United States of military experience
to command, and the two houses passed a joint resolution
inviting General James Hamilton, of South Carolina, to
become a citizen of Texas and commander of the army.
He had been an officer in the war of 1812, and had served
as Governor of South Carolina and United States Senator
from that State. General Hamilton declined the honor, and
Felix Huston remained in command. "The Texan Arnry "
of 1836 Avas a cosmopolitan affair, made up of men from
everywhere. Preston Johnston, in his life of Albert Sidney Johnston,
describes them, ' ' the ardent youth of the South, burning for
military glory. Enthusiasts of constitutional freedom min
gled Avith adventurers from Europe; souls as knightly and
unstained as Bayard Avith outlaws and men of broken, des
perate fortunes."
It was on the Coleto, in the summer of 1836, that the gal
lant Albert Sidney Johnston, lately a lieutenant in the
army of the United States, and destined in the years to come
to be one of America's greatest generals, joined the Texas
army as a private. He was in his thirty-fourth year, and a
splendid specimen of manhood. He remained with the
army for a period, and served the new Government in sev
eral minor capacities, and late in January, 1837, President
Houston named him Commander-in-Chief of the army of the
184

The Army of the Republic
Republic, and he left Houston for headquarters on the
Lavaca to take command. Felix Huston, though without
military experience, had many qualities for a great com
mander, and among them was the esteem of his men.
When it Avas announced that Albert Sidney Johnston
Avas coming to take command, both Felix and his friends
felt that he had been badly treated, and were in an ugly
mood. To make bad matters worse, Colonel Moorehoufte
rode over to Texana and met General Johnston as he came
doAvn, and was not over-careful in what he related about
Huston 's attitude and purposes.
On February 4th, Huston addressed a formal challenge
to Johnston, professing respect and admiration for him,
but remonstrating: "Your appointment was connected
with a tissue of treachery intended to degrade me and blast
my prospects. * * * I therefore propose a meeting
betAveen us. My friend Major Ross will make all necessary
arrangements. ' '
No duelling pistols could be found in the camp, and they
agreed to use Felix Huston's horse-pistols, and he gave
Johnston his choice. The seconds arranged that they should
fire from the hip, though General Johnston declared he did
not think he could hit the side of a house with a hip shot.
In the early morning of February 5th the little party ford
ed the Lavaca and rode to an open prairie, where the
principals stripped to their shirt sleeves and faced each
other at sunrise.
There are two accounts of just what happened. Preston
Johnston, in the biography of his gallant father, relates it:
"It is knoAvn to those familiar Avith the use of a hair trig
ger that if the finger is alloAved to touch it, the report of
another pistol will always produce a sufficient involuntary
muscular contraction of the finger to cause a premature

185

The First Capitals of Texas
discharge. Availing himself of this fact, General Johnston
raised his pistol quickly and Avith an eye on his opponent's
trigger finger anticipated him enough to draw his fire be
fore Huston could cover him Avith his pistol. Johnston re
peated this five times with the same result. The sixth
shot struck General Johnston in the hip. Sidney Huston,
a great grandson of Felix Huston, gave me a statement from
an eye-Avitness Avho relates it thus: Johnston fired four
shots, Huston three. The third time Huston's pistol
snapped and he sat down, took his pocket knife and picked
the flint of his lock and they took position for the fourth
time, and when they fired Johnston fell."
Huston approached General Johnston as he lay wounded
and offered his sympathy, and avowed his intention to
serve under him, and indeed he remained Avith the army
for some weeks, and cheerfully recognized Johnston as his
superior officer. It was thought that Johnston's wound
was fatal, and he lay near death for some Aveeks at the lit
tle village of Texana, but he lived for a wonderful military
career, and died on the field of Shiloh nearly thirty years
after. He and Felix Huston became fast friends, and Felix
named a son for the great commander, and Preston John
ston wrote in his father's biography forty years later that
"Felix Huston's character Avas brave and manly."
The problem of maintaining the army became more se
rious than the ever-threatening Mexican invasion, and, on
April 18th, 1837, President Houston furloughed the first
army of the Republic, and it passed into history.

The Capitals of Texas.
The first grant made by the Mexican nation in April,
1823, directed Austin to select a central location for a city
186

The First Capitals of Texas
to become his seat of Government, and Governor Garcia
took the liberty of suggesting a name for the proposed city,
and christened it San Felipe de Austin, San Felipe being
his patron saint. It was named before it Avas located. The
first site discussed was on the Colorado, near where Colum
bus Avas later located, but Austin chose the Brazos as more
central to his settlements.
From 1823 to 1836 it remained the seat of Government,
and Avas the most important toAvn in the Colonies. When
Houston's army retreated from San Felipe in April, 1836,
going up the river to Groce's, the town Avas burned to keep
anything of value from falling into the hands of the Mex
icans. Santa Anna reached there while the fires were yet smoul
dering, and reported finding it in ruins. The Government
was more or less migratory during 1836. .
The convention which declared independence and set up
the provisional government met in March at Washington
on the Brazos, but left there, going to Harrisburg and then
to Galveston. Burnet 's headquarters were for awhile at Ve
lasco and then at Columbia, where the first Congress met in
October, 1836.
It was determined to select a temporary capital, with
the thought that the permanent seat of Government should
be located later and further north than the then existing
settlements. The two houses met in joint session on November 30th,
1836, to select a seat of government until the year 1840.
The journal of this session recites that the following places
were put in nomination. Houston on Buffalo Bayou, Mata
gorda, Washington, Velasco, Quintana, Nacogdoches, Hi
dalgo, Refugio, Fort Bend, Goliad, Groce's Retreat, Bexar,
Columbia, San Patricio, Brazoria, Orozimbo. Upon the first
187

The First Capitals of Texas
ballot no place had a majority. Houston led with eleven
votes, Matagorda second with eight, and Washington seven.
On the fourth ballot, Houston was chosen. On December
21st, the first session of the first Congress adjourned to
meet in Houston on the following May.
"Houston on Buffalo Bayou," as it is written in the
congressional record, was yet a city in prospect when it
was selected on November 30th for the temporary capital of
the Republic.
The Aliens, who promoted it, had surveyed the site in
August, 1836, and on August 30th had inserted an adver
tisement in the Bordens' paper which spoke in florid
terms of the site chosen upon which they proposed
to build a city. They described its location, "The
town of Houston is fifteen miles from the Brazos
River, thirty miles from San Felipe, forty miles
from Lake Creek, thirty miles southwest from NeAV Ken
tucky, and fifteen miles by water above Harrisburg. Prep
arations, are being made to erect a saw mill and a large
public house."
As soon as it was chosen as the seat of Government, in
terest in it was manifest. Ex-Governor Lubbock, in his
memoirs published in 1900, tells of his advent here
about January 1, 1837. He came on the steamboat
"Laura," Avhich he declares was the first boat that ever
reached her landing. "Just before reaching our destination
a party of us left the steamboat and took a yawl and went
ahead to hunt the city. We found no evidence of a landing,
and passed the site and ran up into White Oak Bayou,
and got stuck in the brush. We then backed doAvn the
Bayou, and found that Ave had gone past the city, and a
close observation disclosed a road or street laid off to the
Avater's edge. 188

Austin Located at Waterloo
"Upon landing we found stakes and footprints. A few
teuts were located not far away, one large one was used for
a saloon. Logs Avere being hauled from the forest for the
erection of a hotel where the Hutchins house noAv stands."
(Now site of Southern Pacific building.)
The Aliens had undertaken to provide a capitol building,
and on April 16, 1837, they began its construction so as
to have it ready for the session of Congress, Avhich Avas to
and did convene on May 5th following. This structure
stood at the intersection of Main and Texas, where the
Rice Hotel now stands. And here at the appointed time,
12 o'clock noon, May 5th, 1837, the second session of the
first Congress of the Republic met. The indomitable Bor
dens with their newspaper followed the Government from
Columbia, but were a Avee bit late, and in the first issue of
their paper, published in Houston on the 2nd day of May,
1837, they apologized for the delay. "We left Columbia on
the steamboat 'Yellowstone' on April 16, but were delayed
a Aveek by the surf on the bar at Velasco. We Avere then
stranded at Clopper's bar for a day, and reached Lynch
burg on the 26th, whence we proceeded at the rate of one
mile an hour to the head of navigation at Houston on Buf
falo Bayou." When Congress convened in Houston on
May 5th, Robert J. Walker, United States Senator from
Mississippi, was a guest of the houses. During the next
decade, he was the stahvart friend of Texas, and one of
the most powerful factors in bringing about annexation.
Austin Located at Waterloo.
While the resolution which fixed the seat of government
at Houston provided that it should remain the capital until
189

Austin Located at Waterloo
1840, yet the location of the permanent capital Avas an ever-
present interesting question.
Bj' common consent it Avas agreed that the name of the
city should be Austin, and almost the same consensus of
opinion decided in advance that it should be located as far
north as the old King's Highway, and on either the Brazos
or the Colorado.
Though at the time there were few settlements in the dark
and bloody ground north of the San Antonio Road, yet
the frontier folks Avere pushing their perilous Avay into
these wilds, and it was thought that the location of the seat
of government there would make it a new center of settle
ment. The Second Congress, which met at Houston in
September, 1837, named a commission to "inquire into the
propriety of selecting a site on Avhich to locate permanently
the seat of government of the Republic."
This committee was instructed to select such a site between
the Trinity and Guadaloupe not further south than Fort
Bend or more than twenty miles north of the San Antonio
Road. It made a report in November naming a number of
places which it had considered, but without selecting one.
No action Avas ever taken on this report, and in December,
1837, a second commission of five Avas named Avith instruc
tions to examine various sites proposed and make a report
in the following April, 1838. This committee reported that
it had selected John Eblin's League, on the Colorado, ad
joining the tract on which the toAvn of LaGrange Avas
located. The Second Congress, which was in session when this re
port Avas made, adopted it on April 17, 1838, and thus Eb
lin's League was chosen and Austin Avas to be located next
door to LaGrange in Fayette County.

190

Austin Located at Waterloo
Though President Houston had approved the resolution
naming this commission in November, 1837, yet he vetoed
the act of Congress naming Eblin's League as the site in
April, 1838, giving the reason that since the capital was to
remain at Houston until 1840, it was premature to select a
new site in 1838, for any intervening Congress might at its
will change it. It was generally thought that President
Houston hoped the capital Avould remain at Houston.
There Avas a change in Presidents in 1838, and Mirabeau
B. Lamar and David G. Burnet became President and Vice-
President. The capital issue had been prominent in the campaign,
and in January, 1839, Lamar approved a bill naming the
third and last capital commission. The members of the
commission chosen by Congress were A. C. Horton, I. W.
Burton, William Menefee, Isaac Campbell and Louis P.
Cooke. The act creating it stipulated that the site should be be
tween the Trinity and the Colorado and above the San
Antonio Road. The committee first decided in favor of
placing the city on the Colorado, and in April, 1839, report
ed "that we have selected the site of the town of Waterloo,
on the east bank of the Colorado." In their unanimous re
port they Avrite: "The imagination of even the romantic
will not be disappointed on viewing the valley of the Colo
rado and the woodlands and prairies at a distance from it,
and the citizen's bosom will swell with honest pride when
standing at the portico of the capital of his country he looks
abroad upon a region Avorthy of being the home of the brave
and free."
The village of Waterloo Avas then the home of four fron
tier families, and was far in the Comanche country. In

191

Austin Located at Waterloo
May, 1839, Edwin Waller, who had been chosen to survey
and lay out the new city, was well under way with his work,
and, guarded by rangers, the construction work began at
once, and was so far advanced that the Government, headed
by the President and his Cabinet, reached Austin October
17, 1839, and was received with much ceremony, which end
ed in a banquet which began at 3 p. m. and ended when the
President arose at 8. Lamar was the chief factor in the re
moval from Houston prior to 1840, and tradition ascribes
to him the selection of the beautiful site at the village of
Waterloo. In Vol. 22 of the quarterly published by the
Texas Historical Association, A. W. Terrell, Avho was long
identified with public life in Texas, contributes an article
which dignifies this tradition and makes it a part of our
written history. Here is Mr. Terrell's narrative:
' ' Lamar, then Vice-President of the Republic, came with
a party of hunters in the autumn of 1837 and camped at an
old fort in Fort Prairie, six miles beloAV Avhere Austin now
stands. "Jacob Harrell was then the only settler living at the
present site of Austin and no Avhite man lived on the waters
of the Colorado above him. His cabin and stockade, made of
split logs, Avere built at the mouth of Shoal Creek, near the
river ford. The hunters were aAvakened early in the morn
ing by Jake Harrell 's little son, who told them the prairie
was full of buffalo. Lamar and his companions were soon
in the saddle, and after a successful hunt were assembled by
a recall from the bugler on the very hill where the capitol
noAv stands. General Lamar sat on his horse and looked
from the hill on the valley covered with wild rye; the
mountains up the river, and the wonderful view to the
south; and said to his companions, 'This should be the
seat of future empire.' " 192

*^^y.s7-%'»^5i;

THE CAPITOL AT HOUSTON, 1837

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ms
.uged
Ration , and
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jreme ' has

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iacity 'tim- s of
"He
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SITUA/I'ED at the head-of navigation, on the West bank pf Buffalo Bayou,
¦ is now for the first time brought to miblio notice because, until now, the
proprietors were not ready to offer it to the public, with the advantages of cap
ital anil improvements. . '-¦., :¦.'¦:¦<¦-.,, -.;' ' - -
The town of Houstpii is located at a" point on the river which nittst ever
command the trade of the largest and richest portion of Texas, : By reference
to the map, it will be seen ihftt the trade of Sun Jacinto, Spring Greek, New'
Kentucky and the Brazos, above and below port Bond, must necessarily. come
fo this place, and will at this tiu)Q warrant the employment of at least One
Million Dollars of capital, and when the rich land? oi" this country, shall be
settled, a trade will flow to it, making it, beyond; all doubt, the great inte
rior commercial emporium of Texas, ;...'
,;.'.. The town of Houston; is distant, 15 miles from the Brazos river, 30 miles, a
little North of East, from San Felippci 60 miles from Washington, 40 miles
from Lake Creek, 30 miles txiuth West from New Kentucky, and Jo miles by
water and 8 or 10 by land above Harrisburg; ..Tide water runvto this place
rind the lowest; depth of water is about six feet. Vessels from New Orleans or
New York can sail without obstacle to ibis place, and steamboats of the larg
est class can run down to Galveston Island in 8 or 10 hnui-Sj in all seasons of
the year. It is but a few hours sail down the bay, Where one may take an ex
cursion of pleasure and enjoy the luxuries of fish, foul, oysters and sea bathing.
Galveston harbor being the only one in which vessels drawing a large draft of
water can navigate, must necessarily reuder the Island the great naval and
commercial depot of the country.
The town of Houston must be the pluco where arms, am millions and provi
sions for the government will he stored, becfiuee, situated in the very heart of
the country, it combines security and the means vf easy distribution, and a na-
oxcel- ce in
and
Oak in" inexhaustible quantities; also the tall and beautiful Magnolia 'grows in
abundance.. Iu the vicinity afe fin$ quarries of stone.,
Nature appears to, hl-ve designated- this place for the future scat of Govern
ment, -It is handsome and beautifully elevated, salubrious .indwell watered,
and now in the very Iteart or centre of population, and . will be so'for a length
of time to come, lit combines two important advantages; a communication
with th'4* coast and foreign countries, and with the different portions of the Re
public, . As the country sball improve, fail roads will become in use, and will
be extended from this point to the Brazos, and up the same, also from this up to
the head waters of Sari' Jacinto; embracing that, rich country, find in a few
years the whole trade of tho upper Brazos will make its way into Galveston
Bay through this channel.
Preparations arc now rilnking to.trect a water Saw Mill, and a large l'uh-
Iic House for accommodation, will soon be opened. Steamboats now run in
this river, and will in a short time commence running regularly to tho Island.
The proprietors offer the lots for sale on moderate terms to those who desire
to improve tbein, arid invite the public to examine for themselves.
A. C ALLKN, for
- ' A. C. JL .1, K, AI.LRN.
August 30, 183fi.-^0m
The Commercial Hulletin, of New Orleans, Mobile Advertiser, the Globe.
tit WashingtonLMoniing Courier and New \ ork Kmiuirer, New York Herald,
and Louisville Public Advertiser are requested to make three insertion's of this
advertisement, and forward their bills to this ofllce for payment.

tional armory will no doubt yery soon be established at this paint.
There is no place in Texas mnro .healthy, having un abundance of
lent spring water, and enjoying the sen breeze in all its fresh new. No place
Texas possesses so many advantages for building, having Pine, Ash, Cedar

•.¦' >-. I«r'.-/Mrl«, otFcr-

t'or **n''

Facsmile of first advertisement of the prospective City of Houston, taken from Wharton paper of 1836

The Coming of the Cherokees
When Lamar approved the act appointing the commis
sion which made the final location, he asked them to go to
Jake Harrell 's cabin and look carefully over the site, aud
they did.
It is an interesting coincidence that Austin, some years
before, had chosen this site as a location for his permanent
home, where he hoped to retire and live his latter days in
peace, although this fact does not seem to have been known
to the committee which chose it to forever bear his name.
There is yet in existence a letter which Austin wrote from
Coahuila to Sam'l M. Williams in May, 1832, giving Wil
liams instructions for surveying for him what he character
izes as "the most attractive spot in all Texas." The lo
cation is to begin, "at the upper line of the Tannehill
League about five varas beyond the Big Springs at the
foot of the mountain" (afterwards and now known as
Mount Bonnel).
The survey was to include the "falls of the River."
He accompanied the letter with a sketch made from mem
ory long after having visited this wild scene. "Here (he
wrote), I shall fix my residence on the Colorado at the foot
of the mountain to live."
His dream of retirement to this "most beautiful spot,"
was never fulfilled but his spirit may have led the locators
in 1839 when they went out into the wilderness to found
the City of Austin.
The Coming of the Cherokees.
The native tribes of Indians in the timbered regions of
Texas, when the first explorers came, were well disposed
towards the white man, and indeed it is from one of these
tribes of friendly folks, Tejas, that the name Texas comes.
193

The Coming of the Cherokees
But at the time of the coming of the first colonists, these
native tribes were neither numerous nor formidable. This
does not describe the prairie Indian, as the Comanche
and other tribes were called, who abounded in the vast
region north and northwest of the Old King's Highway.
The story of the Cherokee, and his advent into and exodus
from North and East Texas, is one of the sad chapters in
human history. The ancestral home of the Cherokee lay
about the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, and included the
vast area watered by the rivers which flow from these moun
tains through Virginia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia
and Alabama. The white man was crowding him out of
tliese regions early in the last century, and President Jef
ferson thought to utilize some of the wild western lands ac
quired in the Louisiana purchase upon which to locate these
and other Indians east of the Mississippi, who were hinder
ing the progress of civilization.
Ten thousand Cherokees had migrated into Arkansas ter
ritory as early as 1809, and while Texas was yet a Spanish
province about 1820, Cherokee tribes had come down into
East Texas and applied to the Spanish authorities for
land grants. They had come to understand that a man must
have a paper title to hold land. When Stephen P. Austin
was in Mexico in 1822, seeking a confirmation of the grant
the Spanish authorities had made to his father in 1821,
Richard Fields, the chief of the East Texas Cherokees,
was there urging a grant to his people. The most that
Fields could get from the Mexican Government was per
mission to occupy the land as it were during good be
havior. This did not satisfy Fields or his people, and in
1825, when the Edwards and their followers brought on
the so-called Fredonian Rebellion at Nacogdoches, they
found the Cherokee leaders in an ugly frame of mind
194

The Coming of the Cherokees
against Mexico for not having made them the land grant
they had expected, and Fields and John Dunn Hunter
made an alliance with the Edwards by which they were
to jointly overthrow Mexican authority in Texas, and the
Indians were to have the country north of the King's
Highway — the San Antonio-Nacogdoches Road.
But when Fields and Hunter went back to their people to
have them carry out the bargain, the warriors rebelled and
murdered them both. The chief cause of the insurrection
was the proposed alliance with the white settlers, for they
foresaw that there could be no such thing as white settle
ments in an Indian country, and they hoped to make East
Texas a Cherokee country.
Then, too, it subsequently developed that Mexican agents
at work among them had promised Bowles, who succeeded
Fields as Chief of the Cherokees, that if they would depose
Hunter and Fields that the Mexican Government would re
ward them substantially, and it was called to Bustamente 's
attention that they hoped for a land grant in return for
their loyalty. The Mexican authorities, including Teran,
determined to make grants to the individual families of
Cherokees, and there were negotiations for several years,
and finally Colonel Piedras, commanding the Mexican gar
rison at Nacogdoches, was commissioned "to put each fam
ily composing the tribe of Cherokees in possession of the
lands which they are now possessing." There were no in
structions to issue them titles, and in fact it is apparent
that the Mexican Government never intended to do this,
but rather to allow than to remain tenants at will, as it
were. Colonel Piedras and his garrison were driven out of
Nacogdoches by the colonists in 1832, before he had exe
cuted this commission, and though they continued to press
195

The Coming of the Cherokees
their claims, they never got more than permission to remain
where they were until the Supreme Government should de
cide their ease. In this way they were postponed from
year to year, and the Revolution in 1835 found them occu
pying the country where they had dwelt since they first
came into Texas fifteen years before, but with no paper
title, and this they knew from past experience gave them an
insecure footing.
It is estimated that the Cherokee and other East Texas
tribes associated with them had more than 1500 warriors
and five times that many people at the outbreak of the
Revolution. Their attitude towards the colonists at this
time was one of grave concern, and in November, 1835,
when it was known that a Mexican army was being massed
for the invasion of Texas the following year, the Consulta
tion, which was the provisional Government of Texas, made
a declaration to the Cherokees, "that we will guarantee
them the peaceable enjoyment of their rights to their land
as we do our own."
This declaration was made at the instance of General
Houston, and he, John Forbes and John Cameron were
named as commissioners to "take such steps as would secure
the effective cooperation of the Indians." Houston and
Forbes made a treaty with the Cherokees February 23,
1836, by which they were ceded a large territory.
There is no doubt that this treaty and Houston's great
influence with these Indians (for he was a Cherokee Chief)
kept them from rendering aid to Santa Anna during the
campaign of 1836. And there is. less doubt that had these
fifteen hundred wariors swept down through the settle
ments at any time after the fall of the Alamo, and before
San Jacinto, the Colonies would have been wiped out. All
Texas was on the move in thosa days of the runaway scrape,
196

The Passing of the Cherokees
and thousands of familes would have fallen easy prey to
these savage warriors while seven thousand Mexican soldiers
were scouring the country from Bastrop to the sea.
Fields, claiming to be a descendant of the ill-fated Rich
ard, filed a memorial with the Legislature of Texas in 1925
urging recognition of this treaty.
The Passing of the Cherokees.
The Cherokee was perhaps the most enlightened of all
the North American Indians. They had a highly developed
tribal government, an alphabet, a kind of rude literature,
and had stern notions of individual property rights. Many
of them were slave owners, and those who came to Texas in
the early twenties were as well qualified for citizenship as
the average Mexican of that period, who was himself an In
dian of far less force than the Cherokee.
The fifteen years of fruitless effort they made to get title
to their lands had made them suspfcious of Mexico and of
promises made them by Mexican officials and agents, while
their great reverence for Houston had led them into a
treaty in February, 1836, which was the salvation of the
colonists. After San Jacinto the Republic refused to ratify Hous
ton's treaty, and during his administration the Cherokees
were left in the same suspense that they had suffered dur
ing the preceding fifteen years.
Suspicious of everybody and of the white settlers in par
ticular, they were easily aroused and influenced by Mexi
can agents who were now sent among them, and began a se
ries of offenses which led to their expulsion from the
country in 1839. When Filisola retreated after San Jacinto
under the armistice which Santa Anna had made, he took

197

The Passing of the Cherokees
time to start intrigues with the Indians, sending agents
among them to incite them to antagonism to the colonists,
and these intrigues were kept up almost constantly for the
ten long bloody years that elapsed before annexation and the
Mexican War. It was not alone the Cherokees but the Co
manches and various other tribes who dwelt in the vast
country "north of the Old Kings Highway who were wrought
upon and led to take up the torch and tomahawk against
the Texans.
But retribution came to the Cherokees first, to the others
afterwards. The story of the Cherokee expulsion has been often told,
and I am going to briefly relate it here, taking the facts
stated from the account given by John H. Reagan, who was
in the fight. Reagan, who was a youth of twenty-one at the
time, went with Lacy, the Indian Agent who was sent by
President Lamar to notify the Cherokees that because of
their repeated crimes against the whites and their continued
intrigues with Mexican emissaries they must leave Texas,
and go back to the territory of the United States, from
whence they had come twenty years before.
"When we reached the residence of Chief Bowles, he
invited us to a fine spring near his house, where we were
seated, and Lamar 's message was read to him. Bowles said
he could not answer as to abandoning the country until he
could consult with his people, and he was given ten days.
We returned to his house at the expiration of this time, and
he said his young men were for war, and thought they could
whip the whites, but he knew that in the end the whites
would win. He said that while it was true they never had a
title from the Mexican Government, yet General Houston
had confirmed their right to the country by treaty.
198

The Passing of the Cherokees
"He told of a plan he had on foot to join his tribe with
the main body of the Cherokees in the States and take them
all to California, and asked for time to gather their crops.
(This was June, 1839). •
"Lacy told Bowles he had no authority to give him any
such time. Bowles then said it mattered little to him, that
he was now eighty-three years old and would not live much
longer, but he felt a great interest in the future of his wives
and children. That his tribe had always been true to him,
and though he differed from them as to the course he pur
sued, yet they wanted war rather than go, and war it must
be. "The colonists had determined upon their immediate ex
pulsion, and three regiments were approaching, one led
by Rusk, another Landrum's Red Landers, and the third
Edward Burleson's Regulars. While Rusk was waiting for
the two other regiments to come up, Bowles was seeking de
lay so that warriors from other tribes might reach him, and
Rusk and Bowles agreed upon a neutral line that was not to
be crossed by either party without giving notice to the other.
About sunrise on the morning of July 15th, John Bowles,
a son of the Chief, and Fox Fields, son of Richard Fields,
former Chief, rode to our camp and notified Albert Sidney
Johnston that they were ready to move north across the neu
tral strip, and General Johnston thanked them and told
them that the Texans would cross the Neches after them.
"There were battles on the next two days, in which the
Indians fought with great valour. Chief Bowles remained
on the field on horseback, wearing a handsome sword and
sash which had been given him by President Houston. He
was a magnificent picture of barbaric manhood, and was
the last to leave the field when the Indians retreated. He
was wounded and his horse disabled, and he dismounted,

199

The Prairie Indians
and as he walked away was shot in the back and fell. Then
as he sat up with his face towards us, I started to him to
secure his surrender.
"At the same instant my Captain, Bob Smith, ran to
wards him with a drawn pistol and Ave reached Bowles at
the same instant. Realizing what was imminent, I called
'Captain, don't shoot him,' but he fired, striking Bowles
in the head, killing him instantly. ' '
This graphic account was written by Judge Reagan many
years later, and we all know it is accurate.
The Cherokees moved north, and were subsequently joined
with scattered remnants of their once powerful tribe, and
located in the ' ' Cherokee Nation. ' ' Judge Reagan says that
besides Cherokee warriors, there were Shawnees, Delawares,
Kickapoos and Indians from various other small tribes
then living in North and Northeast Texas engaged in this
battle. General Houston was very bitter in his opposition to this
campaign, and it brought down his great wrath upon the
Lamar administration; and ever afterwards he held an al
most savage hatred for Albert Sidney Johnston, whom he
regarded as a strong instrument in bringing it about.
The Prairie Indians.
Distinguished from the Cherokees and East Texas In
dians, the many wild tribes who dwelt and roved further
to the west were often referred to as the prairie Indians,
and the Mexican authorities were always hopeful that there
would be no alliance between them. There were a number
of these tribes, but the most formidable of them was the Co
manche. It may well be doubted if this world has ever pro
duced a more hardy, vigorous, terrible specimen of physical
200

The Prairie Indians
manhood and daring courage than the Comanche Indian.
The Texas Comanche roved up and down the vast west
from the Kansas prairies to the Gulf of Mexico, often taking
side trips or excursions down into Mexico, where he always
left a bloody trail. He rarely came east of the Lower
Brazos, but there is not a village or hamlet west of the
Colorado from Port Lavaca to the Red River that is with
out a tradition of his midnight visit.
He would come south in the winter along with the buf
falo, which he called his cattle, and would seek the higher,
cooler climate of the plateaus in the summer.
There was not a year after the first colonists came in 1821
that they did not depredate in the settlements, and during
the Republic, stirred by Mexican agents and by the ever
more obvious encroachments of the white settlers, they
were a terror by day and by night. It was a custom of the
Comanches after a raid into Mexico to stop by way of
San Antonio and trade, and often after excursions into
Texas settlements they would boldly come into San Antonio
and offer their captives for ransom. On such occasions they
would ride up to the commandant and require him to keep
their horses and chattels while they went up town for a frol
ic. They made a kind of groom out of the small command
which was depended on for garrison by the helpless popu
lation. Albert Sidney Johnston was in San Antonio on one oc
casion in 1839 when a band of warriors came to town, and
relates an interesting incident.
Essbwakkeny, the Comanche Chief, dismounted, and
pointing to his horses said, "There is our caballado, take
care of it." "Yes," said General Johnston, looking stead
ily at him. "You ride good horses; I take care of mine,
you take care .of yours." And the Indian met the fear-
201

The Prairie Indians
less gaze of a warrior as bold as himself, and with a grim
smile detailed some of his own men to watch his caballado.
The story of the Council House fight in San Antonio in
March, 1840, has been often told, and is indeed one of the
most tragic in the annals of our Indian wars. I have read
many reports of it, some given by eye-witnesses, and the
following is taken largely from the narrative of General
Johnston :
In February, 1810, the Comanches agreed to bring all
their white prisoners whom they were holding for ransom
into San Antonio and deliver them to their families, and
make a treaty with the Republic. Three commissioners were
named by the Government to meet the Comanche Chiefs.
On March 19th, thirty-two warriors with their women
and children came in for the pow wow. Twelve Chiefs
met the three commissioners at the Stone Council House,
and the talk was opened by the surrender of Colonel Lock-
hart's daughter, who had been captured at Gonzales the
year before. Colonel Fisher, one of the commissioners,
asked them where the other prisoners were, and they re
plied that she was the only one they had. The Lockhart girl
then related that there were others in their camps whom
they were holding back for larger ransoms.
Colonel Fisher told them of their wickedness, and de
manded that they bring in the other prisoners, and named
thirteen persons whom they were known to have captured
within recent months. Turning full upon them, he said:
"Do you remember murdering two men, and carrying
away this girl (Miss Lockhart) when you were returning
from Houston last year under a flag of truce ? ' ' There was
a silence for a moment after this challenge, when one of
the chiefs arose, and standing his full height said, with
haughty insolence, "No, we do not recollect," and sat down.
202

The Prairie Indians
There was another pause, and he rose again and defiantly
said to Colonel Fisher: "How do you like our answer?"
Colonel Fisher replied, "I do not like your answer. I
told you not to come here without all your prisoners; your
women and braves may depart in peace, but we will hold
your chiefs as hostages until the other white captives are
brought in."
At this moment Captain Howard marched in a company
of fifty soldiers. Instantly the Indians strung their bows
and gave the war whoop. One of them sprang upon Cap
tain Howard, striking him down with a knife. In the in
terval of a few seconds all the chiefs were slain. There
were twenty warriors without the building and when they
heard the war whoop inside, they all at once attacked the
people, but all of them were killed save one, who escaped in
to a house. Wishing to spare him, they sent an Indian wo
man to tell him that they would allow him to leave the house
unmolested if he would go peacefully. He defied them, and
refused their permission, and stepped from the building
with his bow strung and ready for combat.
Mrs. Samuel Mavrick, in her diary published many years
after, relates that she, with a crowd of bystanders, was
watching some small Indian boys who had come in with
the party do some clever target shooting at a tree on the
river bank: When the war whoop sounded and before the
onlookers realized what it meant, one of these boys turned
like a flash and shot an arrow into the crowd, striking a
bystander in the heart. Years of terrible, bloody warfare
with the Comanches and their allied tribes followed this
fateful day.
A quarter of a century later they were still on the war
path on the northwestern frontier, and my father was in
many a battle with them. The year I was born, 1873, a
203

The Santa Fe Expedition
party of Comanches murdered a family within a few miles
of our frontier home.

The Santa Fe Expedition.
Lamar's administration, 1838-1841, represented in most
respects the very opposite of that of General Houston, which
preceded it, and the second administration of Houston,
which immediately followed. Houston would conciliate the
Indians — Lamar would exterminate them. Their financial
and foreign policies differed. Lamar would have a bank
with certain restrictions — Houston, as the disciple of Jack
son, regarded a national bank as a vile institution. General
Houston was not eligible under the constitution to succeed
himself in 1838, but he was during the entire three-year
term of Lamar, a candidate to succeed Lamar, and during
this interval was elected to the ConSress of the Republic,
where he devoted himself largely to consistent opposition to
the Lamar administration.
The ill-fated Santa Fe_expedition was generally regarded
asjhe_greatest failjai^-oi-Ltama^gT^¥hose-&ntire--term^-vyas-r_e-
plete_.with_ disastecs^due^iiowever^jn^ most instances to
causes beyond the aid of statesmanship.
XfteFtbe^evoluition in 1836, Texas had always claimed
the Rio Grande as its boundary and had been ambitious
enough to contend for all the territory along that river
to its source in what is now the Colorado, thence to the
forty-second parallel and back along the southern and
western boundaries of the Louisiana purchase as fixed by
the De Onis treaty for the boundary between the United
States and Spain.
W^rd_camgJo_Tgxas in 1839 that the people of Santa Fe,
which^ was on the east ofjhe Rjiii^j^der-henee^teetarrrcally
204

The Santa Fe Expedition
Texas territory, were hostile to the.JJ^xicjan_Gxiyjerjiinent,
Mid had rebelled, and, murdered„a gcjtexniiri-^faijLjiutJxoni,.
the City of Mexico.
Word also came that the inhabitants of that remote place
and the environs thereabout might be induced to acknowl
edge Texas sovereignty.
There was much discussion during 1839 and 1840 of a
proposed expedition to Santa Fe, and an effort to divert the
large trade which was carried on between that region and
St. Louis to some gulf port.
A bill was urged in Congress for an appropriation for
such a project, but it was defeated largely by the influence
of Representative Sam Houston. Lamar determined, how
ever, to send it anyway, and, ,earjty~7nTB^l, named. Hugh
McLeod military commander, authorizing him to raise voi-
unteers'-foT~thT*e^p^"ditiojI,3 «— — ~ -- —
PTe^identTjamar7 who was great on proclamations, and,
like another President we have seen in our own day, a bril
liant writer, issued a salutary declaration, offering the
people of that far country the blessings of Texas citizen
ship, and it was sent ahead by one Dryden, an American
merchant who had lately lived at Santa Fe. A commission
was created to set up a government there when the people
voluiitarily accepted our proffered blessings, although the
military were'warned not_ to„ force sujbjnission upon these
people, but to merely conquer them and set up a new gov-
ernment if they were willing to be conquered and have
a new government. The commission was directed to take
possessioiTbf all public buildings and governmental agen
cies, provided it could be done peacefully. With these im
possible instructions, the expedition moved out on June
21, 1841, and took its long weary way across roadless wilds
for nearly one thousand miles. There were about two hun-
205

The Santa Fe Expedition
dred and seventy volunteer soldiers, accompanied by fifty
odd merchant traders and other persons. In one month
they made two hundred miles, and in September, after
hardships almost unbelievable, they were in what is now
New Mexico.
They suffered from drouth and for food, and were har
assed by Indians, and late in September a. detachment was
sent ahead, the main body limping along in the rear.
' , Governor Armijo, fully apprised of their approach, was
on the lookout for them, and with a show of military
force and through the treachery of a young lieutenant,
Lewis, who was one of the Texas party, both divisions of the
bedraggled expedition were induced to lay down their arms,
which they did as an evidence of the perfectly pacific pur
poses for which President Lamar had sent them.
Thejr were no sooner disarmed than all of them were
started on^oo^as^jgins^er^for_th^_City of Mexico, in
Charge" of a base brute named Salazar. Some died by the
wayside from starvation and sickness. Others were mur
dered by their guards, and those hardy enough to survive a
twelve-hundred-mile march under such circumstances were
thrown into dungeons in the City of Mexico when they
reached there.
After a time they were all released. George W. Kendall,
one of the proprietors "and founders of the New Orleans
"Picayune," accompanied the expedition from Austin,
and after a long imprisonment was released in the City. of
Mexico the next year. In 1844 he published Kendall's
"Santa Fe Expedition," which is, from a standpoint of hu
man interest and literary merit, the greatest book that has
ever been written about Texas and the Texans. It created
a great sensation in its day, and was widely read in America
and Europe.

206

The Santa Fe Expedition
One reading it now after eighty years is charmed with its
literary style and splendid narrative. His description of
the journey across Texas, the capture near Santa Fe, the
story of the tyrant Armijo, the long, terrible march to Mex
ico, and above all his wonderful glimpses of the City of
Mexico after he was liberated by Santa Anna, should be
read by every Texan of every generation. Taken at random
from the pages of this wonderful book, I relate his story of
Lieutenant Hornsby 's ride:
"We were being marched along at a rapid pace and near-
ing Albuquerque when a single horseman was seen speed
ing across the fields.
"Soon he was up with the rear of our party, when check
ing his horse into a prancing canter, he politely raised his
hat and addressed the prisoners as gentlemen while riding
along the line. His hOrse' was a beautiful black charger;
and he a handsome young Mexican, dressed in green velvet
trousers with a neatly fitting jacket somewhat faded and
worn. "The horseman rode twice up and down the line of pris
oners, nodding gracefully as he passed, and eyeing the
crowd as though in search of someone. By and by his eye
fell on Lieutenant Hornsby, the best dressed man among
us. His Texas Dragoon jacket was new and his blanket was
showy red.
- "The cavalier at once checked his horse on seeing Horns
by, and asked the Lieutenant if he were tired. The long
march had fatigued us all, and when Hornsby answered
in the affirmative, the horseman bade him mount behind
and said he would carry him a pace and rest his weary limbs.
Instantly Hornsby was seated behind his new friend. In a
moment the rider wheeled his horse, plunged heavy spurs
into his flanks, and dashed away at a speed that was truly
207

The Santa Fe Expedition
amazing, across the fields, jumping irrigating ditches. We
were being marched on towards Albuquerque, but as best
we could, watched the fleeing figures until all we ei.uld see
was Hornsby 's red blanket disappearing in the distance
Later in the same day, after we had been marched out of
Albuquerque, the horseman reappeared bringing Hornsby
with him, and dropping him along the line galloped away.
The Lieutenant wore, instead of his Texas Dragoon coat,
a half worn jacket much too small, and his showy red
blanket was gone.
"He related this story: A hard ride of three or four
miles brought them to a house of somewhat neater con
struction than other Mexican dwellings. It was a solitary
house half a mile from the road. Here they dismounted,
and the Mexican politely led the way into a room in which
the furnifure and appointments were luxurious. Scriptural
paintings adorned the walls, and the sideboard bore de
canters and cut glass, and the Lieutenant was invited to help
himself to a decanter of brandy. At this moment the wife
of the cavalier, a mild eyed woman, entered, and graciously
led the way to the dining room, where they all three par
took of a splendid breakfast. Both husband and wife
were assiduous in their attentions, and pressed dish after
dish upon Hornsby with a most zealous courtesy. After
breakfast the good wife brought cigarettes, and while they
smoked the host opened the business which had induced him
to invite the Lieutenant to his dwelling.
"He had taken a fancy to Hornsby 's neat fitting Texas
Dragoon coat, and would exchange his somewhat faded and
worn jacket for it. The guest protested he did not Avant
to exchange his coat, besides, the proffered jacket was much
too small for him. But the Mexican insisted, though the
wife protested, and Hornsby was compelled to doff his
208

MIER PRISONERS
An old daguerrotype brought from Mexico by Lieutenant Freeman W. Douglas, of Brazoria,
one of the survivors, who stands on the extreme right

Houston's Second Administration
coat and was helped into the ill-fitting, shoddy jacket,
which he wore when he was returned to us. The Mexican
then brought a heavy, coarse blanket and exchanged it for
Hornsby 's bright red one. Indeed this last exchange was a
good one, for the heavier blanket well served the Lieutenant
on his 1200 mile tramp to the City of Mexico.
"This business done, the Mexican indicated that he was
ready to return, and the Lieutenant, now somewhat at
homej walked to the sideboard and poured himself a stiff
glass of brandy, and bowing to the host, tossed it off.
"As they left the house to mount and ride, the wife fol
lowed, and gave Hornsby a large quantity of dried beef,
and when her husband's eyes were away, stealthily slipped
a quarter of a dollar into his hand and murmured, 'Adios,
Senor. ' And away they rode across the fields, and the
Lieutenant was restored to us wearing a worn jacket much
too small and without his red blanket."
Houston's Second Administration.
Oue studying the history of- Texas from the beginning of
our era in 1821 down to the beginning of the Revolution in
1835, is impressed with the fact that it is a biography of
Stephen F. Austin.
The annals of the second epoch, 1835 to statehood in 1846,
are equally impressed with the great genius of Houston.
He became President a second time in December, 1841,
and Edward Burleson was Vice-President.
The year 1842 was the most critical in the life of the Re
public. The_cjuiit£yis_finaQces were impossible. It jiad no credit
at home or abroad. The Indians, stirred by the vigorous
extermlnltlun^oTicy~oT L^mir^ut not^Herrnin¥teTlr*c'ax-
209

Houston's Second Administration
riedjhejtorch along the whole frontier. The sad_failure_oi
the Santa Fe Expedition had brought gloom into every -Com-
munity in Texas and tears for some citizen who had.. ..gone
withTTcEeod and whose fate Avas iinknoAvn.
Santa Anna, avIio AA'as in power again in Mexico, sought
this as aprbpitious time to increase hostilities^ and/in March
a Mexican army under Vasquez suddenly appeared Jbef ore
San Antonio, and .after, occupying the_city a. f eAV -day-s^imr-
riedly retreated across the Rio Grande before a force eonld
be raised to meet them.
But it is significant that in a very short time thirty-five
hundred Texans were mustered from Avest of the Brazos and
on the Avay to Bexar. But they were onlyjninute ,men, un-
able to leave their families for a campaign, and Avithout
military equipment. About the same time Mexican forces
from across the lower Rio Grande came as far as Goliad.
The fact that a Mexican army had come Avithin eighty miles
of the Capital, and the constant inroads of the Comanches
about Austin, caused President Houston to convene Con
gress in June, 1842, in the City of Houston.
In September of this year a second invasion, led by
Adrian Woll, captured San Antonio and .carried ajvay
many citizens. District Court was in session and the
Ju3ge and lawyers Avere taken along.
Woll made a move as though he Avould go on to Austin,
but encountered a small force of about two hundred and
fifty men under Colonel Caldwell a few miles out of San
Antonio. Volunteers from nearby counties were hastening
to the relief of Bexar, and one company of fifty-odd men
rode out of LaGrange, led by Captain Dawson, and came
upon the rear of Woll's army. Unable to effect a juncture
with Caldwell's men, Dawson's entire company were killed
or captured in a bloody encounter fought on Salado Creek.
210

Houston's Second Administration
Agaiii the Mexicans learning that the country was aroused
and men marching against them, scampered across the Rio
Grande before a sufficient force could be mustered to meet
them. .^erewisjijdh^^
war and an invasioiiof_Mexjcjo,^njd_a__c^m
tvTHvTTnTInxTfeH men undej^^njexaj^^gxander Somerville
JJp^chedjas J_^
or equipment for an offensive campaign.. ,,„.„.
All during the year volunteers from the States came into
Texas in great numbers, hoping to be enlisted in a Mex
ican campaign. But the Government Avas Avithout means
to care for or equip them, and in many instances they were
desperate fellows, and Avhen unable to go to war in Mexico
made much trouble in Texas.
After some inarches and counter-marches up and down
the Rio Grande, Somerville 's army returned home, but a
small detachment of daring felloAvs would invade Mexico,
and three hundred of them elected Captain William S.
Fisher as their leader, and crossed the river and laid siege
to the town of Mier. After hard fighting and many losses,
they were compelled to capitulate to vastly srunperiorjium-
hgrsLgjid were started^Qn-^^iang-^jiiiiiaifiy^J^-JiLe— City_of
Mexico. After many days the prisoners by concerted ac
tion managed to escape, but they were iu the heart of Mex
ico, and were unable to reach the border, and one hundred
and sixty of the original three hundred and four who had
first crossed over for a conquest of Mexico Avere recaptured
and brought up to a place where, under orders from Santa
Anna, each tenth man was shot.
One hundred and sixty beans Avere put in a jar, one-
tenth of them were black, the others white, and the Texans

211

Houston's Second Administration
were made to draw and those who drew black beans were
forthAvith shot to death.
The Mexican authorities were very anxious for the
honor of martyrdom to fall on Captain EAving Cameron,
and he was made to draw first, but got a white bean.
After this decimation the remaining prisoners were start
ed again for Mexico, and as they neared the city orders
came to shoot Captain Cameron at once, and they Avere
promptly obeyed. The remnant reached the Capital Avhile
the Santa Fe prisoners were yet in dungeons. The fre-
queucy of Mexican raids upon San Antonio and the con-
"sfaiit fearThat Austin might be included in the next excur
sion made IF*uniaiFTbH!eTnrtT^^ there
"for ' a~tlme7~aTT(TTTmis1to~Ear3^
Brazos^ where he convened the regular session of the Sev
enth X'ongress in NoTember7~T842. jThis_a roused . uxuch irfi
among the ^frontier foTETon the Cobr ado; who ju.e_c.essf.ully
rgsistecf the removal of the,arcliiyes..,...The,gr.eat.esti?ffort.of
Houston 's second administration^ was jto ..bring, „abfiU.t. annex
ation with the United States, Avhich hejcleyerlj.jaidedby
open negotiations wffli^n^laTid^3i^n|nated Jo arouse the
people Tn. the States with.4liijTda«ge^of-En^lish_sov-ereignty
in Texas.
Justin H. Smith, recently professor of Modern History in
Dartmouth College, has written an elaborate work upon the
annexation of Texas, and speaking of Houston at this epoch
says : ' ' Endowed with a remarkably fertile and crafty mind,
trained successfully as an American politician, finished in
the school of Indian cunning, a gambler of long experience,
a genius in the art of political histrionics, a diplomat whose
only idea of method was to triumph and not be found out,
a statesman able and determined, Houston worked in a sit
uation beautifully adapted to facilitate the concealment of
212

GULF OF
MEXICO

w i-r^r^"—

In the Treaty of Velasco, negotiated with General Santa Anna shortly
after the Battle of San Jacinto, the Rio Grande was fixed as the bound
ary between Texas and Mexico, but Mexico owned all the country west
and south of the Louisiana Purchase, and the first Congress of Texas, in
December, 1836, defined the limits of the Republic as shown by the red

213

Houston's Second Administration
his aims." A report made by a British agent to his Gov
ernment about this time said of him: "He is pure handed
and manly, actuated by a grand ambition to associate his
name with a nation's rise."
About this critical time in our history, John Tyler, Presi
dent of the United States, initiated a move to annex Texas,
which after three years of. varying fortune triumphed in
the closing hours of his ; administration. _But tne salvation
of Texas in these gloomjy yeajs.wjLS. the constant, stream of...
immigration which flowed across its borjlersjyjJthjHilxeas^
ing, so t_bj^thTthirty tWusafcd.at the . tima^-th&^gxoju^..
tion were one hundred thousand at the time of annexation.

lines on this map. They follow the Rio Grande to its source, in what is
now Colorado, thence due north to the De Onis-Adams line between the
Louisiana Purchase and Spanish territory on the 42nd Degree Latitude,
in what is now Wyoming, and follow that line east and south to the
mouth of the Sabine, as shown by the celebrated Melish Map of 1818,
which is named in the De Onis Treaty. Melish misplaced the 100th
Meridian, and this caused the loss of Greer County thirty years ago.
When Texas entered the Union in 1816 it claimed these boundaries
until 1850, when it relinquished all territory outside its present limits
for ten million dollars, which went to pay the debts of the Republic.
The territory thus released embraced about 65,000 square miles of the
present State of New Mexico, 19,000 of Colorado, 4,000 of Wyoming,
7,700 of Kansas, and 5,600 of Oklahoma.

214

ANNEXATION OF TEXAS
The story of the annexation of Texas to the United
States is one of the most interesting in our political an
nals. By almost unanimous vote, the people of Texas
offered to enter the American Union arThTnEu^st"~eiecTioii~
TieTcTTn IH31T This offer was rejected by Congress~in"
TB377~uncfeFThe jjreai jpressure brought j&.. bear ,Jby. jjik*
abolitionists. So overwhelming was this defeat that _all
hope seems to have died out for the next five years.
TrrlM"37 President TyleT'sEirt'ed' a crusade for that result,
which he pushed with great vigor until the close of his
term in 1845, when he succeeded in getting favorable leg
islation through Congress only a few days before he sur
rendered office to Polk. The annexation of Texas was the
largest question before the American people from 1843 to
1846, and was the paramount issue in the Presidential
campaign of 1844.
It kept Henry Clay out of the presidency and was the
rock which wrecked the Whig party. It defeated the nom
ination of Van Buren at Baltimore in 1844, and brought
about that of James K. Polk, the first "dark horse" ever
named for the presidency.
It resulted in the keenest diplomatic game ever played
on this continent, in which the frontier folks won over the
representatives of England and France. It stopped the
aggressions of England in North America, and played a
powerful part in the acquisition of Oregon, and last, but
not least, it resulted in a war with Mexico which carried
our flag to the Pacific. 215

First Efforts at Re- Annexation
First Efforts at lie-Annexation.
Jefferson had purchased Louisiana, and Monroe had ac
quired the Floridas, and so Avhen John Quiney Adams be
came President in 1824, he was anxious to do his bit in ex
tending our boundaries. He Avas aided in this ambition by
no less person than Henry Clay, who Avas his Secretary of
State. The first American Minister to Mexico after that country
became free from Spain, Avent Avith instructions to open ne
gotiations for the purchase of Texas down to the Rio
Grande. Secretary Clay gave him a schedule of prices to
offer for the country to the Rio Grande, or to the Nueces,
or to the Colorado, or even the Brazos, and furnished him
with arguments to advance why Mexico should sell.
One of these was that the Comanche Indians who infest
ed the country could be sold with it, and the responsibility
of diplomatic relations Avith these Avar-like folks would pass
to the purchaser, that the. United States would take the
land with the incumbrance, so to speak.
Though these advancements met with no favor in Mexico,
Clay and Adams continued them during their entire admin
istration. When General Jackson became President, suc
ceeding Adams, he was even more zealous for the repurchase
of the land which Monroe had given up for Florida, and for
eight long years, even up to San Jacinto, the American
Minister in Mexico kept up the scheme of buying Texas.
The President Avas ably aided by his skillful Secretary of
State, Martin Van Buren.
During those years, 1825-1837, it seemed conceded in
the States thaiTTiie acquisition of _ Texas_wj^_^.wiiflydR-
SE5^ J^yjdj- The Texas colonistsJj^i^rmn_the States
came__iml)ued with this id.aa^and^jwherLJejiaration from
216

First Efforts at Re-Annexation
Mexico was in prospect in 1835 and 1836, the people_of
Texas naturally expected, to „lie„iacor.por-a,ted . in .t"he_Amexi-
•can Umojijwitliout delay.._,.
When the Colonial Convention met at Washington on
the Brazos in March, 1836, and a government was organized
and a constitution written, a resolution Avas passed providing
for the submission to the people of the question of annexa
tion to the United States, at the same time the constitution
Avas submitted for ratification. This was done at the Sep
tember election held in 1836, Avhen Houston was elected
President and the constitution ratified. Only' eighty-nine
votes were cast against annexation.
But the San Jacinto campaign and the capture of Santa
Anna had turned the eyes of all the Avorld on Texas. Mex
ico bitterly complained to Europe that the United States
had backed and fomented the Revolution to get Texas.
Companies of soldiers had been openly equipped and had
marched Avith flag and drum out of many American cities
to aid Texas in its war for freedom, and the Revolution was
furnished and financed in the United States. These things
were pointed to by suspicious persons in Europe as well as
Mexico as an evidence that the Washington Government Avas
an instigator of the Revolution. This led the Government
to issue a neutraljtv_warning, the_affe_cl_pj; which jmayjbe_
Tairly seenTn the case of Captain Grundy, United States
District AttoTnl^~vlfd~was~ in Nashville
for service in Texas. He issued a terrible warning: "I have
orders to arrest and prosecute every man Avho may take up
arms in the cause of Texas or in any way violate United
States neutrality, ' ' said he. "I will prosecute any man in
my command who takes up arms in Tennessee against Mex
ico, and I Avill lead you to the border to see that our neu
trality is not violated as long as Ave are on our soil."
217

First Efforts at Re-Annexation
The people of Texas Avere therefore little prepared for
the reception they got in the United States during the
Van Buren administration, 1837-41.
At first the atrocities of the Alamo and Goliad had
aroused the American 'people to a frenzy, and the quick
success at San Jacinto to an enthusiasm, both of high de
gree. Benton of Missouri declared in the United States
Senate that Houston was the first general since Marc Antony
AArho had captured the head of a government and chief of an
army in a single stroke.
Henry Clay, late Secretary to John Quincy Adams, and
now a Senator, made felicitous remarks, and offered a reso
lution in the United States Senate hinting at the recogni
tion of Texas Independence.
But the "tumult and the shouting" soon died, and at
home and abroad forces antagonistic to Texas and the Tex
ans Avere loosed, so that instead of immediate annexation, as
all Texas hoped, even recognition was only gained after a
bitter fight, and annexation, deserted by its former friends
and fought by the frantic forces of abolition, was delayed
for ten long years.
Even President Jackson, avIio during eight years had
continued to dicker for the purchase of Texas, and who
spent his closing years working for annexation, turned
conservative when the Texas agents arrived in 1836 and be
gan their overtures for recognition and hints at annexation.
He reminded them that the United States had treaty obli
gations with Mexico which must be observed, and expressed
regret that the people of Texas had voted for annexation
before its independence had even been recognized. When
strong, stern men like Jackson Avavered, Avhat could be ex
pected of the average American politician of the Van Buren
type?

213

Texas Rejected in 1837
It may be doubted whether the American Congress Avould
have voted recognition Avhen it did in February, 1837, had
not the Mexican Minister to the United States acted the fool.
He bullied and talked too much, and finally asked for his
passports and went home. Jackson thought it was enough
for him to bring about recognition, and suggested that an
nexation, which he devoutly Avished, be left to a northern
President. He went out of the office in March, 1837, and retired to
his home in Tennessee. But he devoted the closing years
of his life to the consummation of annexation, and it may be
truly said that Ex-President Jackson and President Tyler
were the greatest individual forces in the United States
in bringing this result.
Texas Rejected in 1837.
Martin Van Buren, of NeAv York, became President of
the United States in March, 1837, and the Congress which
assembled in that year wrestled mightily with the annexa
tion of Texas. The American Anti-Slavery Society set it
self to the task of preventing it at any cost. Petitions and
memorials circulated and signed by abolitionists poured
upon Congress in such numbers that a member said they
could only be measured by the cubic foot. It was said that
in this single session six hundred thousand signatures were
presented against annexation. Channing, the Boston clergy
man, circularized the country in Avild outbursts against ex
tending our sovereignty to the Southwest.
John Quincy Adams, who as Secretary of State to Monroe,
declared the greatest event of his life was the signature of
the De Onis treaty, by which we acquired Florida, and who
as President schemed for four years to acquire Texas, was

219

Texas Rejected in 1837
now (in 1837) a member of the House of Representatives,
and wrote in his diary: "The annexation of Texas to the
Union is the first step to the conquest of all Mexico, of
the West Indies, of a maritime, colonizing, slave-tainted
mbnarehy, and of extinguishment of freedom." Aud the
old man did not confine his activities to mere entries in his
diary. When the resolution for annexation came before the
House in that year, near the close of the session, the vener
able Ex-President made a three weeks' address in opposi
tion to it, Avhich closed the session and defeated the meas
ure. A similar resolution introduced by Senator Preston,
of South Carolina, in the United States Senate, Avas de
feated by a vote of twenty-four to fourteen. This seemed
the death knell of annexation, and its enemies accepted it
as final. In Texas all hope was abandoned and our peo
ple prepared themselves for an independent career. The
question seems to have died out so completely for the next
five years that neither in Congress nor in the American
papers was there any serious mention of it. In 1842 there
was a spasmodic revival Avhen it was knoAvn that Senator
Walker, of Mississippi, Avas about to offer a bill for the pro
ject. But he got so little encouragement that he did not do
so. The benevolent liberator, William Loyd Garrison, de
clared at this time: "It is impossible for any honest man
to Avish success to Texas. All who sympathize Avith that
pseudo-Republic hate liberty, and Avould dethrone God. ' '
During th^e_yaaxsrJ18a6-Jio.,1842, Texas Avent through a
dark and gloomy period, Aveak at home and derided abroad.
JThe sympathy stirred by the struggle of 1836 was forgot
ten. Mexican influence in Europe was exerted to the utter
most against us. In the States we had left only a few
friends in the South. The Van Buren administration inher-

220

Texas Rejected in 1837
ited the financial follies of Jackson's regime, Avhich follies
did not reach high tide until the panic of 1837.
Fortunes Avere swept away and the wild sneculaiion-of-
the day~of initiated currency leiFmany a Southern planter
and slave-holder bankrupt. In those days of monetary
disaster^ Texas became an asylum for many a fugitive
debtor. I was trying a law suit at Richmond, Texas, twenty-odd
years ago. and a very old negro Avas a Avitness. They were
proving by him some dates long before the Civil War, and
he gave the year and month that his old master-had brought
him to" Texas, when he was a small boy. I asked. Uncle.
Remus how he remembered these things of so long ago, and
the grey, garrulous relic of another day assured me: "We
left Virginia in the night, suh, Marse Thomas and all his
niggers, and Ave travelled mostly in the night until we
crossed the Mississippi River." So general had this ex
odus of fugitive debtors become, that throughout the South
ern .States sheriffs Avould return writs of attachment and
execution, Avith the simple notation, "G. T.," which meant
"gone to Texas." Back in the States, Texas was regarded
chiefly as a refuge for runaway debtors. During these
troubled years Mexico, always torn by its own Revolutions,
was never able to fit out an expedition to re-conquer Texas,
but would continually send marauding forces across the
river to plunder and harass our people, and twice these in
vasions came as far as San Antonio, which was captured and
plundered. The Texans made several attempts to retaliate
by invading northern Mexico, and when they did so the
abolitionist press of the North would scream out: "That
we were a nation of freebooters and pirates, molesting a
peaceful neighbor nation." 221

Texas Rejected in 1837
Massachusetts was the ex-officio arch enemy of Texas
and the "Texans, and from it radiated such sentiment as
found in Garrison's utterance above quoted, "that one Avho
would befriend Texas, would dethrone God." John Quin-
cy Adams, of Boston, spent his last days going up and down
New England in a scream of wild frenzy. He spoke softly
and kindly of Mexico, the Mother Country, robbed of its
provinces by "filibustering Texans," and closed his appeal
with the declaration : "No act of Congress or treaty of
annexation can impose the least obligation upon the several
States of the Union to submit to such an unwarrantable act,
or to receive into their family such misbegotten and illegiti
mate progeny. The admission of Texas would be identical
with the dissolution of the Union. ' '
A Boston daily paper about the same time wrote: "We
have territory enough, bad morals enough, public debt
enough, slavery enough without adding Texas." Texas,
under the pressure of such propaganda, sunk low in the
world's esteem. Doctor Stephen II. Everett of Jasper
County, one time a Senator of the Republic of Texas, made
a trip through the States in 1842, and upon his return re
ported : "Texas in the Northern and Eastern States stands
as low in the grade of nations as it is possible for a nation
to stand and exist."
Van Buren was defeated for re-election in 1840 by the
Whig candidate Harrison, but the Texas question was
considered so dead after 1837 that it was not an issue in
the 1840 campaign. Sam Houston entered upon his second
term as President of Texas in 1842, and he found the for
tunes of Texas at a low ebb. Despairing of help from the
United States, he turned his attention to a European alli
ance, and with a skill rarely equalled in diplomatic history,
222

President Tyler Discovers Texas
he played a game with England which Avas the chief factor
in reversing the policy of the States. Oddly enough France
had thrown Louisiana, which included Texas, to Spain in
1762 to keep it out of England's hands, and Napoleon
passed it to the United States in 1803 to keep it from Eng
land, and now forty years later, after many changes of sov
ereignty and fortune, the fear of English domination drove
the United States to take Texas and Avage a war Avith Mex
ico. Indeed it seems that old England has played a poAver-
ful part in our destiny.

President Tyler Discovers Texas.
In 1842, John Tyler of Virginia was President of the
United States. A Democrat out of harmony with his party,
he had been elected Vice-President by the Whigs, and
Avhen William Henry Harrison died after a few weeks' in
cumbency this Virginia Democratic Whig ruled in his
stead. The Democrats despised him as an apostate, the
Whigs as an interloper, but he Avas a man of long political
experience and no little political acumen, and he set his
heart on the annexation of Texas.
Nothing short of the poAver and prestige of the presiden
cy Avould have sufficed to enable an advocate of Texas an
nexation to make any headway in the United States in 1842
to 1844, in the face of the terrible defeat in 1837, and the
apparently overwhelming sentiment against it at this time.
A President, backed by the party that-eleiied him, would

n£jj^r_Jiave dared ItcTTiazard his party's success_by__jes-
pousingthis~dead, danglirousTssue: ~~~~
r±$ut Tyler had "no "political expediency toJLmpede him.
Hated~alike~by TJenuicTaTic^mr W hig leaders, he knew his
poHtlcln~~iarTiuliesH^ j It
223

President Tyler Discovers Texas
was generally conceded as early as 1842 that Henry Clay
would be the Whig candidate for the presidency in 1844,
and that Ex-President Van Buren would be the Democratic
candidate. It was also known that the leaders of both par
ties devoutly hoped that the Texas question would remain
dormant in 1844, just as it had in 1840 in the contest be
tween Van Buren and Harrison. There were strong South
ern leaders like Calhoun, Walker, of Mississippi, and others,
who were ahvays open champions of annexation, but no
one in power Avith either party, no party leader, was willing
to stand out for it, nor were they anxious to have to stand
out against it. They simply hoped it would not be inject
ed into the coming campaign, which was already Avell on in
1842. But John Tyler was a nervous, energetic, active person,
and he loaned all his energies and staked his political for
tunes on a campaign to "re-annex" Texas.
Every member of his cabinet except Daniel Webster, Avho
was Secretary of State, resigned when he vetoed the Whig
Bank Bill in 1841. But when Webster later learned that
Tyler was bent on annexing Texas, he too resigned, and
this gave the President an opportunity to name a Secre
tary more suited to his purposes, whom he readily found in
Judge Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, who Avas indeed de
voted to this cause until his tragic death tAvo years later.
After the rejection of Texas in 1837, all discussion of the
subject had been dropped, and it was now necessary for the
Tyler administration to re-open the question in some Avay.
When Houston was inaugurated President in 1842, he ex
tolled England as the ally and friend of Texas and warned
his people to expect neither help nor sympathy from the
States.

224

President Tyler Discovers Texas
Secretary Upshur sent word to JHouston in a guarded

Avay that the Tyler adjnnjstradon _would like to open ne-
¦gofiafibhs for a treaty of annex ation . _ B u t the old Cherokee
TThTeTTeigned not to see or hear_tlieise..jav-er.tnresr-aDLd. con
tinued his open parleys with England, which were meeting
with a warm "and" equally open response from the British
stafesmen who desired to^C£iitTOLthe-.,dfistijay„if , not, acquire
tlie~Eefritbfy of Texas. Houston sent Doctor Ashabel Smith,
of Goose Creek, as Minister to England and France. Smith,
next to Houston, was the greatest mind of the Republic of
Texas. England had a poAverful influence with Mexico, and
tendered its good offices to fix a truce betAveen that country
and Texas, and the hint \vasjhad_that if Texas would stay
clear of the States, Mexico might be induced to acknoAvledge
^Texas Independence, and thus put a stop to the eternal
guerilla border AvarfarT^wnlclinuao1~prevailed since 1836.
Eygn MexlcoTanxibus {^forestall annexation by the States,
lent color to this hope and an armistice for a time prevailed.
H^us^ff foresaAvTTiat"ii~ITe" appeared favorable to the new
proposals of annexation, he would _atl)nce~alienate English
JjfJ^and 1^ Tyler shouMfjai.1 to carry the scheme through.
-£ei£a-s_w.ou'(* b£j!ejLl££bJte--aLho-ffl^^
And though he desired annexation to his native land more

devoutly than any otEeT~anTblfioTr"iii hisTohg career, he
frowned so coldly on Upshur's advances^thatjthe adminis
tration appealed to Jacksoiij _Jjhen^n_rjeJ^mentj_to _use his
-influence Avith JHflusion in favor of a treaty of annexation.
Houston finally consented to open negotiations, provided
assurances of aid against Mexico were given by the Tyler
administration in the event the treaty should fail of ratifi
cation by the United States Senate.
Houston's caution was to a degree frustrated by the
anxiety of his constituents, Avho, hearing of the overtures
225

Tyler's Treaty
from the Washington Government, and noting his osten
sible indifference, demanded steps to facilitate the project
so dear to the heart of all Texas. And though he managed
to keep the situation well in hand, yet the Texas Congress
in December, 1843, voted to authorize a treaty of annexa
tion, and it Avas in fact concluded betAveen diplomatic agents
of Texas and the Washington Government early in 1844.
So closely had these proceedings been guarded in the Unit
ed States that the treaty Avas signed before any wide
spread information regarding it had escaped there. Ru
mors had uoav and then been rife, and some American
daily papers had published Avarnings, but no one took seri
ous notice of a project which Avas generally regarded as
gone beyond recall.
But Tyler's treaty must yet go before the Senate of
the United States, and like another President who followed
him Avith another treaty even in our oavii day, he must
deal with the American Senate.

Tyler's Treaty.
The news of Tyler's treaty ivas soon out, and provoked
a Avild protest in the North and East. The storm center
of this opposition was in and about Boston, one of whose
'"'daily papers railed at it as "The contemptible^scheme of a
pwnyjniserabLa_ixiLitar^e of
the_ JUnitecL _StateS7— a~se-li€uie_ which wojjld-- end "ilT~riiiii,
I bloodshed and disunion. We Avill resist it * * * Avith
_^the last drop of our blood."
Petitions Avere written, mass, meetings held, and all
through the Northeast the spirit Avhich had defeated it in
1837 was aroused for its doom in 1844. Even the gentle
Quaker pnet Whittier, the author of "Barefoot Boy" and
226

Tyler's Treaty
"Maud Muller," whose harmless rhymes we learned in
childhood, took up his pen against us and wrote:
"Like a lion growling Ioav,
Like a night storm rising sIoav,
Like the tread of unseen foe ;
It is coming, it is nigh,
Stand your homes and altars by,
On your own free threshold die;
Freedom's soil hath only place
For a free and fearless race,
None for traitors false and base";
and many more stilted stanzas advertising our wickedness.
And the venerable John Quincy Adams rushed to his
voluminous diary and wrote: "The treaty of annexation
was this day sent to the Senate, and with it went the free
dom of the human race."
But these screams from New England were met by some
very plain talk from down South. "We had rather have
Texas than NeAv England," thundered a Tennessee Con
gressman, and all through the South there was open talk
of withdrawing from the North, annexing Texas and ex^-
tending our territory to the Pacific. But the fear of Eng
land had been to a degree put in the hearts of many people
in the North. It was told that the British planned to do
the carrying of Texas exports, and was to have an entry
there for all manufactured goods duty free; that the plan
was to exclude all American manufactured articles from
the Texas market. And while Garrison thundered "That
those who would befriend Texas would dethrone God," and
John Quincy Adams saAV the doom of the human race in
227

Tyler's Treaty
the Texas treaty, these things, though terrible, were more
or less intangible like the minister's day of judgment and
eternal punishment, while the loss of a commercial advan
tage or an open market Avas a present real distress, and the
prospective wrath of God Avas not quite so terrible to a
Yankee in those days as the immediate loss of a customer.
One petition sent to a Congressman from Western New
York declared in its preamble against the base iniquity of
annexing Texas, but Avas accompanied by a postscript
which advised that if their representative really believed
England was about to take Texas, he was authorized to
waive the iniquity and annex it.
At the beginning of 1844, the stage was set in the United
States for the presidential campaign, and the country was
thought to be closely divided between Democrats and Whigs.
Four years before the Whigs had Avon, and this year they
planned as they had often planned before and afterwards
to renominate and elect Henry Clay, and "Lord Harry"
was compelled to say something about Texas. Being a South
ern man and having been one of the first to speak out for
Texas in 1836, he was counted on by the administration to
support the treaty. But he was destined to be neither right
nor President in 1844, and he spoke out against it, and the
, Whig party turned its back on Texas Van Buren had the
pledges of twenty-one States, including the solid South,
for the Democratic nomination, and he planned to keep
very silent on the Texas question, and he Avas a great
master of the art of silence.
He lived so close to the roar of abolition and anti-annexa=~
tion that he dared not speak for it. On the other hand, his
principal hope for nomination and election lay in the South.
All efforts to draw a statement from him were without avail

228

Tyler's Treaty
for a time, Avhen some of the Southern Democratic leaders
laid a plan to "Woav Van out of the water."
He was the protege of Jackson, avIio had made him. Presi
dent. The old Avarrior in retirement Avas the greatest single
force in the Democratic party, and the great passion of his
closing days was the annexation of Texas and the circum
vention of England. These designing gentlemen who would
"blow Van out of the ivater," betook themselves down fo
the Hermitage and got a strong letter from Ex-President
Jackson outlining Avhat the party and Van Buren should do.
Unable to keep silent longer, Van Buren came forth with
his statement, long, involved and pointless, but against an
nexation at this time. The treaty Avas sent to the Senate
April 22, 1844, Avhere it was doomed to remain for weary
weeks. The Whig Convention met on May 1st, and nominated—
Heury Clay. There was no discussion of the Texas ques
tion in the Coinrention. No mention of it in the platform.
They shunned it as they Avould the plague. They were so
afraid of it that they did not mention Oregon, which Avas
much coveted in the Northern and Western States. A dele
gate from Mississippi tried to be heard upon the question,
but was unable to get the eye or the ear of the presiding
officer. Those near him in the hall hearing the drift of his
remarks, silenced him in short order. "Surely you would
not inject this ugly Texas question and injure Henry Clay,"
they said reproachfully, and he lapsed into silence.
It was iioav a foregone conclusion that the Texas Treaty
would not pass the Senate.
Benton, avIio in 1836 had declared for Sam Houston the
greatest military accomplishment since Marc Antony, was
the spokesman for the Democratic majority, and the mouth-
229

The Fall of Van Buren
piece for Van Buren. He turned on the treaty and Texas
with bitter venom.
A feiv days after the Whig Convention adjourned there
was another convention, held in Baltimore, which nominated
John Tyler for President on a purely Texas platform. It
was made up of self-appointed delegates from all sections
of the country. It noAv seeemed sure that the Democrats
would name Van Buren and denounce the treaty, and Avith
both great parties opposed to it, Tyler hoped to get enough
votes to throAV the presidential choice into the House of
Representatives, where it would be a free-for-all fight.
With this situation prevailing, the National Democratic
Convention met at Baltimore on the 27th of May, 1844.
The Fall of Van Buren.
The Democratic National Convention Avhich met at Bal
timore in May, 1844, Avas the most remarkable one which
had ever assembled during the fifty years of our national
life. It was the first to name a "dark horse" candidate.
For twenty years Andrew Jackson had been the idol and
leader of his party. At the end of his second term, he could
have been nominated and elected again, but never considered
such a course. It Avas the marvel of Europe that a man in
poAver would voluntarily surrender it as he did. His man
tle had fallen on Martin Van Buren, who Avas electcdto suc
ceed him in^^^^rijuTlvasZaiSated for a second term in
rsioT" But_VmiJBureiL had held the party together, and by
shrewd man agemeii t_ haSISI^MS^ssui^lMsI^^u^ a t ion
in_1844;_ Biit-for-t-he^uM&n_ad^njt_of^the Texas question
he would have been nominated.

230

The Fall of Van Buren
The Democratic party had controlled the destiny of the
country during its formative period, and had elected five
out of eight partisan Presidents. Under Jefferson, Louisiana
had been acquired, and Monroe had added the Floridas. All
the traditions of the party Avere in favor of an expansion and
the mastery of North America. But Van Buren was a man of
small calibre, and fear of the abolition press had bullied
him into a declaration against the treaty, and against what
had always been the policy of the party. He had more than
a majority of delegates pledged to his support, most of
the pledges having been given before Tyler had so cruelly
thrust the Texas question upon both parties. But_the
Southern leaders had sworn a voav thatJie_jrtiojild_jiot be
clToseh. ^ThlTlroiclflJir'tlie chapjain^s. opening„.p.riiyer had
fiardly died away Avhen some enterprising person moved
tliaTthe convention adopi^th^J,w^^ixd^rjLile^j,nd Jthat no
nomination be declared until__th^jiajadidarte~reeeiv^d~-te.o-
thirdfrof tlie votes cast.
The Southern delegaifia^ instructecLiox-J^aB^SurreHT-Aaited
for the adoption nf ikis rule, for in it tnoy saw *"¦» defeat,
without bolting their instructions.^ The friends of Texas
Avere now in the saddle, the_convention was_deadlocked.
Van Buren was beaten, and thgJSputhern delegatos-bxeught
rorth and nominated Ex-Governor James_KJEaJJc. of Ten-
'liessee, Avho was known to bejjjwholejujgge.d, fnr.Tjjxas,"
The Democratic platform declared for the re-annexation of
Texas and the acquisition of Oregon. George M. Dallas, of
Pennsylvania, Avas nominated for Vice-President.
The action of the Democratic Convention championing
the cause of Texas at once notified the world that the issue
was to be fought out in what President Wilson Avould have
called a "great and solemn referendum."

231

The Fall of Van Buren
But Tyler's treaty was still before the Senate, and it
was yet in session. The Whigs had a majority of seven in
that body, and on June 8th they defeated the treaty, a
solid Whig vote of 28 out of 29 being east against it, seven
Democrats, led by Benton, voting Avith the Whigs. "We
have killed the treaty (said Senator McDuffie, of South
Carolina), but a ghost is sometimes more terrible than a
living man." In the meantime a messenger whom Tyler
had dispatched to Mexico for the purpose of offering to
purchase any opposition which that country might have to
annexation of Texas, returned with the information that
that country was much stirred, and that no peace could
be purchased if we should carry out these plans.
Santa Anna, who was again in power there, asked his
Congress for men and money to resist American ag
gression. The Presidential campaign in 1844 was not essentially dif
ferent from campaigns we have known in our day. The
Whigs accepted the gauge of battle with hope and ardor.
On one Kidethev cried: "Polk — Slavery and Texas-^- On
tnlToTlTerT^^lay;— Union and Liberty." A popular Whig
cryjvj^,, "Jkuri£sJ£JPolk and George. M. Dallas — One for the
"deviland the other for the gallows. ' ' Mass meetings were
held in "which Texas Avas represented upon Whig banners
as a forbidding looking female dressed in mourning. Dem
ocratic meetings displayed banners picturing her a beau
tiful maiden in bridal robes. Poor Clay found himself in
an unhappy situation. When he had come out so boldly
against Texas early in the year, he kneAV that Van Buren,
whom he supposed would be his opponent, Avould do like
wise, and felt that there Avould be no issue between them,
and they both felt that it Avould not be a party ques
tion.

232

The Fall of Van Buren
Noav he saw Van Buren overthrown and a Southern Dem
ocrat opposed to him declaring for Texas and Oregon. At
heart Clay, himself a Southern man, was for annexation,
tmdas tlie^ampaign^rogr^sed aiid the issue became doubt-
ful, he wrotemore ietlers7"which mad"e a bad matter worse,
'^n^TirTt^l^lmqwiiT ' ' ThjinSejB^id no personal objection
to the acquisition of Texas; * * * that he would be glad

to see it, could it be done without Avar Avith common consent
and without dishonor. ' '
The most powerful figure in the campaign was General
Jackson, who, though old and feeble, held the acquisition of
Texas as the last strong sentiment of his wonderful ca
reer. Hatred of England had ever been a passion with him
and hostility to that country was the strongest single senti
ment which the Democrats sounded up and down the length
aud breadth of the land. The old warrior sat in his home
down in Tennessee and wrote letters day and night, wrote
with a feeble, trembling hand, directed by the fire of a yet
powerful mind. It is estimated that he Avrote hundreds of
autograph letters to Democratic leaders north and south,
making suggestions, giving directions. In one letter: "Sup
port the cause of Polk and Texas, let Tyler alone." In
another — ' ' I am too weak to write much more, but with my
last word I warn you against England, for it will grab
Texas, if Polk is defeated." Through Jackson's influence,
PreshiCTnt_TyJer_\vas induced to_^ithdraw~from~1Eh^Hce
and cast his strength to Polk.
"TSaTnTOioulstoii had secretly and powerfully aided the is
sue by creating an atmosphere which seemed to verify
Jackson's warnings against England.
Polk was elected by a popular majority of less than forty
thousand votes. But defeat of the treaty in the Senate in

233

Tyler's Triumph
preceding June had cast a great calm over Texas. We had
turned from offers of British aid to accept annexation, and
with the door shut in our face by the Senate, Texas Avas de
graded before the Avorld. At home credit sank to its Ioav-
est ebb. Annexation had been turned doAvn so often by
the American Congress that the Texas people did not ac
cept the election of Polk as decisive. They yet feared that
the United States Senate Avould never accept Texas; that
Polk could do no more than Tyler had been able to do witli a
hostile Senate.
Mexico, angered at the turn of affairs, gave notice that
hostilities Avere renewed, and Santa Anna began pretended
preparations to Avage a campaign upon Texas by land and
by sea.
Tyler's Triumph.
John Tyler was- a man of great energy, and the "re-an
nexation of Texas" Avas the prime purpose of his adminis
tration. During the campaign of 1844 he had Avithdrawn
from the race and thrOAvn his influence to Polk, and he ac
cepted Polk's election as a victory for his great purpose.
When Congress met in December, one of the first things
President Tyler did Avas to send in a strong message urging
legislation for the .admission of Texas, and with it he sub
mitted data from Mexico, including the boast of Santa An
na that he was about to invade Texas and conduct a mer
ciless campaign for its reconquest; Mexico had been an
gered and aroused by the election of Polk on a platform
which declared for acquiring Texas, and sharp, bitter cor
respondence had passed between the tAvo countries. Then,
too, Tyler had given his word to Houston in 1843 that if
the treaty negotiated that year should fail, Texas should
234

Tyler's Triumph
have the aid of the United States in the event Mexico re
newed the war against Texas.
England Avas genuinely alarmed, and British papers were
filled with Avarnings to that Government against allowing
the United States to acquire Texas. Whatever doubt may
have existed about the fate of annexation, as far as the
United States Avas concerned, Avas dissolved by the ill-timed
and unwarranted attacks by the English press and the in
trigues Avhich England put on foot to block the Union
of Texas with the States.
The London "Times" declared the election of Polk
was the triumph of all that was worst in American life, and
that England and all Europe must resist the extension of
the United States to the southwest.
The London "Morning Post" exclaimed: "The Repub
lican monster must be checked." Many people throughout
the United States and some of the leading journals were
turned to annexation by these British indiscretions, which
fulfilled to a degree the forebodings of General Jackson.
And while it seemed politic to allow the matter to await
the inauguration of Polk, in March next, yet there was a
general feeling that it was dangerous to wait.
A prominent Democratic Congressman, speaking of Ty
ler's message, Avarned the country: "Let not procrastina
tion be the thief of Texas." Resolutions for annexation
Avere promptly introduced in both houses of Congress, and
from December to February the battle in that forum was
Avaged and Avon.
A resolution for annexation of Texas Avas offered and after
passing the Senate and the House, it had President Ty
ler's signature on February 27, 1845, just five days before
his term of office expired.

235

Tyler's Triumph
The fight in Congress was a spectacular one, and the
galleries were thronged from day to day as the debates pro
gressed. Benton, who had fought the treaty so bitterly in June,
found ground to support the cause in February. Its final
passage was by a strictly party vote, the Whigs voting almost
solidly against it. But there Avas a rift in the clouds of
northern opposition, and most of the northern and east
ern Democrats voted for it. The Legislature of Ohio in
structed its Senators to support it.
The northern abolitionists received the result with ire and
anguish, and Garrison, who in 1842 declared "That any one
supporting Texas would dethrone God," now wrote in his
Boston paper that the joint resolution of Congress "was a
deed of perfidy as black as Egyptian darkness."
While the debates were proceeding in January and Feb
ruary, 1845, President-elect Polk came up to Washington
from his home in Tennessee, and mingled with members of
Congress, throwing the weight of his influence into the scale.
'fThe pressure of two. Presidents and an Ex-President is
too much for us," exclaimed a Whig Senator.
The defeat of the treaty by the Senate in June had
brought the Tyler administration face to face with its ob
ligations to Texas, Avhich had been exacted by President
Houston in 1843 before he would negotiate the treaty. He
had stipulated, and Tyler had promised, that in the event
the Senate should fail to ratify the treaty and the negotia
tions should bring on war with Mexico, that the United
States would aid Texas and guarantee her independence.
Tyler probably had no constitutional authority to make
such a promise and less to perform it, nevertheless he acted
promptly to make it good. On September 10, 1844, John
C. Calhoun, Secretary of State, sent through Shannon,
236

Tyler's Triumph
American Minister to Mexico, a most remarkable and vigor
ous paper which in terms warned Mexico to let Texas alone.
Calhoun advised that the rejection of the treaty by the
Senate did not mean the abandonment of annexation, but
that the United States intended to acquire Texas, and any
invasion of Texas by Mexico pending these negotiations
still pending would be resented by the United States; that
the President had fully determined that Texas should not
suffer at the hands of Mexico because of the recent over
tures towards annexation.
"If Mexico has taken offense at these negotiations," said
Mr. Calhoun, "it should attack the United States, as we are
the ones who proposed annexation."
The loud threats of Mexico, which became louder after
the November election, brought Tyler's promise to Houston
into a present obligation, and was a cause for Tyler's ur
gency in submitting the Texas question in December in
stead of passing it over to Polk's administration, which
would not begin until March.
There has been much criticism of Tyler and Polk for
the war plans they carried on in the latter part of 1844, and
during 1845. It has been written and millions believe that
Polk without warrant provoked a war of conquest with Mex
ico. But whfln 'rvnprejmjvmheTS that, Texps was a free coun-
try when Tyler began negj)tiatipngJfor_aJMi«ia^
"andTEat he had given President Houston his promise jhat
itl&ould~noFsuffer "aXthe result of these negotiations if Ihfi
frea1ty^oluld^aii^anJ_when we see Mexico blustering with
preparations for a merciless campaign against Texasjbe-
^cause oFtEese very "negotiajicjis^j^e^arjejbl^p reverence
the memories oX Tyler and Calhoun and Polk for the milu
tary preparations begun in 1844 and carried forward
237

The Activity of England
i
jn!845 and 1846, Avhile the details of annexation werejjging
worked out bA/Jjojh-caujiteiesr^
The greatest triumph in American History after the
Revolution of 1776 was the prompt, poAverful way the
Tyler and Polk administrations moved to solidify Texas and
put the flag over the country Avest to the Pacific.
The Activity of England.
England had determined that Texas should not become
part of the American Union, and hoped that Mexico Avould
reconquer it, and long after all hope of this reconquest was
obviously gone, it acknoAvledged Texas Independence. The
overwhelming defeat of annexation in the American Con
gress in 1837, and the loud roarings of the northern and
eastern press, misled England into the thought there was
no chance that this country would ever accept Texas.
When Tyler's treaty of 1844 became known, there Avas an
active and vigorous movement among English diplomats,
and Lord Aberdeen sought an understanding with the
French Government that the two countries would join
Mexico in preventing annexation. Guizot, the Prime Min
ister in the Government of Louis Phillipe, seems to have
committed his country to such a course, and if France had
remained bound it is apparent that there would have been
a Avorld war if the United States had persisted in the course
it did pursue.
But when it became known in France that the Govern
ment had made such a commitment, there was an explo
sion such as can only happen in the French Chamber, and
Guizot was denounced as the tool of England and for hav
ing turned on an old friend to serve the purposes of an
ancient enemy. All hope that France Avould aid England
238

The Activity of England
by force of arms Avas gone, yet the Government of Louis
Phillipe did continue to give its moral support through dip
lomatic pressure to prevent annexation. But the British
Minister at Washington forecasted the defeat of the Tyler
treaty, and after the Democrat and Whig parties had named
their candidates and made Texas an issue, Lord Aberdeen
and his counsellors wisely determined to lay Ioav and await
results. They knew that any British activity at this junc
ture would mean the defeat of Clay, and their ardent hope
was for his election, which they thought would close the door
to annexation. The election of Polk upset all their calcu
lations. When in December, 1844, Tyler again submitted
the cpiestio^JtojUjyigr^^nd it_be^ame3eyI3enr^arTt"W'as"
to be rushed to a cjMielusion, there was a great activity in
thlTBritish Foreign Office, and a definite plan was at once"
worked out. It was well known in London as in Washing
ton that what the people of Texas wanted above all things
wairpeace™an"d protection against Mexico, and a surcease of
the ten long years of semi-Avarf are™ which' prevailed." And
so the English Ministry, bound to act in great hasteTluicr
"bound to offer Texas solhe'fe^^nduceihehf "to stay out of
the American Union, sought the seemingly lwpj^ss_ task'
of inducing Mexico to aekiKwledge_Texas Independence,
and make a treaty of peace with J^exas upon condition., that
it would not join the Union. This was indeed a bold
plan, and one familiar with the JVTexican History of
IhlslienbTwilT be struck with the height of British^ipkv"
malic audacffy "and daring. Since the campaign of 1836,
— it-iraTr-l3eeTr-the--rrope- by day and, dream bynighf of all
Mexico to reconquer Texas. Mexican officers who could not
have been induced this side of the Rio Grande by atfy
earthly consideration, were eternally swashbuckling up and
239

The Activity of England
down the tropics declaring that they Avould soon lead an
army into Texas.
Every Mexican President or Dictator who ruled his
alloted day could raise large sums of money through the
Mexican Congress for a campaign in Texas. Santa Anna,
who was now and then in power during this period, 1836 to
1845, was always announcing vast plans for such a cam
paign. But the situation Avas desperate Avith the British Minis
try, goaded on by an arrogant English press, which demand
ed that Texas be kept out of the American Union. A lead
ing London journal declared in brutal British frankness,
that ' ' Texas, in fact all North America, should be under a
kind of British suzerainty." "The Republican monster
must be checked," and since France would not agree to an
alliance to employ force, it must be done by cunning. While
the Texas question was being debated in the American
Congress in January and February, 1845, and when it was
obvious that a resolution declaring for admission would
pass, Almonte, the Mexican Minister to Washington, de
manded his passports and let it be known that war would
follow annexation.
When Terrell, Texas Minister to England and FranceT"
succeeding Doctor Smith, reached London in January, 1845,
he Avas bluntly told that news had preceded him that the
new President of Texas, Anson Jones, was an avowed ad-
vocate of annexation, and if so Texas need expect no aid
from EngTand~ih any of its problems'."
Mr. Terrell hastened to correct this erroneous impression,
and reported that thereaftenvards a very different atmos
phere prevailed, and he Avas given many kindly suggestions
and offers of English aid which indeed were helpful, for as
240

Diplomats Gather Along the Brazos
yet the American Congress had not passed, the annexation
resolution, and ivas still violently debating Tyler's De
cember message.
Diplomats Gather Along the Brazos.
Foreseeing a shrewd diplomatic duel, and fully advised
as to England's plans, President Tyler named .Andrew
Jackson Donnelson, nephew of General Jackson, and a man
of unusual force and sagacity, Charge to Texas.
The British Government Avas and had for some years
been represented in Texas by Charles Elliot, a former sea
captain, who had been so long in the country as to be well
acquainted with its people and its public men.
The French Government was represented by an impetu
ous ass, Compte de Saligny, who had found Austin an un
comfortable place to live, and after quarreling with every
body in town, had removed to New Orleans, where he looked
after French affairs in Texas at a long range.
In December, 1844, a feAv days before Tyler sent his
last Texas message to Congress, Anson Jones became Pres
ident of Texas. Although it Avas known that aunexation
Avould be offered Texas in a few months, he wisely made
no mention of this ever-absorbing topic in his inaugural
address. President Jones had seen annexation offered aud
snatched away too often to be over-sanguine at present
prospects. Shortly after his inauguration he advised Cap
tain Elliot that if Mexico could be brought to recognize the
independence of Texas, he favored declining annexation,
and he invited the British and French Governments to in
terest themselves to that end. This Avas just what England
hoped for. Congress had not then acted on Tyler's Decem
ber message, nor did Jones know that the question had been
241

Diplomats Gather Along the Brazos
put before the closing session of Tyler's last Congress. He
supposed negotiations would await the inauguration of
Polk. While these assurances were being given the British
Representative, Ashabel Smith, Secretary of State in Texas,
wrote the Texas charge at Washington "that the President
(Jones) Avished him to use his most strenuous exertions for
annexation." When the neAVS reached Galveston in the
latter days of March, 1845, that Congress had passed and
Tyler approved a plan for the annexation, Captain Elliot,
aud Compte de Saligny, hearing that Colonel Donnelson
Avas on his way from Washington, D. C, to Washington
on the Brazos, with an official communication from Presi
dent Polk to President Jones, made great haste to Washing
ton on the Brazos, which was for the time being the seat of
Texas Government.
Once there they went into a long conference with Pres
ident Jones and Doctor Ashabel Smith, and urged many
good reasons why Texas should remain independent.
President Jones advised them that while he personally
thought Texas should_j^niain a nation, yet lie realized that
tlie"people of Texas desired annexatlmT^luidhe sa\v~inTiim-
sclfTnerely their agent. ~
After many conferences with his_Cabinet and after taking
the matter under advisement for several daysTTie fiintHyren
M7n,cinfflth71'eTifaTl^ of
Ehgland~and France upon the outline of a treaty~which
they were authorized to procure from Mextctrr 
j 1. Mexico consents to acknowledge the independence of
Texas. 2. Texas will not annex herself to any country.
3. Boundaries to be fixed in final treaty or submitted
to arbitration.

242

Diplomats Gather Along the Brazos
While these Avorthy diplomats Avere procuring these
things to be done they exacted that for ninety days from
date Texas would not enter into any negotiations for annex
ation. These things done, Captain Elliot agreed in further
ance of the plan to go at once to the City of Mexico, and he
and the Compte de Saligny scampered down the Brazos,
the Captain going incognito to Vera Cruz, and the Compte
back to his Avell stocked wine cellar at NeAV Orleans, each
thinking he had overawed the President of Texas; and
outwitted the President of the United States. On their
Avay out o£ town they met Colonel Donnelson, the American
Charge, who Avas hastening for an interview with President
Jones, and to lay before him and the Texas Congress the
plan of annexation.
.njvasjawwjitihatjh^^
Jy for annexation, an^sineethe^I^OTlu^mn^jth^ American
Congress only called for_ratification by the Texas_Gpvern-
ment, it Avas planned by_ .President _Jones and Doctor Smith
not to call Congress in session until these envoys^ had an
opportunity to_trytheir ha"ncls" in getting the Mexican
-Treaty. President Jones hoped~to be aBle to lay before
Congress, when he assembled it, not only~"a~p"lan~tor an-
nexation, but the alternative of remaining an independent
"nation" with"" a "settlement of all troubles with Mexico, and
This heUTd.
Colonel Donnelson did not find a congenial atmosphere
at Washington on the Brazos, Avhen he arrived there on
April 1, 1845, and laid. the plan of annexation before Pres
ident Jones and his Cabinet. The President took the mat
ter under advisement, for he said the gravity of the situ
ation would not permit haste. 243

Diplomats Gather Along the Brazos
When Colonel Donnelson urged him to convene Congress,
he said he had decided to lay it before the people through a
convention to be called for that purpose.
Unable to get Jones to call Congress in session, Donnel
son sought Ex-President Houston, Avhom he found at his
home in Huntsville, and was much surprised to learn that
he too was unfavorable to an acceptance of the resolution
which had passed Congress in February. He did not think
it fair to Texas, and pointed out some sharp objections to it,
and proposed that negotiations between the two countries
be begun and a treaty of annexation agreed upon. He
favored a treaty because it could be abrogated at any time
by either party, and one wonders what would have hap
pened in 1861 had Texas come into the Union under such a
treaty. But it was explained to Houston that President
Polk and Secretary of State Buchanan did not think it wise
to delay while negotiations would be going forward, and
he withdrew his objections at least to the extent that he
used no effort to frustrate Donnelson 's plans, and took a
trip to the Hermitage for a farewell to Jackson. Donnel
son was not openly told, but indeed he heard it on the streets,
that an "offer from Mexico" might be made at any time
and that the Texas Government was waiting for it.
In the meantime April Avas well advanced, and the people
of Texas had become very impatient of delay, and very
strong pressure was brought to bear on President Jones to
convene Congress and all kinds of rumors were afloat as
to his designs against annexation. In fact a plan was well
on foot to convene Congress anyhoAV if he did not act, and
the murmurings were so loud and the criticism of the Gov
ernment so great that the Mexican Consul at NeAv Orleans

244

Captain Elliot In Mexico
advised his Government that a revolution was imminent in
Texas. Yielding to these importunities before he had time to hear
from Captain Elliot, President Jones issued a proclama
tion on April 15, 1845, calling Congress to meet at Washing
ton on the Brazos on June 16th. He calculated that this
would give Elliot time to accomplish Avhatever could be done
in Mexico. Doctor Jones' slow, calculating movements and
Doctor Ashabel Smith's known views against annexation
aroused much feeling in Texas in the spring of 1845, and
the country was at a white heat as the hour approached for
the extraordinary session of Congress in June.

Captain Elliot in Mexico.
Captain Charles Elliot was not a great man, but he was
an energetic one, and he had lost no time in getting from
Washington on the Brazos to Galveston, where, by a fine co
incidence, he found a British man-of-war at his disposal.
lie took passage on this vessel, giving it out that he was go
ing 1o New Orleans, but was landed at Vera Cruz, from
where he hastened on to the City of Mexico.
April, 1845, was an off season for Santa Anna, who Avas
for the time being out of power and in exile (but he came
back next year). Herrera was, between revolutions, as it
were, President ad interim of Mexico, and to him and his
Cabinet Captain Elliot, assisted by the British Minister to
Mexico, addressed the proposition which he brought from
the President of Texas.
It contemplated that Mexico would acknowledge Texas
independence, upon condition that Texas would not join the
American Union, boundaries to be settled later.
245

Captain Elliot In Mexico
The proposition at first aroused great opposition at the
Mexican Capital. "Give up Texas, never, " Avas the scream
of Mexican papers and the wild boast of swashbuckling Mex
ican military men. But the British envoys Avorked poAver-
i'ully on their fears. If they did not do this, Texas would
be forced into the American Union for protection against
the "great military force of Mexico." "The acquisition of
Texas by the United States made that detested country the
next door neighbor of Mexico, and an effort would follow to
conquer and annex Mexico."
In proof of this the relators read from debates in the
American Congress, Avhere excited Whig leaders had openly
charged that the Southern Democrats contemplated the ex
tension of empire to Panama and the Pacific. And as con
firmation of the perfidy of these Southern Democrats, if
corroborations Avere necessary in the Mexican mind, they
read and published the awful indictments brought against
them by northern newspapers. These arguments were rein
forced by Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, Mexican Minister
to the United States, who had left Washington upon the pas
sage of the Annexation Act in February.
Almonte, who Avas a man of great influence in Mexico,
urged his Government to accede to the British proposals,
for he favored and impressed his people Avith the apprehen
sion that the acquisition of Texas meant the : conquest of
Mexico by the United States of the North. This fear had
foundation with Almonte, for he had been at San Jacinto.
But it was an awful thing for the Mexican Government to
do: "Give up Texas to those mendicants who came to us
and asked for land, and who forgot our kindness and bounty
and turned traitor and brigand." How they suffered in
the flesh as they struggled betAveen this awful sacrifice and

246

Captain Elliot In Mexico
the fear of seeing all Mexico become an American depend
ency. When the English diplomats pressed them to act, they
professed a willingness to do so if England would guaran
tee Mexican sovereignty and the boundaries between Mexico
and the United States, but just here there Avas a want of
zeal oh the part of Her Majesty's representatives, for this
meant war, and after France had withdrawn from .the pact
of Guizot, England was not willing to go to Avar alone. Fi
nally the point was urged that Mexican honor was saved,
since Texas was here suing for peace, and making a conces
sion in order to get the boon of Mexican permission to live
and be an independent nation.
While these conversations Avere going forward at the
Mexican Capital, neAvs came late in April that President
Jones had issued a call convening the Texas Congress in
June. Captain Elliot knew full well what this meant, and
knew that the only hope of defeating annexation lay in his
returning to Texas at once with a treaty between Texas
and Mexico ready to be presented for ratification when this
Congress met.
Daily during April reports reached Mexico that the Unit
ed States was sending Avar ships into the Gulf and was
massing troops on the Texas frontier, and finally .Elliot,
and Bankhead, the British Minister to Mexico, succeeded
in wringing and extracting an agreement from the Mexican
Congress to make the Texas treaty in order to frustrate
the designs of the United States. On the last day of May,
1845, Elliot was again in Galveston armed Avith the Mexican
agreement to make a treaty acknowledging Texas inde
pendence on condition it would not unite with the United
States. But all the diplomats in the world could not have
247

Captain Elliot In Mexico
accomplished the task that had been assigned this retired
sea captain.
While President Jones hesitated and took matters under
advisement and waited to hear from Elliot, things were
happening in Texas.
Colonel A. J. Donnelson, nephew of Andrew Jackson and
accredited representative of the United States in Texas, was
a modest, quiet person, who moved with great celerity and
acted with great accuracy. He knew Avhere Colonel Elliot
had gone and what he_jyaa^ojn^_an,dJie was in constajil^
touch with the leaders of thought in Texas, and worked
with them to sfn^ubllc^enfimeht! He made great capifaf"
out of thTnTtrTgues of EnglandTand exposed TSerOoTsuch
men as Sidney Sherman^ Edward JBurleson, General Rusk.
and others who were working with him.
Colonel Elliot helped Donnelson by his free talk, seeing
upon his return that the tide had set heavily against him.
He talked loosely and wildly of coming trouble, and pre
dicted dire disaster if Texas attempted to join the Union.
He said that England and France would join Mexico in a
wjuMuxainstJh£-Uaitod States, and-4ha4r3^xas^vinild_be the
battlegroujud^if^ulflng, .bloody world Avar._
Speaking as the accredited agent of England, many be
lieved that he knew what he was talking about, and that
grave trouble Avould follow. But the people who had come
into Jthe w Udaaiesfc--w-ith Austin;-and- ¦ who -haiLsuff er.ed the
hardships of the quarter of a century winch had intervened,
could notJBe "bullied, audlihe..hlu^^
sjmj^pJajjL,..1haugh--he- spoke -as -the envoy_oL tha.British
Empire, carried. little .terror, .ta the heart .ofjhe : average
Texan. On May 5th, a feiv days after Elliot's return, President
Jones issued a call for a general convention of the peo-
248

Captain Elliot In Mexico
pie of Texas at Austin on the fourth of the following July,
"to consider the overture of the United States."
President Jones was abused and driven out of public
life for what the people of Texas always believed to be his
attitude toAvards annexation, and his willingness to form
an alliance with England and Mexico against the United
States. But it must be rememhprfid thal.he.had seen the United
States turn bitterly on Texas in 1837. He had witnessed
the fate of the Tyler treaty in 1844, a treaty Avhich the
Washington Government had sought^n~d~urged the people
orTexas'fomake.' No'man foresaAv just what would happen
in the United States even as late as May and June, 1845.
In January of that year James Reilly, sometimes our rep
resentative at Washington, wrote Jones: "Annexation is
very much like the Millerite doctrine of the end of the
world. It may be today, it may be next session, it may
not be until the saints of this generation are all dead."
Houston had said to Jones, shortly before the latter became
President, that in dealing with this question the Texas Gov
ernment "Should be wise as lynxes and as sly as foxes."
Now Doctor Anson Jones, though a good man and a true
patriot, was not an artist in the lynx-fox game. He lacked
the training and much of the great ability of the old Chero-
. kee Chief, and in all this dilemma he Avas trying to play
Houston without Houston's ability or experience. He Avas
not at home in a game of duplicity and diplomacy.
It was with a degree_of_p_ride and a consciousness of hav
ing done Texas a_gr^al-^j:ylc^Jh3lLjFIr^sideiit Jones made
public announcement of the Mexican treaty in May. Here
he gave his people the choice to remain an independent
TiallblTwTt'hniigTr'glnir^nties of territorial integrity, or to

249

The Last Act in the Great Drama of Annexation
become associated with the Union. They Avere no longer
cTriven to join the United Statesjor jpjaga ah^prolgction^
"But tTie news, instead of bgjn^-xaaew«d— in^this— s-pirit,,
roused a &torrn!aTCcLYex..TfiXAs_ yvhieh > Avould have overthroAvn
Jiis Government were it not for the fact that he had con
vened Congress to meet within less than thirty days^
The Last Act of the Great Drama of Annexation.
The Ninth Congress of the Republic of Texas met in ex
traordinary session at Washington on the Brazos on the
ICth day of June, 1845, to consider the matter of annexa
tion. In his message President Jones laid before Congress the
American proposition of annexation, and also the proposed
Mexican, treaty. The sentiment of the people of Texas Avill
be well explained by the fact that annexation was accepted
by the unanimous vote of both houses of Congress, and that
The Mexican treaty was unanimously rejected. These
Things so promptly done, Congress gave sanction to Presi
dent Jones' convention called to meet at Austin on the 4th
of the following July, for it Avas necessary for the people of
Texas to form a State constitution and set up a State Gov
ernment. The Extraordinary Session of the Ninth Congress of Tex
as adjourned after a short but harmonious session, leaving
the further details to the July convention. In the interim
news came of the death of Ex-President Jackson at his home,
the Hermitage. He had played a powerful part in the
history of Texas, as Avell as that of the United States. His
anxiety to acquire Texas, dating back to his first adminis
tration in 1829, and his life-long intimacy with Houston,
have given color to rumors Avhich will ever prevail that he
250

The Last Act in the Great Drama of Annexation
had a secret understanding with Houston Avhich aided to
bring on the Revolution of 1836. His passion for annexa
tion was intensified after his retirement by the discovery
of British intrigues, for among the many ruling passions
of his long life Avas his deep hatred for England. He was
of Scotch ancestry, and during the American Revolution,
when yet a mere lad, a British officer struck him a cruel
blow for refusing to shine the officer's boots, and he carried
a scar into international history.
Houston lived twenty years longer. Houston's and Jack
son's names will exer be linked in the interesting drama
which resulted in the acquisition of the great SouthAvest.
Not long ago I chanced upon an old volume of Claiborne's
History of Mississippi, published more than fifty years ago,
and written by a contemporary of Jackson and Houston
and the Southern leaders of their day. Among them was
the celebrated William M. GAvin of Mississippi, who, after
a career in Southern political life, went to California about
1849 and became one of the first United States Senators
from that State.
Claiborne says in a sketch of Gwin that there Avas an un
derstanding between Houston and Jackson and Rusk, ne
gotiated by Gwin, and he dramatically declares, "I violate
no confidence in saying there was such an understanding.
The grave has now closed over all of these men save Sen
ator Gwin, Avho still lives in his old age in California, and
who could verify Avhat I say." Interested by this bold
statement from a seemingly authentic source, I Avrote to
the Leland Stanford University of California to knoAv if
the private papers of Senator GAvin had been preserved and
if they bora any reference to these affairs. The librarian
replied that Gwin's unpublished memoirs lay among the
archives of that institution, and in them he found a state-
251

The Last Act in the Great Drama of Annexation
ment in G win's handAvriting that in 1835 he had spent some
time at the Hermitage with President Jackson, who was on
a visit to Tennessee, and that shortly afterwards he went to
Nacogdoches in Texas and spent several weeks Avith Hous
ton and Rusk. No other details are given, but we know
that Mr. GAvin, for himself and associates, purchased large
tracts of land in Texas on the occasion of this visit. What
happened at these conferences at the Hermitage and old
Nacogdoches one hundred years ago the world Avill never
Iciioav. The Avhole scene furnishes the shrouded details of
one of the most dramatic chapters in all our history.
The July convention ratified annexation Avith but one
vote against it, and that Avas cast by Richard Bache, of
Galveston, a grandson of Benjamin Franklin. This conven
tion formulated our constitution of 1845, Avhich was submit
ted to the people of Texas in November, at which time it was
ratified and at an election held in December, J. Pinckney
Henderson Avas elected Governor.
The Constitution Avas then presented through President
Polk to the American Congress, and in December, 1845, it
formally admitted Texas into the Union.
Even after Texas had accepted the last proposal and
formed a State Government, and presented its State
constitution to the American Congress for ratification,
there Avas an effort made in the United States to Avith-
draw the offer and leave Texas with its Federal Govern
ment dismantled and statehood rejected. Such a result
would have found it disorganized at home and friendless
abroad", with Mexico 's whole force marshaled on its borders,
the very force which was hurled against the armies of the
United States in the war Avhich followed in a feAv months.
The infamy of such course, breaking the faith of the
Government of the United States with such aAvful con-
252

The Last Act in the Great Drama of Annexation
sequences to Texas, is almost unbelievable to this gen
eration, but, though sad, it is true that Horace Greeley
advocated it in the NeAV York Tribune. And Avhen the
American Congress met in December, 1845, before whom
the details of formal admission must come, memorials
and petitions by the thousand Avere pouring in from
Northern and Eastern States urging that Texas be not ad
mitted. The Legislatures of Massachusetts and tAvo other
NeAV England States joined in this demand, and John
Quincy Adams led a fight for its rejection in the House,
and even the great Webster voted against the measure
Avhen it passed the Senate in December, and he was
joined in this vote by thirteen Senators.
On the 16th of February, 1846, the first Legislature of
the State of Texas met at Austin, and President Jones for
mally closed the affairs of the Republic and surrendered his
office to Governor Henderson. The Republic was born at
Washington on the Brazos on March 2nd, 1836, and the
span of its life Avas but two Aveeks less than ten years.
The annexation resolution passed by the American Con
gress, under Avhich Texas Avas admitted, provided : First :
The State to be admitted subject to the adjustment by this
Government of all questions of boundary that may arise
with other Governments, and the constitution to be formed
by Texas to be transmitted to the President of the United
States to be presented to Congress on or before January 1,
1846. Second: Said State, Avhen admitted to the Union,
after ceding to the United States all .public edifices, fortifi
cations, barracks, forts, harbors, navy aud ship yards, etc.,
and all other means pertaining to the public defense belong
ing to said Republic, shall retain all the vacant lands lying
within its limits to be applied to the payment of its debts.
But in no event are said debts to become a charge upon the
253

The Last Act in the Great Drama of Annexation
Government of the United States. Third: New States of
convenient size not exceeding four in number in addition
to said State of Texas and having sufficient population may
hereafter by consent of said State be formed out of the ter
ritory thereof Avhich shall be entitled to admission under
tlie provisions of the Federal Constitution. Such States
as may be formed out of the territory lying south of 36 de
grees and 30 degrees, known as the Missouri Compromise
Line, shall be admitted into the Union, Avith or Avithout
slaveiy, as the people may desire. And in such States as
may be formed out of said territory north of the Missouri
Compromise Line, slavery shall be prohibited.
The boundaries between Texas and Mexico had never
been fixed. The Republic had always claimed to the
Rio Grande, and Santa Anna in his negotiations while
a prisoner with us had agreed upon the Rio Grande as
the boundary. If you Avill look at the map you will
see that the Bio Grande rises in Colorado and flows
south and east through New Mexico, leaving about half
of the latter State to the east. The State of Texas
claimed all of this territory, and it became the basis of a very
bitter controversy between the State and Federal Govern
ments during the Taylor administration in 1850. As a part
of the celebrated comprornisa measures in 1850, the present
northern and western boundaries were agreed upon, Texas
surrendering all claims to NeAV Mexico, but receiving for
this concession ten million dollars, Avhich was used to
liquidate the debts of the Republic.
The annexation of Texas, accomplished in February, 1846,
brought on a Avar with Mexico Avhich began in the following
April. The direct result of the Avar was the acquisition of
all the country west of Texas to the Pacific.

251

The Last Act In the Great Drama of Annexation
The war with Mexico was not regarded with favor in the
North and East, where the abolition leaders saw in it a
scheme to extend slave territory. The poet Whittier, hear
ing of the terms of peace which the Polk administration
would impose on Mexico, and that they would take the
country west to the ocean, wrote a note of sympathy to the
Mexican people, Avarning them that the invader was com
ing: "Let the Sacramento herdsmen heed
Avhat sound the wind brings down,
Of footsteps on the crisping snow,
from cold Nevada's crown, .
Full hot and fast the Saxon rides,
with rein of travel slack,
And bending o'er his saddle leaves.
the sunrise at his back."
Even so the Saxon came and snatched the great South
west from the doom of eternal anarchy which has pre
vailed south of the Rio Grande for these one hundred
years.

255

MISS ROBERTA JOHN
Great Grand Daughter of General Houston at the grave of
Santa Anna, City of Mexico

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
The Louisiana Purchase  ,  7
The Proclamation of LaSalle..  ,.:  7
Napoleon's First Effort at King Making  10
The Deal Is Closed  .'  .'  12
Texas Traded for Florida  '  17
The Colonies  27
First Colonial Grant to Moses Austin  27
The Last of the Viceroys  :  _  29
Stephen Fuller Austin, the First and Greatest
Empresario  ,  31
San Antonio — One Hundred Years Ago  33
Austin in San Antonio  35
Austin Explores the Gulf Littoral  37
Austin Return to the States  39
The New Years Creek Colony ^  40
The Schooner "Lively"  41
Austin Goes to Mexico  44
The Emperor Iturbede   47
The End of the Empire   50
Austin's Grant Confirmed  52
The Terms of the First Grant  .'  55
Austin's Great Achievement  58
The First Colonists  62
The Government of the First Colony  65
Empresario Grants  .".   69
The Fredonians  ,..,.,  71
The Fredonian Rebellion  74
The Effect of the Fredonian Rebellion  77
General Manuel Mier y Teran  81
General Teran's Garrisons  84
Bradburn at Anahuac  87
The Battle of Velasco  89
Mejia 's Fleet  92
The Revolution..  97
Antonio de Santa Anna  97
The First Texas Convention of October, 1832...:  100

page
The Convention of 1833  103
Austin's Second Jonrney to Mexico, in May, 1833 106
Austin in Prison  108
Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-four....:  112
The Land Scandals of 1835...  115
Gonzales.-  119
The Consultation  122
The Siege of Bexar  126
Ben Milam and the Fall of Bexar  129
Sam Houston  133
Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-six  138
The Convention of March, 1836  142
The Alamo  145
Goliad  149
The Runaway Scrape  153
San Jacinto  158
The Republic  ,  169
The Republic of Texas  ,:;  169
The Recognition of Texas  172
Passing of Austin  179
The Army of the Republic  181
The Capitals of Texas  187
Austin Located at Waterloo  189
The Coming of the Cherokees  193
The Passing of the Cherokees  197
The Prairie Indians  200
The Santa Fe Expedition  205
Houston's Second Administration  209
Annexation of Texas  , 215
First Efforts at Re-Annexation  216
Texas Rejected in 1837  219
President Tyler Discovers Texas  223
Tyler's Treaty  226
The Fall of Van Buren  230
Tyler's Triumph  234
The Activity of England  238
Diplomats Gather Along the Brazos  241
Captain Elliot in Mexico  245
The Last Act in the: Great Drama of Annexation 250

This preservation photocopy was made at BookLab, Inc.,
in compliance with copyright law. The paper
is Weyerhaeuser Cougar Opaque Natural,
which exceeds ANSI Standard
Z39.48-1984. 1992

YALE UNIVERSITY

,39002