USA > Texas > A Twentieth century history of southwest Texas, Volume I > Part 5
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CHAPTER VI.
AMERICAN AND SPANISH CIVILIZATIONS MEET IN LOUIS- IANA-FIRST STAGES OF THE INEVITABLE CONFLICT.
American aggression and advance on Texas involves some of the most interesting and at the same time perplexing features of American his- tory. With the events which open this part of the narrative many fami- liar names are connected-Thomas Jefferson, the president ; Aaron Burr, a former vice-president and a consummate promoter and intriguer ; Gen- eral Andrew Jackson, already one of the influential figures of the Mis- sissippi valley; Gen. James Wilkinson, commander of the regular army in Louisiana, and many other characters only less well known. Of those named, Wilkinson became the chief actor in the initial disputes between Spain and America on the borderland of Texas and Louisiana. But the other names indicate the great scope of the movements, which not alone affected Texas but also wrought out the destiny of the Ameri- can nation.
Wilkinson and the Spanish Conspiracy .. ..
July 2. 1787. James Wilkinson, an ex-brigadier general, who had fought gallantly in the Revolution, arrived at New Orleans, having come down the river from the Kentucky settlements with flat-boats of tobacco, hemp and other merchandise. A man of restless energy, am- bitious for his own advancement and not always scrupulous of means or careful of steadfast lovalty, he was at this time in reduced circumstances, and since his occupation as a soldier in the cause of independence was gone he adventured in the settlements along the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and sought to make his material fortune equal to his reputation as a soldier and standing as a gentleman. With a mind eminently fitted for intrigue, with a military and authoritative bearing, with winning and convincing address, these qualities seemingly were not combined wth the poise of character and stability of high purpose that would have insured him a place of honor among the makers of the nation. Feeling that his advancement had not been commensurate with his abilities, he now showed his readiness to take part in enterprises of doubtful loyalty. and his insight into the future and at times statesman-like understand- ing of the western situation became a positive menace to the American republic which was. at the date mentioned, just being welded into unity by the framers of the constitution. That his activities had a vital bear- ing on the early American movement to Texas will appear in the course of this narrative.
Wilkinson's immediate objects at New Orleans were commercial privileges ; in fact he made those negotiations a cloak for all his deeper plans while there. To further his interests he took the oath of allegiance to Spain on August 22, 1787.
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Southwestern Boundaries.
At the treaty of. 1783, the southwestern possessions of the United States were bounded by the Mississippi river on the west and the thirty- first parallel on the south. South of this parallel was the area called West Florida. which was ceded to Spain. Thus the latter power held both sides of the Mississippi river from Red river to New Orleans, and absolutely controlled the navigation of that waterway. This was the only outlet for the products of the upper Mississippi and Ohio, and even so early as 1787, as Wilkinson's visit with his loaded flat-boats proves, it had become a matter of prime importance to the Kentucky settlers that no restrictions should be laid on commerce at New Orleans. But Wilkinson had deeper designs than the privileges of free trade, as is made clear in his famous memorial1 to Governor Miro of the province
A Western Confederacy.
Wilkinson argues that the new American Republic's administration was necessarily weak in the western frontier districts, that the political welfare and commercial interests of Kentucky could not be subserved by Congress, and the inevitable result would be a separate confederacy in the west, with the Mississippi river as the outlet of their commerce and means of communication with the world. If this new confederacy could not form an alliance with the Spanish provinces, it would naturally in- vite one with Great Britain, which would be clearly inimical to the in- terests of Spain, if it would not actually threaten the subversion of Span- ish authority west of the Mississippi. Continuing, Wilkinson states that he was urged to go to New Orleans by prominent fellow residents of Kentucky "in order to develop, if possible, the disposition of Spain toward their country and to discover, if practicable, whether she would be willing to open a negociation for our admission to her protection as subjects, with certain privileges in political and religious matters .. Though Kentucky still clings to her original allegiance, he is certain of the establishment of an independent state in the near future, and that this state will apply to Spain for the privileges just mentioned. Should Spain assent to his propositions he would at once proceed to use his in- fluence to bring about the secession. In case the plan should be re- jected by the court, he trusts the minister "to bury these communications in eternal oblivion," which, if divulged, would "destroy my fame and fortune forever." That Wilkinson was sincerely committed to this plan, so prejudicial to the united interests of the colonies, receives strengthen- ing proof in his adroit advice that Spain should close the navigation of the lower Mississippi to the Americans, thus giving a powerful lever for the consummation of his plans.
The reply from Madrid, though long in coming, was distinctly favorable to the general outlines of Wilkinson's schemes. But in the meantime government under the new constitution had been inaugurated, with an enthusiasm and general unanimity that augured well for the republic. In a second memorial to Governor Miro, dated September 17,
Documents and discussion by W. R. Shepherd in Amer. Hist. Review, Vol. IX. of Louisiana.
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1789, Wilkinson, alluding to the altered state of affairs since his first communication, holds that Kentucky is now more attached to the Union and constitution and is of the opinion that it would be unwise to win over the people of the west as subjects, but separation from the Union should be promoted by every means, and, this accomplished, a strong alliance should be cemented between Spain and the new state or con- federacy. He advised, in furtherance of this plan, the encouragement of immigration into Louisiana, so that the people and the interests on both sides of the Mississippi should be nearly identical. In order to attract "the interest and regard of the influential men of the principal settlements," the governor should be authorized "to distribute pensions and rewards among the chief men in proportion to their influence, ability or services rendered." This system of bribery would be effective in se- curing separation when the time came, since such men of influence would direct public opinion to the end sought or at least would prevent any hostile attitude toward Spain in the Louisiana and Mexican provinces. Twenty . or thirty thousand dollars, judiciously distributed annually, might save the crown as many millions and vast territories, by neu- tralizing the American expansion which Wilkinson saw or professed to see would sweep over the Mississippi valley. It is impossible not to ad- mire the cogency of his argument, however one may interpret his motives. He pointed out to the governor that congress would endeavor to check emigration to Louisiana and attempt to win over the prominent men of the western country to the interest of those of the Atlantic, "which is the greatest obstacle and danger that we can apprehend for the success of our idea." Spain should exert herself at this opportune time, before it should be too late, for .- so he reasoned with much foresight,-with the west solidly united to the east, its citizens, instead of forming a barrier for Louisiana and Mexico, will conquer one and attack the other-as the course of events finally brought to pass. "Louisiana, important in itself when considered as a frontier of Mexico, cannot be overestimated; with this province lost to Spain. the Mexican kingdom will be stirred to its verv depths in less than fifty years." He believes that Kentucky will incline to accept admission into the Union, and he proposes to use all means to retain the status quo until the plans for separation can be ma- tured.
If dependence is to be placed in Wilkinson's boasts, it is evident that the conspiracy included many influential men. Besides asking for himself liberal compensation and military rank in the Spanish army in return for his services and sacrifices, Wilkinson designates, among those listed for "pensions and rewards" to pledge their interest to Spain, an attorney general, a lawyer, a member of congress and a judge, all his personal and confidential friends in Kentucky ; besides other "notables" who favored separation from the United States.
Failure of the Spanish Conspiracy.
It is not the purpose to pursue the discussion of this so-called "Span- ish conspiracy" in detail ; but the general facts of the movement are quite essential to a proper understanding of that period of Texas history with which we are now dealing. At its inception, the conspiracy seriously
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threatened the dismemberment of the United States. Wilkinson pointed out the increasing sentiment for the Union, and how necessary it was that the Spaniards should act quickly if they would secure Kentucky. Though a pensioner of Spain to the extent of thousands of dollars, Wilkinson never succeeded in bringing the conspiracy to a successful issue. Loyalty to the government which they had helped establish was a stronger force than the tendency to Spanish alliance, though that loyalty was tried to its utmost during the closing years of the century, under the federalist regime. Even had the west separated from the east, it is unlikely that any enduring friendship with Spain could have been created. Antipathy to the Spanish people and their institutions, savoring so strongly of monarchy and religion, was probably inherent in the democratic back- woodsmen who settled in the valleys of the Ohio and Cumberland. This antipathy was merged into the bitterest hostility as soon as it became known that Spain insisted on restricting the navigation of the Mississippi. The climax was reached in 1795, when a treaty was about to be entered into by the two nations, by which federalist New England would barter away the welfare of the south and west and permanently close the Miss- issippi to American commerce. Then it was that separation of the west was openly threatened and no doubt would have taken place had not the treaty terms been changed so that the citizens of the United States not only gained the free navigation of the river, but the "right of deposit" at New Orleans-that is, the right to land their goods free of duty or other payment while awaiting trans-shipment.
With this treaty the crisis was passed. Spain's intrigue with the southern Indians and with the western settlers had accomplished no permanent results, except to deepen the American hatred of everything Spanish. The political school of Jefferson found its principal strength in the west, and with the triumphant entry to power, in 1800, of the Jeffersonian Republicans, the west became attached for all time to the Union, at the same time dooming to certain failure every such enterprise as Wilkinson had fabricated. But while the ties of loyalty to the Con- stitution and Union were being strengthened beyond the power of men or events to sunder, the progress of settlement was every day bringing the people of the Mississippi basin nearer to a final issue with Spain. As Roosevelt and other writers have pointed out, the hardy, self-reliant and intensely democratic backwoodsmen of Kentucky and Tennessee could never indulge any other feeling than contempt and distrust for those who, as Spanish subjects, acknowledged the divine right of kings and accepted without question the doctrines of the inquisition. The Spanish policy of exclusiveness, of forbidding all aliens an entrance within the royal provinces, was just the sort of barrier that American adventure and hardihood would delight to break down and transgress. Thus early we see the seeds sown that later bore fruit in frequent filibustering ex- peditions within the Spanish and Mexican territory.
CHAPTER VII.
POSITION OF TEXAS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINE- TEENTH CENTURY.
The dawn of the nineteenth century found Texas, as a province together with Coahuila, subject to a commandant general and a military and political governor sent from Mexico, from which distant source of authority also the dispensing of final justice and the control of fiscal and religious affairs were regulated ; a population, estimated in 1805, at about seven thousand besides the wild natives; with the principal and only im- portant settlements at San Antonio, which boasted two thousand in- habitants, at Goliad, with fourteen hundred, and at Nacogdoches, the most easterly town, with about five hundred. A people with few of the re- finements of civilization, and yet some degree of fashion and' elegance in the old city of San Antonio; hunting and the chase and desultory efforts at agriculture affording a living, which was always gained with the least possible exertion. A branch of society so far separated from the parent trunk that the sap of civic energy and industrial enterprise barely kept it alive, and with no likelihood of its bearing fruit. So much had Spain accomplished in more than a century. What was destiny to bring forth in the years of the nineteenth?
But fate has in the meantime, during the desultory and sleepy regime of Spain in the southwest, been forging a new instrument, and henceforth a new element, but dimly marked heretofore, appears in Texas history. The young giant of American western expansion has escaped its narrow boundaries of the Appalachian range, and, in the last quarter century stalking with vast strides across the eastern half of the Missis- sippi basin, has now reached that river itself, and awaits merely the fortunate event of historic progress in order to continue its imperial career to the Pacific.
And this fortunate event was not long in coming. By the treaty of Paris in 1763 France had ceded to Spain all the vast territory between the Mississippi and the Rocky mountains and north of Texas. By the secret treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800, Spain, under pressure from Na- poleon, gave it back to France. At that time Napoleon had designs to found a colony in this region. But in 1803 he saw he was likely to have war with England, and that it would be impossible to protect such dis- tant possessions. Therefore the French leader gladly consented to sell the Louisiana territory, as it was called, to the United States for the mere bagatelle of fifteen million dollars. Through President Jefferson this monumental transaction was successfully consummated, and with one bound the American republic was extended from the Atlantic to the Rocky mountains.
Thus once more did Anglo-Saxon civilization extend its sway. By
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conquest it had removed from its path the French dominions east of the Mississippi, and by diplomacy and farsighted statecraft it made the Louisiana purchase. Spain alone now barred the unrestricted sovereignty from ocean to ocean. And of this region of Spanish dominion, Texas stood foremost where the foot of American enterprise would first be set. Texas was destined to be the convenient spot where the bar of American colonization should be struck in, that the entire Pacific slope and the southwest might be pried off into the lap of our republic.
Manifest Destiny.
The expansion of the American republic has often been explained by the theory of "manifest destiny." Were not Texas and the vast ter- ritory that came as a result of the Mexican war, by the very philosophy of civilization, as it were, and historical fate, a predestined outgrowth of the original Thirteen Colonies ?- so questions the exponent of this theory. Westward the course of empire takes its way; and it has been a well observed fact of territorial expansion and settlement, on the American continent at least, that the trend of migration and occupation has been directly along isothermal lines. Thus the Yankee element of New Eng- land suffused itself over the northern tier of states, and the tide of set- tlers from the Virginias and the Carolinas seldom flowed north of the Mason and Dixon's line. Accordingly, with the center of propagation extending along the Atlantic from Maine to Georgia and with the ever increasing growth of expansion set toward the west, it was inevitable that, unless permanently blocked, this movement of humanity would in time cross to the Pacific. And, as the course of history proves, there was no power to check, much less destroy, this movement. Is it not credible then, at any rate as an a posteriori inference, that the muse of history, long years before the final consummation, prophetically indited on her tablets of truth the eventual occupation, by the liberty-loving sons from the American republic, of all that noble domain from the Rio Grande to the Columbia?
As soon as the western expansion was blocked by foreign power, a conflict became inevitable. The theory of "expansion" is not an attrac- tive one in all its aspects, but writers and statesmen have long recog- nized its value as an explanation of America's growth. Roosevelt often refers, in his "Winning of the West," to the opposing interests of Spain and America and the apparent destiny of the latter nation to expand. despite opposition, westward to the Pacific. "At the beginning of the nineteenth century," he says, "the settlers on the western waters recog- nized in Spain their natural enemy, because she was the power which held the south, and the west bank of the Mississippi. They would have transferred their hostility to any other power which fell heir to her pos- sessions, for these possessions they were bound one day to make their
Spain's Conduct on the Mississippi.
Aside from the hostility due to geographical position, Spain had not, during her forty years' ownership of the Mississippi valley, conducted herself to please the western and southern Americans. Owning New Orleans and the lands bordering the gulf south of the 3Ist parallel, and
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thus controlling the navigation of the Mississippi, the Spanish admin- istration soon made itselt obnoxious by restrictions on commerce and interference with what the Americans deemed an unimpeachable right of free trade. In 1795, by treaty, Spain recognized the claim of the United States to the free navigation of the Mississippi and granted under certain conditions the right of depositing goods in New Orleans. But for more than a decade the relations between America and Spain were such that several times general war was hardly averted. Exclusion of American traders and settlers, which was a policy of Spain and in part of Mexico, aroused increasing bitterness and hatred, and when, in 1802, Morales, the intendant of Louisiana, withdrew the right of deposit at New Orleans, the entire country clamored for vindication by appeal to arms. The developments of the following months removed for the time the source of trouble and changed the locus of the difficulties. Hardly had the transfer of Louisiana to France been made known, than the French became objects of invective just as the Spaniards had previously been. It seemed impolitic to allow a foreign nation to control the mouth of the river which was the commercial route for the entire middle west. This was a matter of vital importance to the people of the west and south, and their urgent appeals to President Jefferson and congress re- sulted in the Louisiana purchase of 1803.
This was only a partial solution of the difficulties. The Floridas remained to Spain, and were an apple of discord until the final purchase by the United States in 1819. Then, following the acquisition of Louisiana, came the question of boundaries. The decision of the ques- tion whether the western boundary of Louisiana was the Arroyo Hondo, the Sabine or the Rio Grande involved a series of armed conflicts, con- tinued, with long intervals, over a period of nearly half a century, the final result of which completed the "manifest destiny" of the United States by the extension of its territory to the Pacific.
Though the American claim to the Sabine as the western boundary may have lacked the support of convincing evidence-not to mention the pretensions to the country east of the Rio Grande, which were indeed of flimsy character-there is no doubting the temper of the American people at that time concerning the matter. The decrees of the Spanish authorities forbidding all intercourse between Spanish-America and Louisiana increased the natural antipathy. Hatred and contempt for Spanish institutions and people were mingled with the spirit of adventure and enterprise which was already coming to be understood as the eminent characteristic of the American people. Pioneering, they had borne their type of civilization across the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, and to delay further advance because of the presence of a people they regarded as miserable and unfit to possess and enjoy the boundless resources of the new world, was hardly in keeping with the spirit of Americans at that time, and perhaps not today.
First American Invasion of Texas.
The beginnings of American influence in Texas are first seen defi- nitely in the first years of the nineteenth century. Before this there was a sprinkling of Americans in the population, but the inroads into the
Vol. 1. 3
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province were only the results of private enterprise and without large political significance. Several Americans had settled near Nacogdoches, along the San Antonio road, but were allowed to remain undisturbed only because they swore allegiance to the Spanish king.
Trade was a stronger incentive than settlement. Illicit trade be- tween Louisiana and the Mexican provinces dated from the French oc- cupation of the former country. But between 1763 and 1800, few foreigners were allowed to traverse the vast dominions of Spain west of the Mississippi. Against Americans the regulations were enforced with special severity. Doubtless many an adventurer and Indian trader, cap- tured while trafficking at the villages of Texas, passed the rest of his life in some gloomy and pestilential Spanish prison. Some American traders, it is evident, gained the favor of the authorities to the extent that they were permitted to pursue their vocation without interruption.
Philip Nolan.
One such was Philip Nolan, born an Irishman, Celtic recklessness characterizing his adventures and perhaps in the end resulting in his death. Since 1785 he had been engaged in trade between San Antonio and Natchez.
That Philip Nolan was a man of more than local note and of un- common ability and enterprise is shown by the fact that his adventures became known to Thomas Jefferson and excited the curiosity of that eminently versatile statesman so that he took pains to ascertain the re- sults of Nolan's discoveries as a contribution to the history of the coun- try and to natural science. Writing to Nolan in June, 1798, Jefferson whose interests in the domain of knowledge seemed to extend to every subject, sought a complete statement concerning the herds of wild horses he had heard to exist in the country west of the Mississippi, in the pur- suit of which he knew Nolan to be engaged. The letter did not reach Nolan, but an intimate friend of the latter, Daniel Clark, Jr., of New Orleans, who claimed a close acquaintance with Nolan's activities, re- plied, in February, 1799, that "that extraordinary and enterprising man [Nolan) is now and has been for some years past employed in the countries bordering on the kingdom of New Mexico either in catch- ing or purchasing wild horses, and [is] looked for on the banks of the Mississippi at the fall of the waters with a thousand head, which he will in all probability drive into the United States." Also "after his re- turn I will be responsible for his giving you every informa- tion he has collected, and it will require all the good opinion you may have been led to entertain of his veracity not to have your belief stag- gered with the accounts you will receive of the numbers and habits of the horses of that country and the people who live in the neighborhood, whose customs and ideas are as different from ours as those of the hordes of Grand Tartary."
Clark, in a letter to Jefferson, dated Nov. 12, 1799, speaks of Nolan's arrival at Natchez with 1,000 horses. "By a singular favor of Provi- dence." continues the letter, he "has escaped the snares which were laid for him -- Gavoso, the late governor of the province of Louisiana. a few months before his death, wrote to the governor of Texas
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