A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 3

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968

USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I > Part 3

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CHAPTER III.

CONDITIONS AT BEGINNING OF NINETEENTH CENTURY-NOLAN'S EXPEDI- TION-NEUTRAL GROUND.

The dawn of the nineteenth century found Texas, as a province together with Coahuila, subject to a commandant general and a mili- tary 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 important 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 refinements 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 ac- complished 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 Ex- pansion 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 Mississippi 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 moun- tains and north of Texas. By another treaty, in 1801, Spain 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 distant posses- sions. Therefore the French leader gladly con- sented to sell the Louisiana territory, as it was called, to the United States for the mere baga- telle of fifteen million dollars. Through Presi- dent 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 civiliza- tion extend its sway. By conquest it had re- moved from its path the French dominions east of the Mississippi, and by diplomacy and farsighted statecraft it made the Louisiana pur- chase. Spain alone now barred the unrestricted sovereignty from ocean to ocean. And of this region of Spanish dominion, Texas stood fore - most 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

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

Pacific slope and the southwest might be pried off into the lap of our republic.

This suggests a query: Were not Texas and the vast territory 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? 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 ele- ment of New England suffused itself over the northern tier of states, and the tide of settlers from the Virginias and the Carolinas seldom flowed north of the Mason and Dixon's line. Accordingly, with the center of propagation ex- tending along the Atlantic from Maine to Georgia, and with the ever increasing growth of expansion set toward the west, it was in- evitable that, unless permanently blocked, this movement of humanity would in time cross to the Pacific. And, as the course of this narra- tive will prove, there was no power potent 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, pro- phetically 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 ?

The beginnings of American influence in Texas are first seen definitely in the year 1800. Before this there was a sprinkling of Ameri- cans in the population, but the inroads into the province were only the results of private enter- prise and without political significance. But previous to the year mentioned, Philip Nolan, an American adventurer, had made an incur- sion into Texas for the purpose of capturing wild horses, and in 1800 started from Missis- sippi with a considerable band of armed men with a similar object as his ostensible purpose ; but there is more or less proof that it was his intention to gain a foothold in the province, and by extending his power in the end revolution-

ize the country and either set up an independ- ent empire or annex it to the United States. The Mexican authorities, however, got wind of Nolan's enterprise, a company of soldiers at- tacked his band, killed Nolan himself, and took nine American prisoners, one of whom was afterwards executed and the rest escaped only after much suffering and hardship of imprison- ment. Nolan's expedition may have had the backing of General Wilkinson of the United States army and may have been part of a gen- eral plan for an early occupation of Texas, al- though this is without definite proof. Also, about this time Texas was the region to which Aaron Burr's visionary imperial schemes extended, and that well-known conspiracy became a con- siderable factor in the events of the next few years and was ground for apprehension on "the part of the Mexican government and re- newed activity on their part in pushing the colonization of Texas.

When the Louisiana territory became a pos- session of the United States, its limits were supposed to be those which had bounded the French dominion west of the Mississippi be- fore France had ceded this region to Spain in the treaty of 1763. Thus once more all the contentions about boundaries, which were the fruitful source of nearly all of Texas history during the preceding century, again came up, this time, however, between Mexico and the more aggressive Americans. The Nolan ex- pedition, the Burr conspiracy, and other en- croachments from the east side of the Mis- sissippi caused the Spanish to send large bodies of colonists and strong forces of troops into the Texas province, and soon they had occu- pied everything as far east as they could, and the Americans had likewise aligned themselves on the most western boundary they dared to claim, and thus the two sides were almost in battle array for some time.

The United States government made claims, more for diplomatic uses than on actual grounds, to the country as far as the Rio Grande, while the Spanish had always asserted that the Red river, or rather its tributary the Arroyo Hondo, was the western limit of

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

French and later of American sovereignty. The American government, in 1805, ordered the Spanish not to cross the Sabine, and when a large force eventually did cross General Wilkinson, with militia and regular troops, took position at Natchitoches and repeated the demand that the Spanish withdraw beyond the Sabine. Pending the outcome of the negotia- tions, the Spanish general Herrera retired to the west side of the Sabine, and for a time the two armies were drawn up on the opposite banks of the river. A compromise was finally effected by the two generals (although never affirmed by their respective governments) and the threatened conflict of arms averted.

This boundary compromise, though in the main indefinite and unsatisfactory in its pro- visions, arrested for some time American or- ganized aggression, and is also in other ways an important event in Texas annals. The agreement reached by the American and the Spanish leaders was to the effect that the country lying between the Arroyo Hondo on the east and the Sabine on the west should be considered a neutral ground between the two governments until a final settlement should be effected. This neutral ground was for some fifteen years a no-man's land, and neither the United States nor Mexico exercised direct jurisdiction over it. It accordingly became a desperados' paradise, and a community of thieves grew up and perfected an organization so systematic and efficient that it dared cope even with the soldiery and was in the end put

down only after severe war of extermination. These buccaneers throve by robbing the traders who passed through their demesne, and even armed guards could not always protect these caravans. Such conditions continued, with sporadic and ineffective attempts by the authorities on both sides to suppress them, until 1819. In this year Spain was practically forced to cede Florida to the United States, receiving five million dollars therefor, and in the treaty confirming this transaction final settlement was made of the long-standing Tex- as-Louisiana boundary dispute, the provisions of which (as detailing the present eastern line of Texas) are here given: The line to begin at the mouth of the Sabine, continuing along the river to latitude 32 degrees; thence a line due north to the Red river.

The military and diplomatic movements at the beginning of the century as recorded above had one important result for Texas. From the Mexican side many colonists came in along with the troops and there was renewed ac- tivity in settling and improvement of all con- ditions affecting the province; and from the American side of the Sabine, attention having been attracted to the fertile and rich domains across the river, American settlers were find- ing their way and making a permanent begin- ning of agricultural development. And from this latter class,-an aggressive, self-asserting people, inured to the principle of self-help and absolutely independent of a fostering paternal- ism,-was to come a new era for Texas.

CHAPTER IV.

HISTORY OF MEXICO-THE FIRST AMERICAN ADVENTURERS IN TEXAS.

The twenty years after the Nolan expedition, from 1800 to 1820, may well be denominated a period of confusion and gloom in Texas his- tory, and it is impossible to trace a continuous thread of narrative-indeed, there are only isolated events, detached bits of venture and enterprise, which, however interesting in them- selves, form little in the way of foundation for a permanent Texas. And in this darkness be- fore the great dawn there appear only a few bright points of light, more noteworthy for their own brief brilliancy than for the rays they cast into the future.

First of all, it will be well at this point to ex- plain in outline the career of Mexico, with which the history of Texas up to the revolution is so closely entangled, and without which un- derstanding most of the facts of the period under consideration are meaningless.

Spain's most brilliant era as a world power was in the sixteenth century. Then her vast conquests in all seas and lands gave her possessions which, had she retained, would still girdle the world with her sovereignty. But the golden dream was dissipated with the crushing of the armada in 1588, and thence Spanish glory rapidly declined. Her weakness as a colonizer in Texas in the eighteenth century has been disclosed in former pages, and as the vitalizing blood gradually failed to nourish the extremities so in time even the trunk became weak and impoverished. In Mexico, the strongest of Spain's colonies, a gradual amal- gamation of conquerors and natives had been going on for centuries until there had resulted a truly Mexican people, alien both to the pure-

blooded Spaniards and to the natives. The royal laws, however, discriminated in favor of native Spaniards, giving them superior privi- leges and caste distinctions especially invidious to the Mexican-born. Other grievances and the natural restlessness of the Mexican people, aggravated by self-seeking leaders, brought matters to a crisis, and thus there arose the party favoring independence as opposed to the established royalists.

Hidalgo first raised the standard of revolt, in 1810, and later Morelos carried on the work until by his execution and the defeat of his party the revolution was supposedly stamped out in 1817. But the disaffected ones were merely biding their time, and in 1820, when Spain had revolution within her own doors at home, the Mexicans proclaimed their own in- dependence, overthrew the vice-regal author- ity, and set up the republic which with so many vicissitudes has existed to the present day.

During all this turbulence and the varying fortunes befalling the achieving of Mexican independence, Texas suffered as an abandoned child, and was bandied about by royalist, by revolutionist, by filibuster, by pirate, by In- dian and adventurer-in short, fell into the hands of no honest man, and from neglect and lack of development, was a stunted but pre- cocious creature when brought under the care of her kind and fostering American father.

It must be kept in mind that at no time be- fore 1820 was there a civilized population in Texas probably exceeding ten thousand, and these were grouped around three or four forti- fied presidios, San Antonio having the greatest

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HISTORY OF TEXAS.

number. All efforts at colonization by Spain had practically failed, and the region northeast of the Rio Grande was at best only nominally held in possession. Texas was essentially an agricultural country, and Spanish conquest succeeded best in the mining regions further south and west. It was the policy of the Spaniards to constitute themselves a ruling class and leave to the tractable natives the labors of tilling the fields; but, as it turned out, the Indians of Texas were far from docile and exceedingly disinclined to settled agricul- ture. As stated before, the ground reason for Spanish occupation of Texas was fear of for- eign encroachment, the reason of a spoiled child who wants a thing because some one else wants it; this jealousy and the political and administrative measures which were its fruit kept fertile Texas a fallow field until the time was ripe for American invasion. And because of the scant dominion and weakening hold of Spain, together with the Mexican revolution, the foreign incursions and various ventures set on foot during this period had a large degree of seeming strength and success. But from the very fact that Texas was not yet a settled and permanent community, armed expeditions could effect nothing but dissipate the chaff- like settlements-could tear down but not build up, or even sustain what was there. The substantial basis of an independent and hardy farming and industrial population must be made before a superstructure of political and social organization could rise.

During this period the Apache and Co- manche Indians on the north and northwest were a constant menace to the settlers. Their boldness brought them even to San Antonio, where they robbed or levied tribute at will. On the northeast border the desperados of the neutral ground made life and property unsafe, and formed a nursery for criminals and adventurers of all classes. The gulf coast was likewise a source of trouble. Its many islands and estuaries difficult of access made it a favor- able haunt for pirates, and freebooting and privateering were trades that attracted swarms of adventurers. The illicit slave bargaining

also throve here, and from the Texas coast the Africans were driven in droves into Louisiana.

Galveston island was the seat of the most flourishing of the piratical enterprises. In 1816 Louis de Aury had set up an organized gov- ernment there, claiming to act in conjunction with the Mexican revolutionists, but the main occupation of the crowd was preying upon Spanish commerce in particular, and the slave trade. Aury was attracted away from his island on an extensive filibustering expedition into Mexico, which ended, however, in a com- plete fiasco. Aury had withdrawn from the enterprise before the force set out for the interior and had sailed back to his island, but this in the meantime had become the head- quarters of the most famous and romantic of all Texas pirates and buccaneers. Jean Lafitte, who had previously carried on his nefarious- dealings in Louisiana, from which he was ex- pelled by the United States government, was now ensconced in Aury's place, and in a short time organized a most complete and efficient freebooting kingdom. According to his story, having been plundered of all his wealth and outraged, some years before, by the captain of a Spanish war vessel, Lafitte had sworn eternal enmity with Spain, and in his opera- tions about the gulf he claimed that Spanish commerce was the only object of his attack. But as his establishment increased and his lieutenants in many cruisers scoured the gulf waters, depredations were made on ships of other nations, and especially on those of the United States. He was a leader and a prin- cipal medium for the slave traffic, and his operations prospered until he had a veritable kingdom on Galveston island and rolled in wealth and spoils, with his town of Campeachy as his capital. But in 1821 his outrages on United States commerce became known in Washington, and an expedition was sent out to suppress the place. Lafitte accepted the inevitable, paid off and dispersed his loyal fol- lowers, and sailed away from the coast for- ever.

The romantically planned colony of the Champ d'Asile should also be mentioned. It

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

was founded by a French officer who had served under Napoleon, and was located on the Trin- ity river about twelve miles above Galveston. The enterprise was undertaken without au- thority from Spain, and, despite their bold beginning, the colonists, on the approach of the Spanish troops, abandoned their site and withdrew to Galveston.

In 1812-1813 Texas was almost wrested from the royal power of Spain. But not Texans made this beginning of independence, else the results might have been permanent. A leader of the revolutionists, Gutierrez, a follower of Hidalgo, having been sent as an envoy to solicit recognition of the independent Mexico at Washington and his credentials not being held sufficient by the authorities, had returned to Louisiana. There he found many willing spirits eager to help in the winning of inde- pendence for any people, provided their love of adventure and romantic self-seeking were gratified. One Augustus Magee, an ex-lieuten- ant of the American army, had become fired to act as liberator for the liberty-loving people across the border, and as instruments of his design was collecting a band of the too willing outlaws from the neutral ground, whom he had just left off subduing, as an officer of the American troops. These two men of similar enthusiasms met and perfected their plans in common-Gutierrez to be nominal commander of the filibuster and Magee the directing head.

The movement had its headquarters at Natch- itoches, where Magee recruited his American followers and then sent them to the rendezvous at the Sabine. When a sufficient force was assembled Gutierrez set out for Nacogdoches, sweeping all traces of royalty before him. The garrison at Nacogdoches retired without re- sistance to the Trinity, and evacuated their station there as soon as the revolutionists came in sight. Thus all east Texas was abandoned by the royalists. Magee joined the invading army, which was now increased to some eight hundred men. They pushed on to La Bahia (Goliad), the next most important post, where the Spanish governor Salcedo was awaiting in force. On the approach of the American army

the governor marched out to meet them on the Guadalupe, but was outgeneraled by Magee, who crossed the river at a different spot and captured La Bahia with all its stores before Salcedo could come up. Then followed a siege by the Spanish for several months, during which Magee died, and the command de- volved upon another American by name of Kemper. Salcedo suffered so many losses through the unerring marksmanship of the Americans that early in 1813 he gave up the siege and retired up the river to San Antonio -the key to Texas. The invading army moved on to this city. When a short distance away they met the royalists again, and at the de- cisive battle of Rosillo completely routed the Spanish, and two days later San Antonio with its garrison and stores surrendered to the triumphant revolutionists.

But here the tide of success began to ebb. A provisional government was formed for Texas, with Gutierrez as governor. The first act was to dispose of Salcedo and the other Spaniards captured with the city. Without the Ameri- cans being in any way implicated and without their knowledge, the prisoners, fourteen in number, were hurried from the city under guard, supposedly toward New Orleans, and when well out of sight of the city were cruelly butchered by the guards, who employed dull A camp knives in the work of decapitation. fair specimen of Mexican treachery and blood- thirstiness which was to blot the annals of Texas for twenty years to come,-and which so soon was to be turned against Americans themselves. Even the most hardened Ameri- can outlaws revolted at such business-it is no part of the American character, which above all loves fair play. Many deserted, and with the spirit of the enterprise taken away, its energy and effectiveness soon failed.

The revolutionists were aroused from their security and dissipation by the approach of another Spanish army, under Elizondo. The Americans, under command of Captain Perry, fell upon his encampment at dawn and anni- hilated the royal army. But in the following month of July the combined army of Ameri-

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

cans and Mexicans, flushed with victory and suffering from lack of harmony among the leaders, was drawn into an ambuscade and so decisively beaten that the hopes of the revolu- tionists were dissipated. In this battle the Spanish forces had a true test of American mettle, for after the Mexican allies had fled the Americans with a few faithful Indians held their own for four hours against overwhelm- ing odds, and gave up the battle only when the greater number of their forces were killed or disabled. Only ninety-three of the reckless band ever regained safety and reached Natchitoches.

Now followed retribution, during which the vast territory from the Rio Grande to the Sa- bine was desolated and, temporarily at least, almost depopulated. The royalists slaugh- tered without mercy all connected with the revolutionary party. San Antonio was retaken and its inhabitants subjected to outrage and pillage. Thence a force went devastating as far as the eastern boundary, took possession of Nacogdoches, and proclaimed the regal authority of Spain throughout the vast do- main. But authority over what or over whom? The results of a century of coloniza- tion were swept away in a few days; nearly all the republican sympathizers of the eastern portion had taken refuge in Louisiana; the already weak industry was paralyzed, crops were destroyed and cattle driven off, and years must elapse before Texas could reattain even the stage of progress and development which she had once reached. The ground was swept clean of all the past, and a new political, social and industrial integrity was to rise-on a permanent foundation and with- out support from filibustering and revolution- ary expeditions.

The last of the invading enterprises dur- ing this period was that headed by James Long, in 1819. A large number of people within the southwestern part of the United States were dissatisfied with the provisions of the treaty of 1819 between Spain and the United States, and the Long expedition grew

largely out of this discontent. A number of permanent settlers had gained foothold in eastern Texas about Nacogdoches, and these were of course desirous of being annexed to the American republic. Long, at the head of a considerable force, occupied Nacogdoches, where a plan of government was drawn up and Texas was declared to be a free and inde- pendent republic. It was thought that this scheme would also attract the co-operation of the republican party in Mexico. But the hopeful republic was short-lived. While Long was away seeking help from Lafitte at Gal- veston, the Spanish forces fell upon his out- post on the Brazos, and then advanced rapidly toward Nacogdoches, which was precipitately abandoned by the filibustering adventurers. Long returned to find the place deserted, and himself narrowly escaped across the Sabine. The scattered sparks of this enterprise after- wards united with the triumphant flame of revolution which in 1821 brought final ruin to the royal power in Mexico, but a free and in- dependent republic of Texas was as yet far- away and mythical.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 3

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co. Number of Pages: 968

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968