USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume I > Part 34
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On the same day that this letter was written, the committee on military affairs brought in a favorable report, which the council adopted on the 5th :
"The communication of Gen. F. W. Johnson, which was referred to your committee, respecting an expedition against Matamoras, has had the same under consideration and beg leave to report to the honorable the general council, that it is an expedition of the utmost importance at this time. It will give employment to the volunteers until a regular army, sufficient for the protection of our country, can be raised and organized.
"And your committee take great pleasure in recommending F. W. Johnson to take the command of all troops that he can raise for that purpose. His gallant and chivalrous conduct at the siege and fall of Bexar entitles him to our confidence and support. Besides, delay at this time on our part would be dangerous. For if the volun- teers on their march for Matamoras were defeated the consequences resulting from it might prove fatal to Texas. But everyone must foresee the benefit that would result from occupying and keeping in possession of that important commercial depot. It would not only deprive our enemies of the immense revenue at that place, but aid us greatly in supporting our army. It would also carry the war into the enemy's country, and with the vessels that will be floating upon the Gulf of Mexico, in the service of Texas, in one month, will give us the entire command of the gulf from Matamoras to New Orleans over our enemies.
"Your committee would further recommend that measures be adopted by the honorable the general council to support, sustain, and provide for the volunteer army on their march against Matamoras : and further that the governor be requested to commission such officers as are reported to have been elected by said volunteers, or as may be reported to him. Your committee further recommend that the sum of two thousand dollars be appropriated for the expense of the expedition to Matamoras."
Governor Smith, who distrusted all Mexicans and had no confidence in co-operation by the Liberals, opposed these resolutions, but the coun- cil passed them over his veto. Johnson, however, was so affected by the governor's opposition that he wrote to the council on January 6, de- clining to lead the expedition ; and the council thereupon appointed Col. J. W. Fannin "for and in behalf of the Provisional Government of Texas, to raise, collect and concentrate at or as near the post of Copano as convenience and safety will admit, all volunteer troops, willing to enter into an expedition against Matamoras, wherever they may be found, at the mouth of the Brazos, city of Bexar, or elsewhere, whether
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in Texas, or arriving in Texas, and when thus collected and concentrated, to report, either to the commanding general, or to the governor or coun- cil, as he may prefer, agreeably to the seventh section of an ordinance and decree passed on the fifth day of December, 1835, for raising an auxiliary corps to the regular army, and continue to report from time to time, as the expedition may progress." He was authorized to call on Thomas F. McKinney or any other public agent for munitions, pro- visions, and transportation ; to negotiate a loan of three thousand dollars at not more than ten per cent interest ; and "to appoint such special agent or agents under him as he shall deem necessary to carry into effect the ob- ject of these resolutions, and to delegate to such special agent or agents such powers in writing as he may think proper and not inconsistent with the powers of his own agency." Section 4 of the resolutions provided that the volunteers should, when mobilized, elect their own commander and other officers; but section 5 resolved, "that after the agent of the government aforesaid, J. W. Fannin, shall have so raised, collected, and concentrated the said volunteer troops, that he shall make a descent upon Matamoras, if he deems it practicable to take said place, or such other point or place, as the said agent may deem proper."
At this juncture Johnson changed his mind and decided to lead the volunteers already on the march from Bexar to Goliad, and on January 14, the council sanctioned this movement :
"Your committee therefore advise that Colonel Johnson have the approbation of this government to conduct the volunteers who have entered upon the expedition to Matamoras * * * and that he proceed to unite with J. W. Fannin, the government agent, appointed by resolutions of the House, duly passed and adopted."
Before the passage of these resolutions both Fannin and Johnson had begun operations to enlist volunteers. On January 8, Fannin issued the proclamation below, which ran for several weeks in The Texas Re- publican :
ATTENTION, VOLUNTEERS
"To the West, face: March!
"An expedition to the west has been ordered by the general coun- cil, and the volunteers from Bexar, Goliad, Velasco, and elsewhere, are ordered to rendezvous at San Patricio, between the 24th and 27th inst., and report to the officer in command. The fleet convoy will sail from Velasco under my charge on or about the 18th, and all who feel disposed to join it and aid in keeping the war out of Texas, and at the same time crippling the enemy in their resources at home, are in- vited to enter the ranks forthwith.
"J. W. FANNIN, JR."
And Johnson issued the following proclamation on January 10:
"The Federal Volunteer army of Texas, the victors of San An- tonio, then and now under the command of Francis W. Johnson. through him address themselves to the friends of Texas and of liberty.
"Under sanction of the general council of Texas, they have taken up the line of march for the country west of the Rio Grande. They march under the flag 1. 8. 2. 4., as proclaimed by the government of
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Texas, and have for their object the restoration of the principles of the constitution, and the extermination of the last vestige of despot- ism from the Mexican soil. Texas herself, free from military rule, yet hears on her borders the insolent tone of the tyrant's myrmidons, yet hears the groans of her oppressed Mexican friends, and their call for assistance. * *
* Our first attack will be upon the enemy at Matamoras; our next, if Heaven decrees, wherever tryranny shall raise its malignant form. Between the 25th and 30th inst., it is expected the whole of the volunteer army of Texas will take up the line of march from San Patricio."
The action of the council in authorizing Fannin and Johnson to lead the Matamoras expedition precipitated the outbreak of a bitter quarrel with Governor Smith, between whom and the council ill-feeling had been developing for several weeks. On January 6, the governor ordered General Houston to the West, to direct the movement of the troops there; and several days later, on receipt of a report from Lieut. Col. J. C. Neill of the condition in which Johnson and Grant had left the gar- rison at Bexar, his wrath burst forth. Neill wrote:
"Commandancy of Bexar, January 6, 1836. "To the Governor and Council, at San Felipe de Austin:
"Sirs: It will be appalling to you to learn and see herewith enclosed our alarming weakness. But I have one pleasurable grati- fication which will not be erased from the tablet of my memory during natural life, viz .: that those whose names are herewith en- closed are, to a man, those who acted so gallantly in the ten weeks' open-field campaign, and then won an unparalleled victory in the five days' siege of this place. Such men in such a condition and under all the gloomy embarrassment surrounding, call aloud upon you and their country for aid, praise, and sympathy.
"We have 104 men and two distinct fortresses to garrison, and about twenty-four pieces of artillery. You, doubtless, have learned that we have no provisions or clothing since Johnson and Grant left. If there has ever been a dollar here, I have no knowledge of it. The clothing sent here by the aid and patriotic exertions of the honorable council was taken from us by the arbitrary measures of Johnson and Grant, taken from men who endured all the hardships of winter and who were not even sufficiently clad for summer, many of them having but one blanket and one shirt, and what was in- tended for them given away to men, some of whom had not been in the army more than four days, and many not exceeding two weeks. If a divide had been made of them, the most needy of my men could have been made comfortable by the stocks of clothing and provisions taken from here.
"About 200 of the men who had volunteered to garrison this town for four months left my command contrary to my orders and thereby vitiated the policy of their enlistment.
"I want here, for this garrison, at all times 200 men, and I think 300 men, until the repairs and improvement of fortifications are com- pleted. "Your obedient servant, "J. C. NEILL,
"Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding."
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This letter reached the governor on Saturday, January 9, and he re- quested the president of the council, Lieutenant-Governor Robinson, to call a secret session of the council on Sunday to consider it. To this session the governor presented the report with the following violent message :
"San Felipe, January 9, 1836. "Gentlemen of the Council:
"I herewith transmit to your body the returns and correspond- ence of Colonel Neill, lieutenant-colonel-commandant of the post of Bexar. You will in that correspondence find the situation of that garrison. You will there find a detail of facts calculated to call forth the indignant feelings of every honest man. Can your body say that they have not been cognizant of, and connived at, this pred- atory expedition? Are you not daily holding conference, and planning co-operation, both by sea and land? Acts speak louder than words. They are now before me, authorizing the appointment of a generalissimo with plenary powers to plan expeditions on the faith, the credit, and, I may justly say, to the ruin of the country. You urge me by resolutions to make appointments to fit out vessels as government vessels-registering them as such, appointing lands- men to command a naval expedition, by making representations urgent in their nature, and for what? I see no reason but to carry into effect, by the hurried and improvident acts of my department your favorite object, by getting my sanction to an act disorganizing in its nature and ruinous in its effects. Instead of acting as becomes the councillors and guardians of a free people, you resolve your- selves into intriguing, caucussing parties ; pass resolutions without a quorum, predicated on false premises; and endeavor to ruin the country by countenancing, aiding and abetting parties; and, if you could only deceive me enough, you would join with it a piratical co-operation. You have acted in bad faith, and seem determined by your acts to destroy the very institutions which you are pledged and sworn to support. I have been placed on the political watch tower. I feel the weight of responsibility devolving upon me, and confidently hope I will be able to prove a faithful sentinel. You have also been posted as sentinels, but you have permitted the enemy to cross your lines; and, Mexican-like, are ready to sacrifice your country at the shrine of plunder. Mr. President, I speak collectively, as you all form one whole, though, at the same time, I do not mean all. I know you have honest men there, and of sterling worth and integrity ; but, you have Judases in the camp-corruption, base cor- ruption, has crept into your councils-men who, if possible, would deceive their God. Notwithstanding their deep laid plans and in- trigues, I have not been asleep. They have long since been an- ticipated, forestalled, and counteracted. They will find themselves circumvented on every tack. I am now tired of watching scoundrels abroad and scoundrels at home, and on such I am now prepared to drop the curtain. * * *
"Look around upon your flock. Your discernment will easily detect the scoundrels. The complaints, contraction of the eyes, the
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gape of the mouth, the vacant stare, the hung head, the restless, fidgety disposition; the sneaking sycophantic look, a natural mean- ness of countenance, an unguarded shrug of the shoulders, a sym- pathetic tickling and contraction of the muscles of the neck, anti- cipating the rope, a restless uneasiness to adjourn, dreading to face the storm themselves have raised.
"Let the honest and indignant part of your council drive the wolves out of the fold, for by low intrigues and management they have been imposed upon and duped into gross errors and palpable absurdities. Some of them have been thrown out of folds, equally sacred and should be denied the society of civilized man.
"They are parricides, piercing their devoted country, already bleeding at every pore. But, thanks be to my God, there is balm in Texas and a physician near. Our agents have gone abroad. Our army has been organized. Our general is in the field. A conven- tion has been called which will afford a sovereign remedy to the vile machinations of a caucussing, intriguing, and corrupt council. I now tell you that the course here pointed out shall be rigidly and strictly pursued, and that unless your body will make the necessary acknowledgment to the world of your error, and forthwith proceed, and with the same facility and publicity (by issuing a circular, and furnishing expenses to give circulation and publicity in a manner calculated to counteract its baleful effects), that after 12 o'clock on tomorrow all communications between the two departments shall cease ; and your body will stand adjourned until the first of March next, unless, from the emergencies of the country, you should be convened by proclamation at an earlier period.
"I consider, as the devisers of ways and means, you have done all contemplated by the organic law ; that your services are no longer needed, and until the convention meets I will continue to discharge my duties as commander-in-chief of the army and navy. and see that the laws are executed.
"The foregoing you will receive as notice from my department, which will be rigidly carried into effect. You are further notified that audience will not be given to any member or special committee other than in writing. I will immediately proceed to publish all the correspondence between the two departments, by proclamation to the world, and assign the reasons why I have pursued this course, and the causes which have compelled me to do it.
"Your obedient servant,
"HENRY SMITH."
This message was referred to a committee consisting of R. R. Royall, Alexander Thompson, Claiborne West, J. D. Clements, and John Mc- Mullen, which the next day characterized it as "low, blackguardly and vindictive, and every way unworthy of, and disgraceful to the office whence it emanated, and as an outrageous libel on the body to whom it is addressed." The council then adopted a series of resolutions pre- sented by the committee, the third of which "Resolved that Henry Smith, Governor of the Provisional Government of Texas, be ordered forthwith
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to cease the functions of his office, and be held to answer to the General Council upon certain charges and specifications preferred against him, agreeably to the provisions of the fourth section of the Federal Consti- tution of Mexico of 1824; and the eleventh section of the organic law of the Provisional Government of Texas, as adopted in convention on the thirteenth day of November, A. D., 1835, and that a copy of said charges and specifications be furnished to the governor, Henry Smith, within twenty-four hours from this time." Lieutenant-Governor Rob- inson was recognized as acting governor, and a committee was appointed to draft an address to the people of the state explaining the causes of the unfortunate rupture. This was issued and spread on the journal on January 12, together with a long indictment to which Smith was invited to respond.
By this time Smith's anger had somewhat calmed and he presented an apologetic message on the twelfth offering to "let by-gones be by- gones," if the council would correct its errors.
"Executive Department of Texas. "To the Honorable, the President, and Members of the Legislative Council:
"Gentlemen : The communication sent to your body on the tenth inst. in which I used much asperity of language, which I considered at the time was called for from me; owing to what I deemed im- provident acts of your body, in which I considered much intrigue and duplicity had been used which was in their nature and tendency calculated to breed confusion and greatly injure the public good. Among other things the appointment of Colonel Fannin, was one which deemed unwarranted by law and of injurious tendency. If the act of your body was ratified by me, it is plain and evident, that neither the commander-in-chief, the council, nor the executive. could have any control over him. I therefore deemed it a gross insult offered by the council to my department, and one which I was not willing to overlook. I admit that I repelled it with a keenness and asperity of language beyond the rules of decorum; because I believed it was certainly intended as an insult direct. If, therefore, your body should think proper to acknowledge their error by an immediate correction of it, which I consider would only be their reasonable duty, all differences between the two departments should cease ; and so far as I am concerned be forever buried in oblivion. and that friendly and harmonious intercourse resumed which should ever exist between the different branches of the government. I suggest and solicit this from the purest motives, believing the public good would thereby be advanced. Believing that the rules of Chris- tian charity require of us to bear and forbear, and as far as pos- sible to overlook the errors and foibles of each other. In this case I may not have exercised towards your body that degree of for- bearance which was probably your due. If so, I have been labor- ing under error, and, as such, hope you will have the magnanimity to extend it to me. And the two branches again harmonize to the promotion of the true interests of the country.
"I am respectfully gentlemen, yours, etc.,
"HENRY SMITH, Governor."
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To this overture the council replied :
"That this council has received the communication in the spirit of compromise, at too late a period to be met by that spirit of accommodation offered and urged a short time since.
"Resolved, that as the slanderous communication of Henry Smith, late governor of Texas, has been acted upon and is now before the public, this council cannot, in justice to their constituents and themselves, do otherwise than lay before the people all the facts connected with that unfortunate transaction, and the motive by which this council was actuated, and the circumstances which com- pel them to adopt this course.
"Resolved, that the communication alluded to, be returned, to- gether with a copy of the charges and specifications preferred against the said Henry Smith, late governor aforesaid, for malfeasance and misconduct in office, and that he be notified to reply within three days, or that the trial will proceed thereon, before the general coun- cil ex parte.
"J. D. CLEMENTS, Chairman. "R. R. ROYALL."
The governor declared that he felt able to defend his action before the convention which would meet on March 1, and in conclusion said :
"What I have done, however bad you may view it, has been done for the best of reasons, and from the purest motives. I care not for popularity, and seek alone the public good. And if the course I have pursued, so condemned by you, should bring down the odium and contempt of the whole community, and at the same time be the means of saving the character, the credit, and finally, redeem the country, I say to you, in the sincerity of truth, that it is a sacrifice I willingly make at the shrine of the public good."
On January 18, five days after the receipt of this last communication from Governor Smith, the journal reveals the lack of a quorum in the council, and from then until the council was superseded by the conven- tion of March 1 this condition continued unchanged. The effect of the quarrel, therefore, was to dissolve the provisional government.
At the same time the expedition to Matamoras had come to naught. General Houston told the volunteers at Goliad and Refugio that the expedition was unauthorized, and several companies thereupon withdrew from Johnson and Grant, who, with about 100 men, marched to San Patricio to await Fannin. Before Fannin could complete his prepara- tions Santa Anna's forces were advancing into Texas, and it was realized that the time for a descent on Matamoras had passed. The further movements of these leaders will be described later.
In a long letter of January 30. General Houston made to Governor Smith an official report of his actions in connection with the expedition.
"Washington, January 30, 1836. "To His Excellency, Henry Smith, Governor of Texas:
"Sir : I have the honor to report to you that in obedience to
your order under date of the 6th instant, I left Washington on the 8th, and reached Goliad on the night of the 14th. On the morn-
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ing of that day I met Captain Dimmitt, on his return home with his command, who reported to me the fact that his caballada of horses, the most of them private property, had been pressed by Doctor Grant, who styled himself acting commander-in-chief of the Federal army, and that he had under his command about 200 men. Captain Dimmitt had been relieved by Capt. P. S. Wyatt, of the volnteers from Huntsville, Alabama. I was also informed by Maj. Robert C. Morris that breadstuff was wanted in camp, and he suggested his wish to move the volunteers further west. By express I had advised the stay of the troops at Goliad until I could reach that point.
"On my arrival at that post I found them destitute of many supplies necessary to their comfort on a campaign. An express reached me from Lieutenant-Colonel Neill, of Bexar, of an expected attack from the enemy in force. I immediately requested Col. James Bowie to march with a detachment of vol- unteers to his relief. He met the request with his usual prompti- tude and manliness. This intelligence I forwarded to your Excel- lency for the action of the government. With a hope that sup- plies had or would immediately reach the port of Copano, I ordered the troops, through Maj. R. C. Morris, to proceed to Refugio Mission, where it was reported there would be an abun- dance of beef-leaving Captain Wyatt and his command, for the present, in possession of Goliad, or until he could be relieved by a detachment of regulars under the command of Lieutenant Thorn- ton, and some recruits that had been enlisted by Capt. Ira West- over. On the arrival of the troops at Refugio, I ascertained that no breadstuffs could be obtained, nor was there any intelligence of supplies reaching Copano, agreeably to my expectations, and in accordance with my orders of the 30th of December and 6th of January, inst., directing the landing and concentrating all the volunteers at Copano. I had already advised Col. Almanzon Houston, the quartermaster-general, to forward the supplies he might obtain at New Orleans to the same point. Not meeting the command of Major Ward, as I had hoped from the early advice I had sent him, by Maj. Geo. W. Poe, I determined to await his arrival and the command of Captain Wyatt. With a view to be in a state of readiness to march to the scene of active operations the first moment that my force and the supplies neces- sary should reach me, I ordered Lieutenant Thornton, with his command (total twenty-nine) to Goliad to relieve Captain Wyatt ; at the same time ordering the latter to join the volunteers at Refugio. I found much difficulty in prevailing on the regulars to march until they had received either money or clothing : and their situation was truly destitute. Had I not succeeded, the station at Goliad must have been left without any defense, and abandoned to the enemy, whatever importance its occupation mav be to the security of the frontier. Should Bexar remain a military post, Goliad must be maintained, or the former will be cut off from all supplies arriving by sea at the port of Copano.
.
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"On the evening of the 20th, F. W. Johnson, Esq., arrived at Refugio, and it was understood that he was empowered by the general council of Texas to interfere in my command. On the 21st and previous to receiving notice of his arrival, I issued an order to organize the troops so soon as they might arrive at that place, agreeably to the 'ordinance for raising an auxiliary corps' to the army. A copy of the order I have the honor to inclose herewith. Mr. Johnson then called on me, previous to the circu- lation of the order, and showed me the resolutions of the general council, dated 14th of January, a copy of which I forwarded for the perusal of your Excellency.
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