USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume I > Part 47
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President Polk signed the joint resolution admitting Texas to the Union on December 29, 1845. On January 12, President Jones con1- vened the legislature to assemble on February 16. The retirement of President Jones was fittingly celebrated as an event unique in history. Although not permitted to complete the full term for which he had been elected, he had the pleasure of presenting a picture of the favorable con- ditions of Texas such as none of his predecessors had ever been able to make :
"I am happy to congratulate you, gentlemen, upon the universally prosperous condition of our country at the present time. Our for-
. eign relations have been closed in a manner satisfactory, I believe, to all the governments with which we have had intercourse. The frontier is quiet and secure, and the husbandman sows and reaps his harvest in peace. Industry and enterprise have received new guarantees and a new impulse ; a market is found at home for nearly everything our citizens have to dispose of, and a large and very desirable immigration to the country is now taking place. The ex- penses of the government since I have been in office have been paid in an undepreciated currency, a very considerable amount of debt incurred by previous administrations has been paid off, and a sur- plus of available means sufficient to defray the expenses of the gov- ernment, economically administered, for the next two years at least, is left at the disposal of the state." * *
With this pleasing picture of the present, with fancy's portrayal of the future, and with the glamour of an exciting past, in which a nation's independence had been won, haunting their memory, and the pride and satisfaction welling up in their bosoms that they had helped to create it all, is it to be wondered at that tears trickled down the furrowed cheeks of many of his silent auditors when the president hauled down the emblem of the Lone Star and declared "the Republic of Texas is no more?" And is it strange that when the times became troubled, some remembered the days of the republic and sought to return to them?
Governor Henderson approached the occasion from a different view- point. To him annexation signified the termination of ten years of privation and suffering. "If there has heretofore existed any cause for dispute or difference between the different sections of our country in regard to the policy most proper to be pursued," he said in his inaugural address, "surely now there is no cause for disunion, since we have the protecting arm of the United States thrown around us. * Let * us then, I beseech you, commence our existence as a state of this great Union in the spirit of harmony and forbearance, and act our parts throughout as becomes the agents of a free, enlightened, Christian people." The governor appointed the judges of the supreine and dis- trict courts, a secretary of state, and attorney general and an adjutant general. The legislature elected Sam Houston and Thomas J. Rusk United States senators, a comptroller, a treasurer and the district attor- neys, and provided by law for the election of two congressmen. Laws were passed organizing the various executive departments and defining
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the duties of their officers; other laws established and organized the sev- eral grades of courts and defined the administration of justice. Thirty- one new counties were created and there was much additional legislation devoted to the fixing of county boundaries, locating county seats, appor- tioning debts of counties, etc. A provision of the constitution of 1836 had been seized upon by the representatives of the depopulated western counties to prevent any alteration of the representative districts, and in this way they had prevented the creation of new counties. The removal of this obstacle by the state constitution resulted in this rush of new counties ; the delay, no doubt, left its impress upon history in the names selected for them. Laws were also enacted regulating taxation, elec- tions, the taking of the census and making appropriations for the support of the state government.
CHAPTER XXIV TEXAS IN THE MEXICAN WAR
While the war with Mexico, following annexation, was primarily a contest between the United States and that country, the part that Texas played in it was notable. The results of the war to Texas were of very great importance. In his work entitled "Westward Extension," Doctor Garrison summarizes the causes of the war under four heads: (1) "Claims of the United States citizens on the government of Mexico; (2) assistance given the Texans by the people of the United States; (3) violation of Mexican territory by United States troops, and (4) the annexation of Texas." In 1843 the Mexican government had notified the government of the United States that it would declare war as soon as it learned of the annexation of Texas. The threat was' repeated on several occasions afterwards, but the United States regarded Texas as an independent nation and in no wise responsible to Mexico for its acts. The joint resolution offering annexation to Texas was approved by President Tyler on March 1, 1845, and on March 6 Almonte, the Mex- ican minister at Washington, demanded his passports.
In view of these hostile demonstrations and the fear of Indian hostili - ties, Texas requested the protection of the United States while annexa- tion was being concluded. General Zachary Taylor was ordered to advance into Texas. His force, however, was so small that he informed President Jones that he could give no protection against the Indians. General Taylor established his camp on the Nueces River, near Corpus Christi, and remained at that point from August, 1845, until March 11, 1846, when he moved to the Rio Grande opposite Matamoras. On April 25 a party of his troops was ambushed and captured on the Texas side of the river by a large force of Mexicans. This act marked the begin- ning of the war. The next day General Taylor made a requisition on the governor of Texas for four regiments of volunteers. Captain Samuel H. Walker's Texas rangers encamped midway between Point Isabel and Matamoras, were surprised by a party of rancheros on the 28th, and ten men lost. Captain Walker was absent at the time; he is spoken of in General Taylor's dispatches as "a tried frontier soldier." Before any of the Texan volunteers could be brought into the field, the engagements at Palo Alto (May 8) and Resaca de la Palma (May 9) occurred-both were fought on Texas soil and resulted in victories for the Americans. The rangers under Captain Walker received com- mendation.
The First Texan Volunteers joined General Taylor at Matamoras. In a dispatch, dated Matamoras, July 31, he said: "The Texas regi- ment of foot under Col. A. S. Johnston, formerly of the army, is an excellent corps, inured to frontier service. All the Texan troops are anxious to go forward; they are hardy and can subsist on little, and I trust I shall be allowed to retain them." By the time General Taylor reached Camargo, the three months term of enlistment of the Louisiana and Texas Volunteers had expired. "But owing to the great scarcity
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of regular cavalry," wrote General Taylor, "I felt compelled to retain the two mounted regiments *
* remustering them at the end of their term for another three months. Their term expires about this time [August 31]. *
* * All individuals claiming discharge are, of course, at liberty to quit service, but nearly all the men seem willing to remain for another term." The regiment of infantry, with the excep- tion of three or four companies, preferred to go home. Among those who advanced were the regiments of Cols. George T. Wood and John C. Hays, commanded by Major General Henderson. The Texans ex- hibited unbounded courage in the battle of Monterey, and had not only the satisfaction of defeating the Mexicans on Mexican soil and taking one of their important cities, but also of having their commander ap- pointed one of the commissioners to arrange the articles of capitulation. "They had been engaged for many years in a fierce border warfare with the Mexicans, marked with mutual and extreme exasperation, as is usual in such contests. They remembered the wrongs which they had suf- fered, the deadly strife in which their friends had fallen, and the ter-
FORT BROWN. CAMERON COUNTY
rible vengeance which had sometimes overtaken captive Texans." How the tables had been turned !
The terms of capitulation provided for an armistice of eight weeks. There was some prospect of permanent peace. Reinforcements under General Wool were close at hand. Under these circumstances the Texans, with Taylor, expressed a desire to return home, and they were mus- tered out October 2, 1846. Order No. 124, directing the discharge of these troops, concluded with the following words of appreciation :
"The commanding general takes this occasion to express his satisfaction with the efficient service rendered by the Texas Volun- teers during the campaign, and particularly in the operations around Monterey ; and he would especially acknowledge his obligations to General Henderson, Generals Lamar and Burleson and Colonels Hays and Wood for the valuable assistance they have rendered. He wishes all the Texas Volunteers a happy return to their families and homes."
During November and December, 1846, a large portion of Taylor's force was ordered to the mouth of the Rio Grande to join General Scott. In February, 1847, Santa Anna advanced against Taylor with a large force, and the position of the latter became critical, until the achieve- ment of the brilliant victory at Buena Vista. There were but few
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Texans with Taylor in this battle; these he complimented in his dispatch of June 8th :
"Major McCulloch joined me with some twenty picked men a very short time before the battle of Buena Vista, and when his own valuable services as a partizan and spy were greatly needed. His men, however, were unwilling to engage even for twelve months, and, after much hesitation, I determined to accept them for the period of
six. * * * The services rendered by Major McCulloch and his men, particularly in reconnoitering the enemy's camp at Encarna- cion and advising us certainly of his presence there, were of the highest importance."
A company under Captain Conner were the only other Texans at Buena Vista ; of the fifty-seven men of this company engaged, fourteen were killed, two wounded and seven missing.
Soon after the battle at Buena Vista, Taylor sent orders to Texas for a battalion of cavalry. It was organized with Major Chevallie in command, but he resigned to join Hays under General Scott and was succeeded by Walter P. Lane. This battalion continued in the service until the United States forces evacuated northern Mexico, and was accorded the honor of bringing up the rear when the troops were with- drawn. On one of his scouts toward San Luis Potosi, Major Lane passed the hacienda of Salado, and while there collected the bones of the Mier prisoners who had drawn the black beans and been shot at that place in 1843. General Wool granted permission to Captain Dusenberry and a private to escort those relics to Texas. They were taken to La Grange, where several of the victims had relatives, The people gathered and laid them beneath the sod of their adopted country beside their comrades who fell with Dawson.
Several extracts from General Taylor's despatches and orders have been made to show the high esteem in which he held the Texas Volun- teers. There were occasions, however, when the general used very harsh language concerning them. One who reads the "Personal Recollections of Walter P. Lane" will learn the circumstances that provoked these criticisms, and much to extenuate the conduct of the Texans. No doubt there was truth in the remark attributed to General Taylor :
"On the day of battle I am glad to have Texas soldiers with me. for they are brave and gallant, but I never want to see them before or afterwards, for they are too hard to control."
In July. . 1847, Hays mustered into service his third regiment of Texas Rangers at San Antonio. His orders were to proceed to Vera Cruz "for the purpose of dispersing the guerillas which infest the line between that place and the interior of Mexico." The Texans had demonstrated their ability to cope with that class of bandits in protect- ing General Taylor's line between Monterey and his base of supplies at Camargo. The regiment was attached to General Joseph Lane's com- mand and rendered good service. The Texans became the terror of the Mexican guerillas, and received praise from General Scott for their daring achievements. Lieut. Col. Samuel H. Walker was killed near Huamantla while engaged in discharging a hazardous duty ; he was widely known as a brave and gallant officer.
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The readiness with which the Texans entered into the war becomes apparent from the following facts: The call for volunteers received a prompt response, considering the wide expanse from which they had to be collected and the great distance and the character of the country intervening between the settled portion of Texas and the seat of war. Of all the states participating, Texas furnished the highest proportion of troops to total population. She furnished more men to aid the United States in this war than she was herself able to bring into the field to achieve her independence ten years before. The total number of 'enlist- ments from Texas, according to official reports, were as follows: Volun- teers, 8,018; regulars, 222; total, 8,240.
CHAPTER XXV THE TEXAS-NEW MEXICO BOUNDARY
The republic of Texas, in 1836, had designated the Rio Grande from its mouth to its source as its western boundary. The Texans, in 1845, did not doubt their ability to maintain their claim to this boundary should Mexico care to contest it. Moreover, Mexico at that time ex- pressed a readiness to concede this boundary if Texas would decline an- nexation. The state of Texas inherited a large debt from the republic. The only resource that it had with which to pay this debt was to public domain. This was guarded with jealous care from encroachment. Even before news of the outbreak of the war with Mexico reached Austin, the Texan legislature had adopted a joint resolution declaring:
"That the exclusive right to the jurisdiction over the soil in- cluded in the limits of the late republic of Texas was acquired by the valor of the people thereof, and * * * is now vested in and belongs to the state."
Confidential instructions from the secretary of war to General Kear- ney, dated June 3, 1846, informed him that "it has been decided by the president to be of the greatest importance in the pending war with Mexico to take the earliest possession of Upper California. An expedi- tion with that end in view is hereby ordered, and you are designated to command it." The occupation of Santa Fe became part of the initial steps of this plan, since the most practicable route to California lay through that region. On August 22, 1846, General Kearney reported from Santa Fé "that on the 18th instant, without firing a gun or spilling a drop of blood, I took possession of this city. * and have this day issued a proclamation claiming the whole department [of New Mexico], with its original boundaries, for the United States." Soon thereafter General Kearney proclaimed an organic law for the Territory of New Mexico. His whole proceeding was in marked contrast to that of General Taylor during May, 1846, on the lower Rio Grande, where he was compelled to fight several battles to expel the Mexicans from within the limits claimed by Texas.
At the time these events occurred in New Mexico the governor of Texas, at the head of a force of Texans larger than the entire command under General Kearney, contributed effectively to the victory gained at Monterey. As soon as he learned of the events in New Mexico, Governor Henderson addressed a letter to the secretary of state of the United States, protesting against the course of General Kearney in violating the rights of Texas, and asserting the exclusive and unquestionable right of Texas both to the soil and to the jurisdiction in that region. He received assurances that the rights of Texas would be respected and that the provisional government was temporary in its character.
By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, concluded February 2, 1848, Mexico ceded to the United States all claim to territory east of the Rio Grande from its mouth to the southern boundary of New Mexico, and thence westward and northward to the first branch of the Gila River
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it might cross, and thence with the course of the Gila to the Colorado, etc. Thus all the territory claimed by Texas and more was relinquished by Mexico. Thenceforth the boundary of Texas was no longer open to diplomatic negotiations, but it also passed beyond the control of the president. Appended to the treaty with Mexico was a map on which the western boundary of Texas was traced as claimed by that state.
The acquisition of Mexican territory had been anticipated by con- gress before the conclusion of peace. The disposition to be made of it furnished the occasion for the impassioned debates on the Wilmot Proviso, which paved the way for the angry contest over the Texas-New Mexico boundary. The contest became important because it assumed the pro- portions of a national problem. Texas had been admitted as a slave state ; however, that portion of its territory lying north of 36° 30', when erected into a separate state, was to become a free state. As it was not probable that Texas would create a new state out of the territory north of 36° 30' for many years, it was possible, if the limits claimed by the state were not changed, to carry slavery as far north as the forty-second parallel of north latitude, thus repealing so far as Texas was concerned the Missouri Compromise line. The very fact that restric- tions were placed around the admission of Texan territory north of 36° 30' was an admission of Texan claims in that region. But the anti- slavery forces in congress availed themselves of the issues growing out of the Mexican cession not only to forbid the extension of slavery into the territory thus acquired, but also to cut down the area of Texas as much as possible, thereby converting to free soil a portion of the area acquired by annexation. It was this activity of the anti-slavery men to keep Texas out of New Mexico that lent momentary importance to the feeble effort made early in 1850, by a portion of the inhabitants of Cameron county, to procure the organization of the region between the Nueces and the Rio Grande into the Rio Grande territory. The efforts of the anti-slavery forces brought to the support of Texas the slave states.
The second legislature of Texas created the county of Santa Fé. designated it as the eleventh judicial district, and Judge Spruce M. Baird was sent there to discharge his official duties. He met with oppo- sition from the officers of the United States, who claimed exclusive authority in that region. Governor Wood addressed protests to Presi- dent Polk and to General Taylor, but received no reply. As the spokes- man of a sovereign state, the governor became very much incensed at their treatment of his communications. In his message to the third legis- lature, November 6, 1849, he said :
"The bare denial of justice involved in an attempt to wrest from us this portion of our state is reproach enough : to succeed in that attempt would be a reproach still deeper; and for Texas passively to submit to such despoilment would be the deepest reproach of all. * ** * I would therefore recommend that ample power be conferred on the executive of the state, and ample means be placed at his disposal, and that it be expressly required of him to raise the proper issue and contest it. not by demonstrating in argument the justness of our claim, nor by reference to our statutes, but with the whole power and resources of the state."
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The Telegraph (Houston), the oldest and perhaps most extensively read newspaper in Texas, in commenting on this fiery message, said :
"Texas must assert her claim to her whole limits, as defined by her statutes previous to annexation, or she can no longer be entitled to the rank of a sovereign state. If her domain is to be severed and formed into separate states without her consent, she sinks into the rank of a mere territory. If such was the desire of the general government previous to annexation, the fact should have been made public, and the people of Texas in voting for 'annexation and its contingencies' would have rejected a territorial government even with a union to the mother country with utter contempt. The title of Texas to Santa Fe was as valid as its title to Point Isabel. Laredo and the intermediate towns on the Rio Grande. * * * Texas will maintain her rights. *
* * If the general government will place itself in the position that Mexico occupied before annexation, Texas will be forced by circumstances beyond her control to resume her old position. She was then at war with Mexico, and if the general government assumes the position of Mexico, Texas will be at war with her. The result is inevitable. * * * We hope that the legislature will promptly comply with the recommendations of Governor Wood, and we are confident that the people of Texas will to a man sustain them with the whole resources of the state. The banner of the Lone Star shall again be unfurled-not for offense, but for defense, and those who were fore- inost to cry aloud for annexation will be foremost to sever the country from the Union that embraces but to crush and destroy."
A change of executives occurred on December 21st. The third gov- ernor of the state, P. H. Bell, also owed his elevation largely to his qualities as a soldier. But Governor Bell did not court danger. He was equally emphatic that the rights of Texas must be maintained, and he was not averse to an early settlement by force if there was no other way of adjusting the difficulty. But meanwhile he asked that authority be conferred on the executive to negotiate with the general government for the sale and transfer of the right of sovereignty to the United States of all that portion of Texas north of 36° 30'. The legislature instructed the governor to appoint a commissioner to organize the counties of Presidio, El Paso, Worth and Santa Fé. It also passed a resolution asserting the claim of Texas to her western boundary and that "Texas will maintain the integrity of her territory." The Texan commissioner, R. S. Neighbors, visited Santa Fé in April, 1850, but was opposed in his efforts by the officers of the United States at every point. In fact. the military commander issued his proclamation for a convention to organize a state government while the Texan commissioner was at Santa Fé. The commissioner made his report to the governor on June 4th, and the latter immediately laid it before the public. It caused great indignation, but, since the legislature was not in session and had made no provision for aggressive measures before adjournment, no imme- diate steps of any sort could be taken. The governor again protested to the president, but, receiving no reply within a reasonable time, he con- vened the legislature to meet about the middle of August. In his message
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he recommended the adoption of "such measures as are necessary for the occupation of Santa Fé with a force ample to quell the rebellious spirit now prevailing there, and to enable us to firmly establish the jurisdiction of the state over it." Governor Bell also referred to the measures pend- ing in Congress for the establishment of a government for New Mexico, with a boundary extending south to the thirty-second parallel and east to the 100th meridian, and that it was proposed to pay a certain sum to Texas for her claims to the territory so unceremoniously lopped off. "However willing Texas may have been and may still be to dispose of a portion of her northwestern territory, upon fair, equitable and honor- able terms," he said, "I cannot believe that any party respectable for its numbers or intelligence will be found amongst us who would be willing to accept a proposition so degrading to the character and dignity of the state."
A joint committee of the legislature recommended maintaining the rights of the state and the enforcement of its jurisdiction over Santa Fé territory, the use of the entire resources of the state for this purpose and the raising and equipping of at least 3,000 rangers, and marching without delay to the scene of the insurrection. These recommendations were accompanied by appropriate bills. "In the whole course of our long residence in Texas," said the editor of the State Gazette (Austin), "we have never seen among the people so much unanimity and enthusiasm as prevails at this time *
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