USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume I > Part 50
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"Our purpose has been to punish the infamous villainy of our enemies. These have banded together * * to pursue and rob us for no other reason * upon our part except being by birth Mexicans."
Cortina having crossed over the Rio Grande, the sheriff captured Cabrera, the second in command, about October 12th. Cortina demanded Cabrera's release and threatened to burn Brownsville if his demand was refused. In a few days Captain Tobin arrived with a company of rangers. Cabrera was found hanged. Cortina was joined by large numbers of Mexican-Texans at his ranch. Fearing that Brownsville would be attacked the authorities of Matamoras were appealed to for aid, which was promptly furnished. On Octo- ber 24th a combined force of Americans and Mexicans attacked Cor- tina and compelled him to retreat into the chaparral. An attempt to dislodge him resulted in confusion and the combined forces retreated, leaving two cannon behind. Lieutenant Littleton was defeated on November 13th.
Cortina issued another proclamation on November 23d, in which he stated that "an organized society in the State of Texas will untir-
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ingly devote itself to the extermination of their tyrants until its phil- anthropical purpose of bettering the condition of the unfortunate Mexicans who reside there shall have been attained." On the next day Captain Tobin with about 250 men advanced to attack Cortina, but the position of the latter, supported by 400 or 500 men, proved too strong. Major Heintzelman arrived at Brownsville on December 5th, and with a force of 165 United States regulars and 120 Texas rangers he expelled Cortina from his position December 14th. Cor- tina retreated to Rio Grande City, devastating a wide strip of country as he proceeded. At that place he was disastrously defeated on December 27th, losing his guns, ammunition and baggage, but he succeeded in making his escape to Tamaulipas.
"After the removal of the' Indians from the reservations, * the hostility of the native races was intensified, and the northern and western borders were subject to all the horrors of savage warfare."
Governor Houston's administration covers this period. He had ever championed the cause of the Indian. His message to the special session of the legislature, January 21, 1861, is here quoted to show conditions during 1860 and on the eve of secession :
"When the executive came into office the frontier was entirely unguarded except by the federal troops. The Indians, unre- strained by the presence of rangers, embraced the favorable opportunity and gained a foothold in the country, and ere their presence was known and means could be adopted to repel them, commenced a series of depredations which struck terror to the settlements. Their savage work was not confined to the frontier alone, but extended to counties within fifty miles of the capital. Although not apprized of this state of things, the executive had made such provisions for the defense of the frontier as seemed necessary. On the 26th of December (1859), a few days after his inauguration, an order was issued to Capt. W. C. Dalrymple, of Williamson County, to raise a company of sixty men, rank and file. This was followed by orders of the same character to Capt. Ed Burleson, of Hays, and to Capt. John H. Conner, of Travis,, on the 4th and 13th of January. These companies were ordered to such points as would enable them to carry out the orders given them to 'give the greatest amount of protection to the frontier inhabitants.'
"Had the frontier not been entirely abandoned to the Indians for months previous to his inauguration, these companies would have sufficed to prevent any concerted and extensive movements against the settlements on the part of the Indians, but they were already secreted in the country. Intelligence having reached the executive that numerous small parties of Indians were ravaging the line of settlements beyond Bell County, but yet not on the extreme frontier, orders were issued on the 13th of February to Lieutenant White, of Bell, Salmon, of Bosque, and Walker, of Erath County, to raise each a detachment of twenty-five men to range in and give defence to the counties of Coryell, Hamilton,
TWIN MOUNTAINS, SAN ANGELO
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Comanche, Erath, Eastland and Palo Pinto. These detachments were soon in the field, with orders to exercise every energy to give the frontier protection and security.
"Authentic accounts of depredations still coming in, the execu- tive, on the 21st of February, sent to the various frontier counties a letter authorizing the citizens of each county to raise a minute company of not more than twenty men, who should look to the next legislature for payment ; and to more effectually ensure the presence of these minute companies in the field a general order was issued on the 9th of March, by which the chief justice of each county was instructed to organize immediately a minute com- pany of fifteen men, to whom the following orders were given :
"The detachments will immediately take the field and enter upon active scouts, affording protection to the inhabitants of their respective counties. When an Indian trail is found it must be diligently followed, and if the sign indicates a larger party of Indians than he is able to cope with, he will call not exceeding ten men to his aid.'
"Under this order minute companies of fifteen men each were mustered into service in the following counties: Lieutenant Scanland, Montague; Lieutenant Isbell, Wise; Lieutenant Coch- ran, Young : Lieutenant Jones, Palo Pinto: Lieutenant Stevens, Eastland ; Lieutenant Lowe, Erath; Lieutenant Price, Comanche ; Lieutenant Nelson, Bosque ; Lieutenant Gentry, Hamilton ; Lieu- tenant Font le Roy, Coryell : Lieutenant Cowan, Llano; Lieuten- ant Wood, San Saba; Lieutenant Hughes, Lampasas; Lieutenant Lewis, Mason ; Lieutenant O'Hair, Burnet ; Lieutenant Franzelin, Gillespie; Lieutenant Balentyne, Bandera ; Lieutenant McFad- den, Kerr; Lieutenant Kennedy, Uvalde; Lieutenant Patton, Blanco; Lieutenant Brown, Bexar ; Lieutenant Watkins, Medina, and Lieutenant Ragsdale, Frio.
"In addition to putting this force of minute men in the field, the executive, in order to enable the frontier citizens to more suc- cessfully defend themselves, purchased and distributed through the frontier counties 100 Colt's revolvers, which, with a number of revolvers, rifles and muskets, were sent forward. Ammunition was also supplied to the minute companies.
"To provide for the defence of the settlements beyond San Antonio, an order was issued on the 5th of March to Capt. Peter Tomlinson, of Atascosa County, to raise forty-eight men. to whom were assigned the range between the Frio and the Rio Grande. Captain Tomlinson was mustered into service on the 20th of March.
"It will thus be seen that up to this period the executive had called into service a ranging force of 720 men, which might be increased upon an emergency to 950. The greater part of this force was then in active service, and as a result the Indians dis- appeared from the settlements. *
* * The minute companies of fifteen men were kept in service until the 18th of May, when there being no longer a pressing necessity for their presence in the
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field, they were disbanded, subject to be called out at any moment. * * **
"Before, however, these forces could be brought to bear on the settlements, many murders had been committed and a large number of horses stolen. With a view of avenging these out- rages and the recovery of the property of our citizens the execu- tive determined to send against the Indians a force sufficient to discover their hiding places and accomplish these objects. It has long been the opinion of the executive that the horses stolen from us are herded at some central point between our settlements and the trading posts where they are sold, and that from this point stealing parties strike for our settlements, leaving others in charge of the animals already taken. To punish these Indians, as well as to ferret out the parties who purchase our horses from them, required an able force and was a work requiring much time and privation. The duty of raising troops for this expedition was assigned to Col. M. T. Johnson, of Tarrant County, to whom was issued orders on the 17th of March to raise a sufficient number of mounted rangers to 'repel, pursue and punish the Indians now ravaging the north and northwestern settlements of Texas, with full liberty to dispose of the force under your (his) command at your (his) discretion.'
"In pursuance of this order, Colonel Johnson raised five com- panies of rangers of eighty-three men, commanded by Captains Smith, of McLennan ; Darnell, of Dallas ; Woods, of Fannin ; Fitz- hugh, of Collin, and Johnson, of Tarrant. These rendezvoused at Fort Belknap, where they were joined by the two companies under command of Captains Ed Burleson and W. C. Dalrymple. and on the 23d of May the expedition started for the Indian
*
country. * * A portion of the troops were ordered back by Colonel Johnson from old Fort Radsminske the 30th of July. The others penetrated the Indian country beyond the line of Kansas, and after enduring many privations returned to Fort Belknap, where they were disbanded by order of the executive.
"Although no Indian depredations were at that time reported, the executive. to guard against their repetition, ordered Capt. L. S. Ross to McLennan on the 11th of September to raise a com- pany of seventy men and to take his station beyond Fort Belknap, where he arrived on the 17th of October.
"On the 6th of December information reached the executive of the most appalling outrages committed by the Indians in Jack and Parker Counties. Orders were immediately sent forward to Captains Thomas Stocton, of Young, and James Barry, of Bosque County, to raise each twenty-four men and proceed to co-operate with Captain Ross in protecting the settlements. These troops did not enter the service, but on the 17th of December an order was issued to Capt. A. B. Burleson to raise seventy men, which was followed by orders to Capt. E. W. Rogers, of Ellis, on the 26th of December, and to Capt. Thomas Harrison, of McLennan. on the 2d of January, to raise each seventy men. all of whom have
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now gone forward to Fort Belknap, where Col. W. C. Dalrymple, of Williamson County, acting under commission as aid de camp to the executive, has been ordered to repair to effect an organiza- tion of the troops and to devise means for their efficiency.
"It affords the executive pleasure to state that the Indians who committed the late depredations in Jack and Parker counties have been overtaken and killed by a force under the command of Cap- tain Ross. *
"It will be seen from the plain statement of facts given above that from the time of his inauguration up to the present time the executive has devoted all the energies at his command to the defence of the frontier. He has called into service a number of the most experienced ranging officers in the state and given them troops obtained in counties capable of furnishing the best Indian fighters in the world. Not only in number, but in the equipment of the troops, the means he has adopted for frontier defence have been adequate to more than the reasonable expectation of the country. Besides these he has provided every county with a minute company for its own defence, formed by its own citi- zens. * *
"In March last the executive tendered to the secretary of war of the United States 5,000 Texan volunteers to aid in defence of the frontier. The offer was declined. Efforts have been made to induce congress to pass a bill authorizing the calling of such a force into the field, but they have been thus far unsuccessful. The Federal Government has, however, from time to time, sent re-enforcements of the regular army into Texas, until the entire force on our border comprises about one-fifth of our entire army. These prevent the invasion of our soil of any numerous body of Indians, and occasionally intercept small stealing parties, but to entirely check the latter a more active force is necessary, which should be constantly employed in scouting the country."
The total cost of frontier defense to the state for thirteen months of Governor Houston's term was $294,781.11, but since the state treasury did not have the funds with which to meet these extraor- dinary expenditures, interest-bearing liabilities had to be issued. This was only a fraction of the expense to which the state was subjected on account of frontier defense. It will be remembered that the act of congress, approved February 28, 1855, making final provision for the payment of the revenue debt, required the state legislature to aban- don all claims against the United States growing out of Indian depre- dations. Investigation made by the federal war department in 1905 showed that between February 28, 1855, and June 21, 1860, Texas spent $375.418.94 for this purpose. This sum was repaid to the state in 1906. A large portion of the expenditures made during Governor Houston's term were paid out between June 21, 1860, and March 4. 1861. Of these expenditures the state received repayment to the amount of $21,395.95 in 1908, and there was pending a claim for the balance, amounting to the sum of $183,080.77. (See Document No. 551, house of representatives, sixty-second congress, second session.)
CHAPTER XXIX POLITICS, 1851-1860
During the period of the republic no alignment of the voters in political parties had taken place, nor was this the case during the first few years of the state. Candidates for state office entered the race at the solicitation of their friends or in obedience to their own ambitions for political preferment. The question of annexation and the current of events into which the state was swept by her entry into the Union had a determining effect as to the choice of party by most Texans. The whigs had opposed and the democrats had favored annexation. The United States senators elected by the first legislature and the two congressmen chosen immediately thereafter were democrats. The death of David S. Kaufman caused a vacancy in the Eastern congres- sional district; among the candidates who offered for the place was a whig. The democrats, therefore, held a convention at Henderson in June, 1851, and nominated Richardson Scurry, who was elected. Democratic congressional conventions were held regularly thereafter in this district. No congressional conventions were held in the West- ern district until 1859.
The whigs had carried the presidential election in 1848. The demi- ocrats were determined to retrieve this defeat in 1852. It was under these circumstances that the first state democratic convention met at Austin on January 8, 1852. Twenty-one counties were represented by delegates, and the democratic members of the legislature from the counties having no delegates were invited to represent those counties. Besides unfurling officially the banner of democracy in Texas, organ- ization was perfected by electing a central committee, a platform was adopted, delegates to the national democratic convention were appointed, presidential electors were nominated, and General Sam Houston was presented to the favorable consideration of the great democratic party as a candidate for the presidency. The platform did not touch upon state policy, but endorsed the national platform of 1848, the compromise measures of 1850, and the Virginia and Ken- tucky resolutions. Washington D. Miller was made chairman of the central committee.
The whigs held conventions in the Eastern and Western congres- sional districts in the spring of 1852; they appointed delegates to the national convention and nominated presidential electors. Some prom- inent names appeared among the adherents of this party, but they seem never to have held a state convention in Texas.
During the fall of 1852 the matter of holding a state democratic convention to nominate a governor, lieutenant governor and commis- sioner of the general land office was advocated by some. The central committee, therefore, issued a call for the convention to meet at Austin February 22, 1853. The governor had previously issued his proclamation convening the legislature in extra session on January 10th ; this no doubt had its share in influencing the committee. How-
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ever, the legislature adjourned on February 7th, and thus made the holding of a convention impracticable. Later the central committee recommended that the convention be held at Washington-on-the- Brazos June 15th. There were seven democratic candidates for gov- ernor in the field, and three democratic candidates for lieutenant governor. To insure the party's victory some elimination appeared very necessary, but so few delegates attended at Washington in June that no nominations were made.
The large influx of able men from the other states, the growing diversity of opinion in regard to the question of internal improve- ments, the increase in the number of newspapers, and the activity of politics in other states contributed to greater political activity in Texas. No state conventions were held in 1855, but the campaign as waged that year exceeded its predecessors in the vigor and acri- mony with which it was pushed. Three democrats, E. M. Pease. M. T. Johnson and George T. Wood, and one know-nothing, D. C. Dickson, were candidates for governor. It was the first appearance of the know-nothings in Texas politics, and the strength they showed was a surprise to the democrats. Although the know-nothing can- didate was defeated, the campaign had important results. General Houston had gone over to this party. The assaults made by this party upon foreigners drove the German and Mexican population of Texas into the democratic ranks. On the day of his inauguration Governor Pease was escorted to the capitol by a German band, and in his inaugural address he took occasion "for saying a few words upon political subjects, since our late election for state officers is the first that has been decided by our citizens upon political issues alone." His reference to the "heresies of this new political party" produced a sensation. The legislature paid its respects to General Houston by adopting a resolution disapproving his course in voting against the Kansas-Nebraska act.
During the session of the legislature in January. 1856, both the democrats and the know-nothings held state conventions at Austin. The democratic platform declared its affirmation of the national plat- ford of 1852, opposition to all secret political societies, whether called "American," "Know-Nothing" or any other delusive name, opposition to all proscription on account of place of birth or particular religious creed, endorsed the Kansas-Nebraska act, emphasized the doctrine of state rights, strict construction of the constitution and non-interven- tion by the federal Government in deciding the question of slavery in the territories. The know-nothing platform declared in favor of native Americans for office, for a strict construction of the constitution and in favor of state rights, for extending the period for the naturaliza- tion of foreigners to twenty-one years, for liberty of conscience and the press, for protection of the frontier, denied that congress had power to interfere with slavery in the states or territories, and opposed any interference with slavery in the District of Columbia or the repeal of the fugitive slave act; it recommended a modification of the national platform of 1855 proscribing Catholics, and abolished all secrecy, pass words and signs. Both conventions nominated full tickets
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for state officers and presidential electors and appointed delegates to the national conventions.
From 1845 to 1864 the governor, lieutenant governor and commis- sioner of the general land office were elected in the odd years, and from 1850 onward the attorney general, treasurer and comptroller were elected during the even years. So there was a state election every year. The democrats held their convention at Waco in May, 1857. The platform adopted defined no state policy; it endorsed the national platform of 1856, and declared that the citizens of the South- ern states possessed the right to carry their slaves into any territory of the United States. The two-thirds rule was adopted by this con- vention and adhered to by subsequent conventions. H. R. Runnels and F. R. Lubbock were nominated for governor and lieutenant gov- ernor. The know-nothings held no convention ; the party had already begun to disintegrate. But about the time the democratic nominees went before the people Gen. Sam Houston announced his candidacy for governor as an independent. General Houston was known throughout the state, was then United States senator, had recently been mentioned for the presidency, and he was a vigorous campaigner. Runnels was lieutenant governor at this time, and a wealthy planter, but he was little known throughout the state and made no campaign. Nevertheless the democrats were determined to elect their candidates ; the contest was hot from the outset. The regular ticket won by a good margin; Runnels received 32,552 votes, Houston 23,628 votes. National events played their part in this result ; the feeling was becom- ing general that to resist northern aggression the state must present a solid front.
The prominence of national issues was marked throughout the ses- sion of the seventh legislature, November 2, 1857-February 16, 1858. Governor Pease, in his general message, addressed this body as fol- lows :
"Our relations with the federal Government and with the sev- eral states composing it are a subject of deep anxiety to every patriot. The rapid strides made in the last few years by a party in the Northern states, organized with the avowed object of endeavoring to effect the abolition of slavery as it now exists in fifteen states and some of the territories, has very justly excited the fears for the perpetuity of the Union. The people of Texas are attached to their domestic institutions; they ask nothing for them from the federal Government but those rights guaranteed by the constitution, and any infringement of these rights will never be submitted to."
Governor Runnels also touched upon the course of events in his inaugural address. He reviewed the recent political contest in Texas ; he traced the questions growing out of slavery from 1820 to the date of the troubles in Kansas, where the principle of non-intervention by the federal government was flagrantly disregarded by the territorial governor and others.
"Year by year the South is becoming weaker, the North grow- ing stronger. That equilibrium has been destroyed which
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afforded the only sure and permanent guarantee of protection against abolition innovation. * * * For the future to the North must be left the management and control of a question which involves union or dissolution, peace or war. * *
* There is now left but one reasonable hope for preserving the Union and maintaining the rights of the states in it, and that is upon a rigid adherence to a strict construction of the federal constitu- tion."
Through the death of Gen. Thomas J. Rusk and the expiration at an early date of General Houston's term, the legislature was con- fronted by the unusual condition of having to elect two United States senators. J. Pinckney Henderson was chosen to fill the vacancy, and John Hemphill was elected in place of Houston. In this manner the legislature a second time expressed its disapproval of General Hous- ton's course.
The state democratic convention assembled at Austin January 8, 1858, for the purpose of nominating candidates for attorney general, comptroller and treasurer. A platform was adopted containing the following resolutions :
"Resolved, That recent events in the United States senate create in our minds a serious apprehension that the great doctrine of non-intervention * *
* is in danger of being repudiated by congress through the instrumentality of members of the national democratic party * * * and that we now consider it our duty to set forth to the country the course that we shall be compelled to take in that serious and deplorable emergency.
"Resolved, That we request the representatives of the people of Texas, in legislature assembled, to provide at the present ses- sion for the executive of the state appointing suitable delegates to a convention of Southern states, which may be hereafter assembled for the purpose of consultation and advice for the gen- eral welfare of the institutions of the South."
Governor Runnels sent to the legislature a special message on January 20th dealing with the Kansas question. In it he took the same stand as did the democratic convention in the resolution cited above: "It is my deliberate judgment," he said. "that if congress refuses to admit Kansas as a state with the constitution she now pre- sents, for any other cause than that said constitution is not republican in character, the time will have come when the Southern states should look to themselves for the means of maintaining their future security."
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