USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 2 > Part 24
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" It is now the duty of the United States to make an advance that shall not be equivocal in its character; and when she opens the door, and removes all impediments, it might be well for Texas to accept the invitation."
Regret for the failure of annexation was not universal in Texas, and the number of those opposed to that policy was now greatly increased. The threats of Mexico created no alarm, it being evident that her domestic affairs would demand all her attention and resources, and the young republic " girded up her loins " for a successful struggle, in which wounded pride was a powerful agent.
Great Britain and France, regarding the United States as an ally, renewed their efforts to obtain the recognition of Texian independence by Mexico.
The Texian ministers were recalled from Washington, and there were no recognized official relations between the two countries (except Mr. Van Zandt remained as Secretary of Legation ).
General Houston's term expired and he was succeeded by Anson Jones as President, on the 9th of December, 1844. The ninth Texian Congress, in session at the time of Jones' inauguration, adjourned on the 3d of February, 1845. Neither the President nor Congress took any action on the subject of
ANSON JONES President 1844
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annexation, determined to await the action of the United States Congress on the subject. At this time General Herrera, a wise and liberal Mexican, became President of Mexico. He released Jose Antonio Navarro - a Santa Fe prisoner who had been kept in confinement in the prison of San Juan de Ulloa. The Mexican Congress authorized him to conclude a peace and acknowledge the independence of Texas, on the condition that she should not afterwards be annexed to the United States. This was brought about by British and French diplomacy. On the 19th of May, 1845, preliminary articles were signed on the part of the Mexican government. They were transmitted to Captain Elliot, British charge d'affaires, in Texas, and by him submitted to the Texian government on the 2d day of June.
On the 25th of February, 1845, the United States House of Representatives passed the joint resolution providing for the annexation of Texas to that country, by a vote of one hun- dred and twenty to ninety-eight. They passed the Senate on the first of March by a vote of 27 to 25. On the same day, President John Tyler affixed his signature to them.
The resolutions were received from Washington, District Columbia, by President Jones and, to carry them into effect, on the 15th of May, he called a convention of sixty-one dele- gates to meet at Austin on the 4th of July and speak the voice of Texas on the main issue. In pursuance of a provision of the resolutions, he called an extra session of the ninth Con- gress to meet in Washington, Texas, on the 16th of June, in order to give or withhold the consent of the existing Govern- ment to the proposed union. That body, on the 23d of June, 1845, gave its consent to the joint resolutions of the American Congress and also to the convention as called by President , Jones.
On the 4th of June, - two days after receiving the pro- posed treaty from Mexico - President Jones issued a procla- mation to the people, setting forth the fact that the people
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now had the choice of remaining an independent Republic - her independence acknowledged by Mexico - or of becoming a State of the American Union.
The convention assembled at Austin on the 4th of July and adjourned on the 27th of August, after ratifying the terms of annexation and forming a constitution for the proposed State, which was duly ratified by a vote of the people, and thus fell, without action, the overtures from Mexico.1
1 THE TREATY.
COMMITTEE ROOM, July 4th, 1845.
Hon. Thomas J. Rusk, President of the Convention:
The committee to whom was committed the communication of his Excel- lency, the President of the Republic, together with the accompanying docu- ments, have had the same under consideration and have instructed me to report the following Ordinance, and recommend its adoption by the con- vention.
ABNER S. LIPSCOMB, Chairman.
AN ORDINANCE.
Whereas, The Congress of the United States of America has passed reso- lutions providing for the annexation of Texas to that Union, which resolu- tions were approved by the President of the United States on the 1st day of March, 1845, and
Whereas, The President of the United States has submitted to Texas the first and second sections of the said resolutions as the basis upon which Texas may be admitted as one of the States of said Union, and
Whereas, The existing Government of the Republic of Texas has assented to the proposals thus made, the terms and conditions of which are as fol- łows:
JOINT RESOLUTIONS FOR ANNEXING TEXAS TO THE UNITED STATES.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled:
That Congress doth consent that the Territory properly included within, and rightfully belonging to, the Republic of Texas, may be erected into a new State, to be called the State of Texas, with a Republican form of gov- ernment, adopted by the people of said Republic, by deputies in convention assembled, with consent of the existing government, in order that the same may be admitted as one of the States of this Union.
2. And be it further Resolved, That the foregoing consent of Congress is given upon the following conditions, to-wit: First, said State to be formed, subject to the adjustment by this Government of all questions of boundary
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This convention of 1845 was a remarkable body of men, embracing an unusual number of men distinguished for talent, experience in official life and patriotic devotion to country. General Thomas J. Rusk was unanimously chosen to preside, and James H. Raymond as Secretary. The other members were John D. Anderson, James Armstrong, Cavitt Armstrong,
that may arise with other Governments - and the constitution thereof with the proper evidence of its adoption by the people of said Republic of Texas, shall be transmitted to the President of the United States to be laid before Congress for its final action, on or before the first day of January, 1846: Second, said State, when admitted into the Union, after ceding to the United States all public edifices, fortifications, barracks, forts and harbors, navy and navy-yards, docks, magazines and armaments, and all other means pertaining to the public defense, belonging to the said Rupublic, shall retain all the public funds, debts, taxes and dues of every kind which may belong to or be due and owing to the said Republic, and shall also retain all the vacant and unappropriated lands lying within its limits, to be applied to the payment of the debts and liabilities of said Republic of Texas, and the residue of said lands, after discharging said debts and liabilities, to be disposed of as said State may direct; but in no event are said debts and liabilities to become a charge upon the Government of the United States. Third, new States, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas, and having sufficient population, may here- after, by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the Federal constitution ; and such States as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union, with or without slavery, as the people of each State asking admission may desire; and in such State or States as shall be formed out of said territory north of said Missouri compromise line, slavery, or involun- tary servitude (except for crime), shall be prohibited."
Now in order to manifest the assent of the people of the Republic, as is required in the above recited portions of said resolution, we, the deputies of the people of Texas in convention assembled, in their name and by their authority, do ordain and declare that we assent to, and accept the proposals, conditions and guarantees contained in the first and second sections of the Resolutions of the Congress of the United States aforesaid.
Adopted by a vote of fifty-six to one, July 4th, 1845, in the tenth year of the Republic.
THOS. J. RUSK, President.
JAMES H. RAYMOND, Secretary.
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Robert E. B. Baylor, Isaac W. Brashear, George Wm. Brown, J. M. Burroughs, John Caldwell, Wm. L. Cazneau, Edward Clark, Abel S. Cunningham, Philip M. Cuney, Nicholas H. Darnell, Lemuel D. Evans, Gustavus A. Evarts, Robert M. Forbes, David Gage, John Hemphill, James Pinkney Hender- son, A. W. O. Hicks, Albert C. Horton, Spearman Holland, Volney E. Howard, Wm. L. Hunter, Van R. Irion, Henry J. Jewett, Henry L. Kinney, Albert H. Latimer, Henry R. Latimer, John M. Lewis, James Love, Stephen O. Lumpkin, - Lusk, Abner S. Lipscomb, James S. Mayfield, Andrew Mc- Gowan, John G. McNeel, John F. Miller, Francis Moore, Jr., Jose Antonio Navarro, Isaac Parker, James Power, Emory Rains, Hiram G. Runnels, James Scott, George W. Smyth, Isaac Standefer, Wm. M. Taylor, Isaac Van Zandt, Francis M. White, George T. Wood, George W. Wright, Wm. C. Young, and Richard Bache. Richard Bache, a grandson of Benjamin Franklin and delegate from Galveston, was the only man who voted against annexation.
The constitution was ratified with great unanimity on the 10th of October, 1845.
On the 22d of December, President Polk approved a bill extending the laws of the United States over Texas, which, however, excepting the laws relating to impost duties, did not take effect, until the final organization of the State gov- ernment on the 19th of February, 1846.
Under the new constitution an . election was held on the third Monday of December, 1845, for Governor, Lieutenant- Governor and members of the legislature. James Pinkney Henderson was elected Governor by a large majority over Dr. James B. Miller, and Albert C. Horton, Lieutenant-Governor only by one hundred and twenty majority over Nicholas H. Darnell.1
1 The legislature assembled in joint session to count the votes for Gov- ernor and Lieutenant-Governor. General Henderson was declared to be the Governor-elect, and Nicholas H. Darnell, by a small majority, was declared
J. PINCKNEY HENDERSON Governor 1846
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
The constitution had been sent to Washington City through . Nicholas H. Darnell, especially deputed by the convention for that purpose.
The new constitution was formally accepted by the Con- gress of the United States and approved by President Polk on the 29th of December, 1845.
Under a proclamation of President Jones, the new, and first, legislature of the State assembled at Austin on the 16th of February, 1846. The senate organized by the election of Jesse Grimes as President pro tem. In the House of Repre- sentatives, Wm. E. Crump was elected Speaker.
Both houses having completed their organization, assembled in joint session to witness the closing scenes in the drama of annexation.
It was a scene witnessed by many persons from all parts of Texas, over which the banner of the lone star floated for the last time. President Jones delivered his valedictory address, from which brief extracts follow. He said:
" The great measure of annexation, so earnestly discussed, is happily consummated. The present occasion, so full of interest to us and to all the people of this country, is an earn- est of that consummation; and I am happy to greet you, their chosen representatives, and to tender you my cordial congratulations on an event the most extraordinary in the annals of the world; one which marks a bright triumph in the history of republican institutions. A government is changed both in its officers and in its organization - not by violence and disorder, but by the deliberate and free consent of its citizens; and amid perfect and universal peace and
to be Lieutenant-Governor elect; but before the inauguration next day the returns from a missing county arrived, changing the result, electing Albert C. Horton by one hundred and twenty majority. Though urged by indis- creet friends to claim the office under the count and declared result, Colonel Darnell indignantly refused, and demanded the inauguration of Horton, the choice of the people.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
tranquillity, the sovereignty of the nation is surrendered, and incorporated with that of another.
" The lone star of Texas, which ten years since arose amid clouds over fields of carnage, and obscurely seen for a while, has culminated, and followed an inscrutable destiny ; has passed on and become fixed forever in that glorious constella- tion which all freemen and lovers of freedom in the world must reverence and adore - the American Union. Blending its rays with its sister States, long may it continue to shine, and may generous Heaven smile upon the consummation of the wishes of the two Republics now joined in one. May the Union be perpetual, and may it be the means of conferring benefits and blessings upon the people of all the States, is my ardent prayer.
" The first act in the great drama is now performed. The Republic of Texas is no more."
General Henderson then delivered his inaugural address. It was elegant in diction and breathed the spirit of fervent patriotism. He ably pointed out the work before them, involving the change of laws to suit the altered condition of the country ; a vast labor demanding thoughtful and patient care.
Texas received many congratulations, none more fervid and sincere than from ex-President Andrew Jackson. He appre- ciated the value of the addition of Texas to the Union and congratulated the United States as well, always regarding the act as the " re-annexation of Texas." He said: " I now behold the great American eagle, with her stars and stripes, hovering over the lone star of Texas, with cheering voice welcoming it into our glorious Union, and proclaiming to Mexico and all foreign governments, 'You must not attempt to tread upon Texas ' - that the United stars and stripes now defend her." Glorious result. He gave good advice as to the protection of the political morals, and of the labor of the country and in favor of the specie currency, " which," he said, " gives
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
life and action to the producing classes on which the prosperity of all is founded."
At the State election two members were elected to the United States Congress. The State was then entitled to two Congressmen, the territory west of the Trinity constituting one district and the country east of that stream the other. The eastern district elected David S. Kaufman, a graduate from Cumberland College, Pennsylvania, a lawyer and an orator, who identified himself with Texas in 1835. He served in the Texian Congress from 1838 to 1840 ; was twice Speaker of the House of Representatives, and was severely wounded in the Cherokee battle of July, 1839. He was re-elected to the United States Congress till his death ( caused remotely by a wound received some years before ), December 31, 1851.
The western district elected as its first representative in the American Congress, Timothy Pillsbury, a retired sea-captain from the State of Maine, who had served in the Texian Congress from Brazoria. He, too, was re-elected two years later.
The legislature, among its first acts, elected two senators to the Congress of the United States. General Thomas J. Rusk received the unanimous vote of each house and General Sam Houston was elected by a vote almost equally unanimous, only three negative votes being cast.
President Anson Jones labored with unceasing zeal for the accomplishment of annexation. His action in this matter was peculiarly unselfish, as he thereby shortened the term of his official life.
The election of Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, and the hero of San Jacinto, Gen. Sam Houston, to the United States Senate was a fitting recognition of their distinguished services and high abilities.
The spirit of justice, in view of much that has been written derogatory of General Houston, regarding the events of 1836, including the battle of San Jacinto; the Santa Fe expedition,
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
the question of our foreign relations and annexation to the United States, demands and challenges just and enlightened freemen to pause and consider the facts. If, at the end of this period, the whole people arose in their majesty, well knowing all the facts, and almost unanimously declared for Houston as one of their first representatives in the Senate of the United States, is it not time that the people of Texas, more than half a century later, should ignore the utterances of men, however respectable, who differed with him in his plan of conducting the campaign of 1836, and the grave issues following. The world is subject to the temporary influence of those who play upon the passions of the hour. But it is also subject to what is popularly designated as the sober second and generally right, thought. This thought was ex- pressed by the election of General Houston to the Senate when he was in private life and three hundred miles from the scene of action and, by enlightened minds, will be accepted as final so far as antecedent Texian history is concerned. The abuse, in years gone by, heaped upon Bowie, Houston, Burnet, Lamar and others, aside from the personal recrimina- tions between some of them, have long since ceased to dis- turb the reflective judgment of wise and just men. Each has come to be judged by his real and true character as a man and a patriot. And so it should be.
When the final act was performed, when Texas, the off- shoot of a neglected Mexican province, ceased to be an independent Republic and became a State of the North American Union, the fathers and mothers of the country rejoic- ing with moistened eyes, did not forget their dead ; the men who had founded, built up and ( many of them ) died for their country. They established in their hearts the memory of Moses and Stephen F. Austin; of Green De Witt, Sterling C. Robertson and Martin De Leon ; of Benjamin R. Milam, William Barrett Travis, Placido Venibedes, David Crockett, Albert Martin, James Bowie, William H. and John A. Whar-
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ton, James Butler Bonham, William H. and Patrick C. Jack, James W. Fannin, William Ward, Peter W. Grayson, James Collinsworth, Robert C. Wallace, William Motley, Lorenzo de Zavala, Henry W. Karnes and many of their compeers. But they cherished no less in grateful remembrance, the serv- ices and virtues of Henry Smith, Sam Houston, David G. Burnet, Mirabeau B. Lamar, Thomas J. Rusk, Anson Jones, Jose Antonio . Navarro, Edward Burleson, Albert C. Horton, Edwin Waller, Sidney Sherman, Albert Sidney Johnston, Branch T. Archer, John Forbes, Charles S. Taylor, James Power, John McMullen, Patrick McGloin, Alexander Horton, Adolphus Sterne, Wm. Hardin and brothers, Robert M. Williamson, John Hemphill, Abner S. Lipscomb, James Pinkney Henderson, Samuel M. Williams, Michel B. Menard, Francis Moore, Jr., Thomas F. Mckinney, Collin Mckinney, Wm. Menefee, Jesse Grimes, Chas. B. Stewart, Frost Thorn, John H. Moore, John Caldwell, Edward H. Tarrant, Wm. G. Cooke, Peter H. Bell, David S. Kaufman, Isaac Van Zandt, James Hamilton, Barnard E. Bee, Ashbel Smith, Edward T. Branch, Robert E. B. Baylor, and a host of others, yet spared to them, - each in his sphere of action had shed lustre on the country.
A BRIEF RECAPITULATION.
Anglo-Americanism had its birth in Texas in the year 1822. For four years it was a feeble province of Mexico, with but a handful of Mexicans at Nacogdoches, Goliad and San Antonio, supplemented by a few obscure and ephemeral settlements at remote points elsewhere. For ten years - 1825 to 1835-it was fastened as an unwilling appendage to Coahuila, under the designation as a Mexican State of Coahuila and Texas. For the succeeding ten years, save a few months succeeding the final victory of its arms, it was known and recognized by the most enlightened nations as the Republic of Texas ; and then
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became a State of the American Union. Prior to the intro- duction of Americans in Texas, the country from about 1692 to 1822, had remained, with the slight exceptions mentioned, a primeval wilderness, dominated by roving bands of savages, unacquainted with the modern blessings of civilized life. A country without roads, navigable streams or secure harbors,. with no human habitation along its four hundred miles of sea coast; no government to shield it from the innumerable · petty tribes of freebooters; indeed with no allurements save its fine climates, grand forests, fertile plains, lovely valleys, and picturesque hills and mountains; with no means of immi- gration excepting by sail boats on the gulf, or carts, or wagons, often cutting their own pathway through the wilder- ness for hundreds of miles, crossing streams and swamps. With all these and other potent facts, it is not strange that the growth of Americanism in Texas, from 1822 to the revo- lution in 1835, was slow, demanding from women and men the highest order of patience, fortitude, patriotism and those. moral virtues, without which no sparse wilderness population, so exposed, can so assimilate in the bonds of fellowship and mutual good faith, as to assure progress and happiness. Under such surroundings, though slow, the actual progress through these thirteen years challenges admiration.
During the ten years' life of the Republic six hundred miles of our border was ever open to attacks from Mexico, and countless raids and forays were made. In nearly all that time, for seven hundred miles, from Clarksville on Red River, to San Patricio and Corpus Christi, the frontiers were opened to scenes of savage plunder, murder and the captivity of women and children. Yet how much was achieved despite these un- toward conditions !
Population quadrupled, towns were built, roads opened, justice, regulated by law, administered, education to the ut- most extent possible, fostered, freedom of conscience guaran- teed and religion encouraged, the hostile savages and Mexican
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brigands often punished, the recognition and friendship of the United States, Great Britain, France, Holland and Belgium, with liberal commercial treaties, secured, our rights maintained by a gallant little navy on the high seas, our flag, the " Lone Star of Texas," everywhere respected, our ambassadors to foreign courts received with the amenities due to the most favored nations, our revolutionary debt, an extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented fact in the history of revolutionary States, guaranteed and fully provided for, our Executive, legislative and judicial departments respected at home and abroad, and finally our warriors, living and dead, were enrolled among the patriots and heroes of the world - enrolled with .. those who fell at Thermopyla and triumphed at Salamis and. Marathon. Truly a glorious record and one that entitled» Texas to an equal station in the Union.
CHAPTER XXIX.
The New State - The Homestead, etc.
By statutory provisions, under the Republic, certain per- .sonal property and, to each head of a family fifty acres of land, were exempted from forced sale for debt, but under the new constitution this beneficence was greatly extended. In the country it exempted as a homestead, not exceeding two hundred acres of land; in town a lot or lots in value not exceeding two thousand dollars. Texas was the first country in the civilized world to thus shield the family from the mis- fortunes of life, but her example has since been followed, in greater or less degree, by many States of the Union. But one other safeguard was wanting to give entire efficiency to this constitutional shield thrown around the family altar and that, after thirty years, experience, was supplied by the present constitution, which went into effect April 18th, 1876. It is a clause which prohibits the hypothecation, pledge or mortgage or incumbrance by deed of trust, whether by the husband, wife, or both, of the homestead, excepting for the purchase money therefor. The husband and wife may sell it to acquire a homestead elsewhere, but shall not incum- ber it with mortgages or deeds of trusts by which, in a large majority of cases, the wife and children (as shown by exper- ience ) will be deprived of their home. Nearly half a cen- tury has endeared the homestead exemption to the people of the State and nothing less than revolution can cause its aban- donment.
The constitution of 1845 (as does that of 1876) also banished forever that relic of medieval barbarism, accursed by the sorrows of centuries - imprisonment for debt.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
The first State legislature, an able and discreet body of men, had herculean labors to perform in reforming and adjusting the laws to the new condition of affairs. Under an unfortunate inhibition in the constitution of the Republic, and notwithstanding a large increase and consequent expan- sion of population, the Congress for several years could create no additional county, causing great inconvenience and serious- burdens to the people, caused by remote distances from their respective county sites. This was remedied by the creation of thirty-two new counties, on some of which, in recognition of their friendship for Texas, were bestowed the names of Presidents Tyler and Polk and members of their cabinets. The new counties were: Anderson, Angelina, Burleson, Comal, Collin, Calhoun (Tyler's cabinet), Cass, Cherokee, De Witt, Dallas (Vice-President under Polk), Denton, Guadalupe, Grayson, Grimes, Hopkins, Hunt, Henderson, Leon, Lavaca, Limestone, Nueces, Newton, Navarro, Polk (president ), Panola, Smith, Tyler (president), Titus, Upshur ( with Gil- mer as county seat - both of Tyler's cabinet ), Wharton and Walker ( Robert J. Walker of Polk's cabinet ).
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