USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 2 > Part 5
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
In the Senate of the United States Thomas H. Benton once said : " Houston is the pupil of Jackson, and he is the first self-made general since the time of Mark Antony and the King Antigonus who has taken the head of the enemy and the head of the government prisoner in battle. Different from Antony, he has spared the life of his captive, though for- feited by every law, human and divine."
CHAPTER IV.
President Burnet on the Battlefield - Negotiations with Santa Anna - Gen. Houston goes to New Orleans for Medical Treatment - Lamar's Protest against Treating Santa Anna as a Prisoner of War - Velasco Temporary Seat of Government.
The news of the victory at San Jacinto reached President Burnet, on Galveston Island, on the 26th, and he and his cabinet, with Vice-President Zavala, reached the camp seven miles above the battle field on the 28th. There he was in- formed by Gen. Houston of the armistice with Santa Anna and of the order sent by the latter to Filisola. The money captured ($18,184.00), after setting apart $3,000.00 for the navy, by a unanimous vote of the troops, was equally divided among the officers and men. The captured property was sold at auction.
President Burnet entered into negotitions with Santa Anna. A minority of the cabinet (Robert Potter and, a few days later, Lamar, who succeeded Rusk as Secretary of War), opposed treating with Santa Anna; because, first, being a prisoner, his acts would not be binding ; and, secondly, because he should be tried and executed for his crimes. To the great credit and honor of Texas wiser counsels prevailed. Presi- dent Burnet, in his address to the people, published in five articles in the summer of 1836, says: " Among the first in- cidents to that discussion, and before any cabinet meeting was had, was the presentation to me of the protocol of a treaty, in pencil, comprising seven or eight articles by Mr. Rusk, the Secretary of War." These placed in proper form formed the basis of a treaty.1 Before any definite conclusions were
1 Mr. Yoakum attributes the authorship of the protocol in pencil to Gen.
(53)
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
reached, the 5th of May arrived. On that day General Houston took temporary leave of the army to proceed to New Orleans for surgical treatment of the wound in his ankle. The bones were shattered. He was suffering greatly and there was danger of lockjaw. Before leaving he issued the follow- ing army order :
" HEADQUARTERS, SAN JACINTO, May 5th, 1836.
" COMRADES: Circumstances connected with the battle of the 21st, render our separation for the present unavoidable. I need not express to you the many painful sensations which that necessity inflicts upon me. I am solaced, however, by the hope that we will soon be re-united in the great cause of liberty. Brigadier-General Rusk is appointed to command the army for the present. I confide in his valor, his patriotism, and his wisdom. His conduct in the battle of San Jacinto was sufficient to insure your confidence and regard.
" The enemy, though retreating, are still within the limits of Texas. Their situation being known to you, you cannot be taken by surprise. Discipline and subordination will render you invincible. Your valor and heroism have proved you unrivaled. Let not contempt for the enemy throw you off your guard. Vigilance is the first duty of a soldier, and glory the proudest reward of his toils.
"You have patiently endured privations, hardships and difficulties. Unparelleled in bravery, you have encountered odds, two to one of the enemy against you, and borne your- selves in the onset and conflict of battle in a manner unknown in the annals of warfare.
" While an enemy to our independence remains in Texas the work is incomplete, but when liberty is firmly established by your patience and valor, it will be fame enough to say :
Houston, while President Burnet awards it to Gen. Rusk. It was probably their joint work, but the matter is not of material importance.
1
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
' I was a soldier at San Jacinto.' In taking leave of my brave comrades in arms I cannot suppress the expression of that pride which I so justly feel in having had the honor to command them in person, nor will I withhold the tribute of my warmest admiration and gratitude for the promptness with which my orders were executed and union maintained throughout the army. At parting my heart embraces you with gratitude and affection.
" SAM HOUSTON, Commander-in- Chief."
On the same day Thomas J. Rusk was commissioned as Brigadier-General by President Burnet, and placed in com- mand of the army. Although he has heretofore been given a military title, this is the first time he really held a military position. Col. Lamar was made Secretary of War, Col. War- ren D. C. Hall having temporarily filled that office after the accidental death of David Thomas, until the appointment of Col. Lamar to fill the vacancy. Several other cabinet changes were made, but for a time that body consisted of :
James Collinsworth, Secretary of State; Miarabeau B. Lamar, Secretary of War; Robert Potter, Secretary of the Navy ; Peter W. Grayson, Attorney-General ; Bailey Harde- man, Secretary of the Treasury, and John Rice Jones, Post- Master General, presided over by President David G. Burnet and Vice-President Lorenzo de Zavala.
May 5th, 1836, the President and cabinet, General Hous- ton and Santa Anna and suite, proceeded on the steamboat Yellowstone to Galveston, and on the 11th, General Houston sailed for New Orleans on the schooner Flora. The great body of the Mexican prisoners were at this time removed to the island. There was then but one small house on the island and on the 8th the heads of the Texian government, with Santa Anna, sailed down to Velasco. In August the prisoners on Galveston Island were sent up to Liberty, in charge of Judge William Hardin, and there held in nominal captivity till the
.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
25th of April, 1837, when all were released. Many of the common soldiers were so well pleased with the Texians that they sought homes among them and remained in the country, a sufficient answer to the falsehoods published by Delgado.
At Velasco, on the 14th of May, a treaty was concluded with Santa Anna, though opposed by Secretaries Lamar and Potter. Col. Lamar's communication addressed to the Presi- dent and cabinet, is here given :
After declaring that Santa Anna had placed himself with- out the pale of civilized warfare, he says : " The conduct of Santa Anna does not permit me to view him in any other light. A chieftain battling for what he conceives to be the rights of his country, however mistaken in his views, may be privileged to make hot and vigorous war upon his foe; but when, in violation of all the principles of civilized conflict, he avows and acts upon the revolting policy of extermination and rapine, slaying the surrender- ing, and plundering whom he slays, he forfeits the com- miseration of mankind, by sinking the character of the hero into that of the abhorred murderer. The President of Mexico has pursued such a war upon the citizens of this Re- public. He has caused to be published to the world a decree, denouncing as pirates beyond the reach of his clemency, all who shall be found rallying around the standard of our Inde- pendence. In accordance with this decree, he has turned over to the sword the bravest and the best of our friends and fel- low citizens, after they had grounded their arms, under the most solemn pledges that their lives should be spared. He has fired our dwellings, laid bare our luxuriant fields, excited servile and insurrectionary war, violated plighted faith, and inhumanly ordered the cold-blooded butchery of prisoners who had been betrayed into capitulation by heartless profes- sions. I humbly conceive that the proclamation of such principles, and the perpetration of such crimes, place the offender out of the pale of negotiation, and demand at our
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
hands other treatment than what is due to a mere prisoner of war. Instinct condemns him as a murderer, and reason justi- fies the verdict. Nor should the ends of justice be averted because of the exalted station of the criminal, nor be made to give way to the suggestions of interest, or any cold consider- ations of policy. He who sacrifices human life at the shrine of ambition is a murderer, and deserves the punishment and infamy of one; the higher the offender the greater reason for its infliction. I am therefore of the opinion that our prisoner, General Santa Anna, has forfeited his life by the highest of all crimes, and is not a suitable object for the exercise of our pardoning prerogative."
Finding that these views were so much at variance with those of the President and a majority of the cabinet, he urged as the next best course to adopt, the detention of Santa Anna until a treaty of peace could be concluded with Mexico. " I still feel that strict justice," wrote Lamar, " requires this course ; that it is sustained by reason, and will receive the sanction of the present generation, as well as the approving voice of posterity. If the cabinet could concur with me in this view of the subject, and march boldly up to what I conceive to be the line of right, it would form a bright page in the history of this infant nation. It would read well in the future annals of the present period, that the first act of this young Republic was to teach the Caligula of the age that, in the administra- tion of public justice, the vengeance of the law falls alike impartially on the prince and the peasant. It is time that such a lesson should be taught the despots of the earth ; they have too long enjoyed an exemption from the common punish- ment of crime. Enthroned in power, they banquet on the life of man, and then purchase security by the dispensation of favors. We have it in our power now to give an impulse to ยท a salutary change in this order of things. We are sitting in judgment upon the life of a stupendous villian, who, like all others of his race, hopes to escape the blow of merited venge-
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
ance by the strong appeals which his exalted station enables him to make to the weak or selfish principles of nature. Shall he be permitted to realize his hopes or not? Shall our re- sentment be propitiated by promises, or shall we move sternly onward, regardless of favor or affection, to the infliction of a righteous punishment? My voice is, 'Fiat justitia ruat colum,' - let the same punishment be awarded him which we would feel bound in honor and conscience to inflict on a sub- altern, charged and convicted of a like offense. This is all that justice requires. If he has committed no act which would bring condemnation on a private individual, then let him be protected; but, if he has perpetrated crimes, which a man in humble life would have to expiate upon the scaffold, then why shield him from the just operations of a law to which another is held amenable? The exalted criminal finds security in negotiation, whilst the subaltern offender is given over to the sword of the executioner. Surely no considerations of inter- est, or policy, can atone for such a violation of principle. View the matter in every possible light, and Santa Anna is still a murderer.
" It will be useless to talk to a soldier of San Jacinto about national independence, and national domain, so long as the bones of his murdered brethren are bleaching on the prairies unavenged. Treble the blessings proposed to be gained by this negotiation will be considered as poor and valueless, when weighed against the proud and high resentment which the sol- diers feel for wrongs received. In the day of battle the animating cry was ' Alamo!' and why? Because it was known that the slaughterer of the Alamo was then in the field ; it was him they sought. It was not against the poor and degraded instruments of his tyranny that we warred ; they fell, it is true, before our avenging strokes, like grass before the reaper's sickle. *
* * The great difficulty in dealing with our prisoner as his crimes deserve, arises, as I have already intimated, from the fact that education will
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
not permit us to strip him of his ill-gotten honors, and view him in the light of a private individual. We are taught, by what we see around us in early childhood, to reverence wealth and power, and it is almost impossible in after life to eman- cipate the mind from the slavish thraldom, so that when we approach the guilty lords of creation, there is an involuntary shrinking back, as if we deemed them privileged in enormity, and not amenable to us for their outrages. We feel that we should not deal with him as we would with ordinary men. If a peasant, convicted of murder, shall offer a bribe for the preser- vation of his life, it meets with prompt and indignant repulsion ; but if a prince, under like circumstances, shall, in the fullness of his power, propose some lordly favor, it is accepted with avidity, as if it were, upon our part, a virtuous performance of duty. Besides this, we flatter ourselves that there is noth- ing wrong in the transaction because we are not personally and privately the beneficiaries of the bargain; but certainly the right or wrong doth not depend upon who are the recip- ients, whether the public or an individual. If we have a right thus to act for the good of the nation, we can do the same for the good of the community ; and if for a community we can for a family; and if for a family, why may not that family be our own? This mode of reasoning will readily exhibit the fallacy, if not the immorality, of that doctrine which draws a distinction between a high and a low offender, and justifies a negotiation with the one which would be odious and criminal in another."
Lamar was a Georgian. He had visited Texas with the intention of becoming a citizen, in July, 1835, but in conse- quence of the closing of the land offices he could not obtain an order for his head-right and so returned temporarily to Georgia, but hastened his return to Texas as soon as he learned of the advance of the Mexicans. He landed at Velasco not far from the time of the Goliad massacre. Fan- nin and the flower of his division were Georgians Many of
-
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
them belonged to families whom Lamar knew personally. He writes thus of them : " Never did the broad light of day look upon a fouler murder ; never were a better or braver people sacrificed to a tyrant's ferocity. The most of them were youthful heroes."
He considered his views as safe in policy as they were sound in principle.
" I have always thought," Lamar said, " and still believe that our sole reliance should be upon our swords and not upon the faith of Santa Anna. If the armies now on the retreat shall dare a countermarch, there will not be in the next battle a Mexican left to tell the tale of their defeat; and if another expedition against us shall be gotten up in the fall or in the spring, there will come into our country such a caval- cade of heroes as will make their chivalry skip. The very first army that turns its face to the east will awaken a war which will move onward and onward over the broad prairies of the west, knowing no termination until it reaches the walls of Mexico, where we shall plant the standard of the single star, and send forth our decrees in the voice of our artil- lery."
After declaring his readiness to yield to the acts of the majority of the cabinet in the settlement of this embarras- sing, question he concluded as follows: " That my feelings and opinions may not be misapprehended, I beg leave by way of recapitulation, to state, that, towards the common soldiers among the Mexican prisoners, I cherish no malice or resentment, looking upon the most of them in the light of unwilling instruments in the hands of tyranny ; neither can I
perceive in the conduct of the officers any particular acts which might not be considered as legitimate in a soldier de- voted to his profession, or in a patriot enlisted in the cause of his country. These, after an exchange of prisoners, I would retain in the custody of the government until the conclusion of the war ; but viewing Santa Anna altogether in a different
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
attitude, I would adopt the course in reference to him which I have already urged."
General Jackson, then President of the United States, did not agree with Lamar. On the 4th of September he wrote to Houston as follows : " I take the liberty of offering a remark or two upon a report which is current here, that Santa Anna is to be brought before a military court to be tried and shot. Nothing now could tarnish the character of Texas more that such an act as this. Sound policy as well as humanity
approved of the counsels which spared his
life. * * His person is still of much consequence to you. He is the pride of the Mexican soldiers, and the favorite of the priesthood. While he is in your power, the difficulties of your enemy in raising another army will continue to be great. The soldiers of Mexico will not willingly march into Texas, when they know that their advance may cost their favorite general his life. Let not his blood be shed unless imperious necessity demands it, as a retaliation for future Mexican massacres. Both wisdom and humanity enjoin this course in relation to Santa Anna ."
From Fort Jessup, La., on the 3rd of August, 1836, General Edmund P. Gaines, of the United States army, wrote General Houston : " No inconsiderable portion of your fame, resulting from your late campaign, the great victory of San Jacinto, will be found in the magnanimity and moral courage displayed by you in preserving the lives of your prisoners, and more especially the life of President Santa Anna, when taken in connection with the great provocation given in his previous conduct at the Alamo and at Goliad. The government and the infant republic of Texas will derive imperishable fame from their and your forbearance in this case. All civilized and enlightened men, in all time and geographical space, will unite in filling the measure of glory and honor due for such magnanimity, forbearance and humanity."
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Having thus given the opposing views on the subject, the treaty is here presented :
THE TREATY, MAY 14, 1836.
" Articles of an agreement entered into between his Excel- lency, David G. Burnet, President of the Republic of Texas, of the one part, and General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, President and General-in-Chief of the Mexican army of the other part.
" Art. 1st. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna agrees that he will not take up arms, nor will he exercise his influ- ence to cause them to be taken against the people of Texas during the present war of Independence.
" Art. 2nd. All hostilities between the Mexican and Texian troops will cease immediately, both on land and water.
" Art. 3rd. The Mexican troops will evacuate the territory of Texas, passing to the other side of the Rio Grande del Norte.
" Art. 4th. The Mexican army, in its retreat, shall not take the property of any person without his consent and just in- demnification, using only such articles as may be necessary for its subsistence when the owner may not be present ; and remitting to the commander of the Texas army, or to commis- sioners, to be appointed for the adjustment of such matters, an account of the value of the property consumed, the place where taken, and the name of the owner if it can be ascer- tained.
" Art. 5th. That all private property, including cattle, horses, negro slaves, or indentured persons of whatever denomination, that may have been captured by the Mexican army, or may have taken refuge in said army, since the com- mencement of the late invasion, shall be restored to the commander of the Texian army or to such other persons as may be appointed by the government of Texas to receive them.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
*
" Art. 6th. The troops of both armies will refrain from coming into contact with each other, and, to this end, the commander of the army of Texas will be careful not to approach within a point nearer than five leagues of the Mexican army.
" Art. 7th. The Mexican army shall not make any other delay on its march than that which is necessary to take up their hospitals, baggage, etc., and to cross the rivers; any delay not necessary to these purposes to be considered an infraction of this agreement.
" Art. 8th. By express, to be immediately dispatched, this agreement shall be sent to General Filisola and to T. J. Rusk, commander of the Texian army, in order that they may be apprised of its stipulations, and to this end they will exchange engagements to comply with the same.
" Art. 9th. That all Texian prisoners now in possession of the Mexican army or its authorities, be forthwith released and furnished with free passports to return to their homes, in consideration of which, a corresponding number of Mexican prisoners, rank and file, now in the possession of the Texian government, shall be immediately released. The remainder of the Mexican prisoners that continue in possession of the Texian government to be treated with due humanity; any extraordinary comforts that may be furnished them shall be at the expense of the Mexican government.
" Art. 10th. That General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna shall be sent to Vera Cruz as soon as it shall be deemed proper.
" The contracting parties sign this instrument for the above mentioned purposes, by duplicates at the port of Velasco, this 14th of May, 1836.
" DAVID G. BURNET,
" ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA. "
" JAMES COLLINSWORTH, Secretary of State.
" BAILEY HARDEMAN, Secretary of Treasury.
" P. W. GRAYSON, Attorney-General. "
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
THE SECRET TREATY.
" PORT OF VELASCO, May 14, 1836.
" Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, General-in-Chief of the Army of Operations and President of the Republic of Mexico before the government established in Texas, solemnly pledges himself to fulfill the stipulations contained in the following articles, so far as concerns himself :
" Art. 1st. He will not take up arms, nor cause them to be taken up, against the people of Texas, during the present war for Independence.
" Art. 2nd. He will give his orders that in the shortest time the Mexican troops may leave the territory of Texas.
" Art 3rd. He will so prepare things in the cabinet of Mexico, that the mission that may be sent thither by the gov- ernment of Texas may be well received, and that by means of negotiations all differences may be settled and the inde- pendence that has been declared by the convention may be acknowledged.
" Art. 4th. A treaty of amity, comity, and limits will be established between Mexico and Texas, the territory of the latter not to extend beyond the Rio Bravo del Norte.
" Art. 5th. The present return of General Santa Anna to Vera Cruz, being indispensable for the purpose of effecting his solemn engagements, the government of Texas will pro- vide for his immediate embarkation for said port.
" Art. 6th. This instrument being obligatory on the one part, as well as on the other, will be signed in duplicates, re- maining folded and sealed until the negotiations shall have been concluded, when it shall be restored to His Excellency, General Santa Anna, no use to be made of it during that time,
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
unless there should be an infraction by either of the contract- ing parties.
" ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA. DAVID G. BURNET."
" JAMES COLLINSWORTH, Secretary of State.
" BAILEY HARDEMAN, Secretary of Treasury.
" PETER W. GRAYSON, Attorney-General."
Secretary Lamar was not in accord with this treaty, but thought it very good, if a treaty had to be made. The Secre- tary of the Navy, Robert Potter, was violently opposed to it - especially to the 10th article. In a letter to President Burnet of May 12th, from the post of Galveston, he writes : " I learn from authentic information that Mr. Loring, the officer who fell into their (the Mexicans') hands from the Invincible, was butchered by Thompson, and that about 20 others, taken at San Patricio, were to be shot the next day. This information seems to me to demand a revival of the question, already debated with much feeling in the cabinet, as to the proper mode of dealing with our prisoners. It is my clear conviction heretofore expressed in cabinet council, that Santa Anna and his officers should be hanged and the privates condemned to servitude for life." Mr. Potter's information was in part untrue. The prisoners to whom he refers escaped.
5
CHAPTER V.
Retreat of Filisola - Gen. Adrian Woll - Indian Massacres and Captures - Burial of Fannin's slaughtered Heroes - Grayson and Collinsworth sent as Commissioners to the United States.
We will now return to Filisola at Fort Bend. The news of the overthrow of Santa Anna, speedily confirmed, caused a panic in his camp. Before Santa Anna's order of the 22d reached him he had caused Gaona's division to recross the Brazos and commenced a hasty retreat. At Mrs. Powell's farm, fifteen miles from Fort Bend, he had concentrated his troops, including Urrea's advance division. He admits hav- ing had 4,078 men, but probably had over five thousand. This was April 25th, only four days after the battle. A council of the generals was held in which they agreed to re- treat beyond the Colorado, open communication with the capital and await advice and assistance. The retreat was dis- orderly, the roads being strewn with carts, muskets and other effects impeding the progress of infantry. On the 28th, before reaching the Colorado, Deaf Smith overtook them bearing Santa Anna's order of the 22d.
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