USA > Texas > Bastrop County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 12
USA > Texas > Travis County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 12
USA > Texas > Burleson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 12
USA > Texas > Lee County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 12
USA > Texas > Williamson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 12
USA > Texas > Milam County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 12
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In 1857 Texan wagoners committed many acts of violence upon Mexican cartmien in the transportation of goods from San Anto- nio. The freight rates were so low as to drive the Texan wagoners from the field. POLITICAL PARTIES. The latter, moreover, were not quite so faith- ful as the Mexicans. Ontrages became so The general political parties were not defi- mitely organized in Texas until during Pease's administration. The party factions opposed to each other previous to this differed only on personal or local matters. After the annex- ation the people naturally allied themselves gradually with either the Whig or the Demo- cratie party, but took no zealous part in their issues for eight or ten years, on account of the greater importance of local questions; these settled, they began to become more decidedly Whig or Democratic, with a far greater pre- numerous and high-handed that Gencral Twiggs, the United States commander at San Antonio, was compelled to furnish a military escort to trains transporting Government sup- plies. In October, the Mexican minister at Washington addressed the United States Gov- ernment on the matter, stating that he had been assured that the number of men this innrdered was no less than seventy-five, and that many Mexicans had been compelled to fly to Mexico, in a state of destitution. In November, Governor Pease addressed special ponderance on the Democratic side. Between
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
1854 and 1857, " Know-nothingism" had considerable influence. By the latter party, in 1855, L. D. Evans was elected to Congress from the Eastern District of Texas, and the same year Dickson, for governor, received 17,968 votes, against Pease, who was then re-elected.
In 1857 the death of two eminent Texas statesmen took place,-Thomas J. Rusk and James Hamilton, of South Carolina. Their sketches may be found on a subsequent page, by the index.
SIGNS OF THE COMING STORM.
December 21, 1857, Hardin R. Rnnnels, the successful Democratic candidate, was in- angurated governor. Ile had been elected by a vote of 32,552 against 23,628 for Sa:n Houston.
By this time the old slavery question began to looin up in its various relations to passing political events, and nothing so exasperating could happen to the American public, both North and South. Runnels addressed a mes- sage, in Jannary, 1858, to the legislature, calling attention to the aspect of affairs in Kansas, and clearly advocating the doctrine of secession. During the same month a Democratic State convention at Austin re- solved that it suspected the United States Government of abandoning the principle of " non-intervention" in respect to the slavery question, in its dealings with Kansas and Nebraska. T. J. Chambers offered resolu- tions to the effect that any act on the part of Congress tending to embarrass the admission of Kansas as a member of the Union would be a usurpation of power, etc., and that in , case Congress should do such a thing Texas should again declare independence. In re- sponse to the governor's message the legisla- !
ture adopted a resolution to appoint delegates to a general convention of the Southern States, to act in self-defense and in protection of immigrants in Kansas from the South, who were denied the rights of citizenship there.
Runnels, at the close of his term, again ran as a candidate for governor, on the Demo- cratic ticket, but was defeated by Sam Hous- ton, independent, by a majority in favor of the latter of 8,757 votes, the latter being known as opposed to secession. In 1858, a vacancy occurred on the supreme benchi, and the Democrats nominated for it a Mr. Buck- ley, whose reputation was not the best, and was of well-known disunion proclivities; and he was defeated by an overwhelming mna- jority, by Bell, an avowed Unionist.
During the canvass of 1859, the Demo- cratic convention at Houston contained mem- bers who spoke publicly and veliemently in favor of secession, and even uplield the Afri- can slave trade. Indeed, so much sympathy for Sonthern independence was manifest at that convention that the Democratic party of Texas was clearly known as committed in fa- vor of secession, if the Federal Government did not recede from its intervention policy with the great Southern institution.
Honston, therefore, took his seat as gover- nor at a time when intense political excite- ment prevailed throughout the United States, as well as in Texas. By the close of 1859 the opposing parties were uncompromisingly arrayed against each other on the slavery question. and the fire of disruption was be- ing kindled. The victory of the Abolition party in Kansas and the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry aggravated the feeling of dis- appointment throughout the South. Accord- ingly, in December, this year, the legisla- ture of South Carolina, famous for taking the lead for the South, passed resolutions in favor
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
of secession, and appropriated a contingent of $100,000 for military purposes, should it be required. These resolutions were ad- dressed to the governors of all the Southern States. On the receipt of them, Honston addressed a long message to the Texas legis- lature, opposing secession. It had a great influence npon that body, for the members very temperately passed resolutions favoring union, except that they held that a State had the right to secede, etc. There were majority and minority reports of the committees of both branches of the legislature, the minority holding that a State did not have the right to secede.
Many years previously, a secret order was formed for the purpose of establishing a Sonthern empire, with slavery, and known as the Knights of the Golden Circle. Its em- pire was to have Havana, Cuba, as its center and extend in every direction from that six- teen geographical degrecs. It is said that the filibustering expeditions of 1850 and 1857 were undertaken under the anspices of this organization, and that now, in the anti- slavery agitation at the North, the disap- pointed Democrats began to turn to it for aid. "In 1860," says Bancroft, "two mein- bers of the order, George W. Bickley and his nephew, were employed to organize ' castles,' or lodges, in Texas, receiving as remuneration for their work the initiation fees paid by in- coming members. Such castles were soon established in every principal town and vil- lage in the State, and they became a power in the land. In it were many members of the legislature and prominent politicians. By its influence the sentiments of the people were revolutionized; from its fold were drawn the first armed rebels in Texas, under the fa- mnous ranger, Benjamin MeCullough; it fur- nished the vigilance committees; and to its
members were charged murders and incendi ary acts committed during the war."
Even after Sonth Carolina had positively declared secession from the Union, in De- cember, 1860, Houston stood true to his prin- ciples of Unionisin, though it must be confessed that many Union men in the State were suspected of too great sympathy with the Abolitionisin of the North, and were hanged by vigilance committees, and that most others were terrorized into silence. So said Senator Clingman, of North Carolina, at the time. Remember, it is not understood that such outrages are chargeable to the Democrats as such, but to " mobocrats," of whatever party. Sixty of these Knights, says Bancroft, issued a call for a State convention at Austin, to meet January 28, 1861. The inass of the people considered tlie proceeding as irregular, as the Knights took pains to put in their own inen as judges at the primary elections wherever practicable, and barely half of the counties Were represented at the convention by the people. The legislature, by a joint resolution, recognized the infor- mally elected delegates and declared the con- vention a legally constituted assembly. Hous- ton's veto was overruled, and on the appointed day the convention met. February 1, it passed the ordinance of secession, by a vote of 167 to 7, subject to a vote of the people on the 23d. This body, also, without waiting to hear what the result of the popular vote might be, appointed a " committee of public safety," with secret instructions, and ap- pointed also delegates to the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama. This committee of safety usurped the powers of the exeentive, and appointed three commis- sioners to treat with General Twiggs, in com- mand of the United States forces in Texas, for the surrender of his armny and the na-
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
tional posts and property. February 16th he complied, surrendering 2,500 men, and all the forts, arsenals, military posts, public stores and munitions of war, all the property being valued at $1,200,000 cost price.
A few days before the popular vote was taken, as above noted, Houston delivered a speech from the balcony of the Tremont House in Galveston, to the excited publie, on the question of secession. His personal friends, fearing that violence would be offered, entreated him to remain qniet; but he was not to be stopped by any apprehension of danger. He stood erect before the people, and in prophetic language pictured to them the dark future. "Some of you," he said, " laugh to scorn the idea of bloodshed as a result of secession, and joeularly propose to drink all the blood that will ever flow in con- sequence of it. But let me tell you what is coming on the heels of secession: the time will come when your fathers and husbands, your sons and brothers, will be herded to- gether like sheep and cattle at the point of the bayonet, and your mothers and wives, sisters and daughters, will ask: Where are they? You may, after the sacrifice of count- less millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of precious lives, as a bare possi- bility, win Sonthern independence, if God be not against you; but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of State rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in cooler climates; but when they begin to move in a given direction, where great in- terests are involved, such as the present issues before the country, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a To lose no time, the State convention as- sembled on March 2, in order to be ready for mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South with ignoble de- "immediate action as soon as the result of the
feat." Before the close of his speech, how- ever, he said, " Better die freemen than live slaves. Whatever course Texas may pursue, my faith in State supremacy and State rights will carry my sympathies with her. As Henry Clay had said, ' My country, right or wrong,' so say 1, My State, right or wrong."
It seems from the above that Houston was a shrewd reader of human nature, as also from the following remarks in his message to the legislature a year previously: " To nul- lify constitutional laws will not allay the existing discord. Separation from the Union will not remove the unjust assanlts made by a class in the North upon the institutions in the South. They would exist from like pas- sions and like feelings under any govern- ment. The Union was intended as a per- petuity. In accepting the conditions imposed prior to becoming a part of the Confederacy, the States became a part of the Union. In becoming a State of the Union, Texas agreed ' not to enter into any treaty, alliance or con- federation, and not, without the consent of Congress, to keep troops or ships of war, enter into any agreement or compact with any other State or foreign power.' "
The result of the vote of February 23 for delegates to the State convention to consider the propriety of secession, was in substance as follows: Austin, the capital, San Antonio, and other western towns, as well as counties, gave Union majorities; the German colon- ists, too, were for the Union, while the rest of the State gave large Confederate majori- ties. Out of about 70,000 voters in the State, 53,256 cast their votes; and of this number 39,415 were in favor of secession, and 13,841 against it.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
vote was known, which proved to be on the 5th. They, therefore, innnediately assumed the powers of government. It instructed its delegates at Montgomery to ask for the ad- mission of Texas into the Southern Confed- eracy that had just been formed; it sent a committee to Governor Ilonston to inform him of the change in the political position of the State; it a :opted the Confederate con- stitution, and appointed representatives to the Confederate congress. During the Con- f. deracy, Lewis T. Wigfall and William S. Oldham represented Texas in the senate, and John A. Wilcox, C. C. Herbert, Peter W. Gray, B. F. Sexton, M. D. Graham, William B. Wright, A. M. Branch, John R. Baylor, S. H. Morgan, Stephen H. Derden and A. P. Wiley in the house.
In his reply to the above convention Hons- ton said that that body had transcended its powers, and that he would lay the whole matter before the legislature, which was to assemble on the 18th; whereupon the con- vention defied his authority and passed an ordinance requiring all State officers to take the oath of allegiance to the new govern- ment. Houston and E. W. Cave, secretary of State, refused to take the oath, and they were deposed by a decree of the convention, and Edward Clark, lieutenant governor, was installed as the executive. Houston then appealed to the people, and when the legisla- ture met, sent to it a message protesting against his removal, stating at the same time that he could but await their action and that of the people. He argned his case ably and well before both the legislature and the peo- ple, but the legislature sanctioned the acts of the convention. Houston then retired to private life.
During these years Indian depredations con- tinued, and were more frequent and daring after
Twiggs had surrendered all the United States forces on the frontier to the Texans; and also after the removal of the Indians from the reservations in Young county the hostility of the red savages was intensified. The more peaceable Indians had been removed to a great distance, while the more hostile were next in proximity. There was one reinarka- ble exception, however, to the above observa- tion: A band of emigrants from the Creek nation, consisting of Alabamas, Coshattas and a few Muscogees, persevered in their peaceful pursuits on Alabama creek, on the side toward Trinity river, despite the frequent depredations committed upon them by " mean whites." As a community they set a model example of industry, honesty, patience and peaceableness.
While the northern and western frontier was subjected to slily conducted forays by the untutored savages, the southern borders on the Rio Grande were afflicted with a more open and formidable invasion by a Mexican desperado named Cortina. IIe and his gang had long been known for their frequent thefts of cattle and other depredations. He and his followers, by professing sympathy with the persecuted Mexicans living in Texas, added to their numbers until they had nearly 500, and, like the old Mexican regime, began to inangurate a little rebellion against the gov- ernment. But booty was their principal ob- ject, and they made their escapes the easier by alternating in their operations between Texas and Mexico, claiming while followed in one country to be citizens of the other. The gang sometimes committed murder, as for example in Brownsville, in September. 1859. On the 29th of that month he issued a " proclamation " professing that his object only was to protect persecuted Mexicans in Texas, and that an . organization had been
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
formed for the purpose of chastising their enemies. It is claimed that he was assisted secretly by Mexican money and arms. Dur- ing October and November there were several collisions of Cortina and his men with the Government military forces, with loss on both sides. He devastated the country along the Rio Grande for over 120 miles, and back to the arroyo Colorado. This unprincipled desperado was finally defeated in May, 1861, when lie burned a village named Rome. But he afterward revolutionized Tamaulipas, be- came governor, and intrigued both with the Confederates and the United States officials. In 1871 he was a general under Juarez, and in 1875 mayor of Matamoras and general in the Mexican army.
During the great civil war it was fortunate for Texas that she was geographically situated at a distance from the seat of the main con- flict. The patriotism of her sons cansed all of them to lose much in property, but no battle took place in, or destructive army marched through, her territory. Althoughi hier commerce suffered considerably, she found in Mexico a fair market for her cotton, her main staple, and her numerons ports on the gulf enabled her more easily to run the blockade.
THE STORM BEGUN.
Within a month after the installation of Clark as governor, hostilities broke out. On April 14, 1861, Fort Sumter, at Charleston, Sonth Carolina, was evacuated by Major Robert Anderson, and on the following day President Lincoln issned his proclamation for 75,000 volunteers. Enlistment for the South- ern cause was begun in Texas at once, and early in May Colonel W. C. Young crossed Red river and captured Fort Arbuckle and other military posts of the United States in the
Indian Territory, the Federal soldiers retreat- ing to Kansas. Colonel Ford also, assisted by an expedition from Galveston, took pos- session of Fort Brown, opposite Matamoras, meeting no resistance. Captain Hill, in com- mand there, was still holding it for the United States, having disobeyed the order of General Twiggs to evacuate it, but he had too small a force to hold it against assault.
Governor Clark issued a proclamation June 8 that a state of war existed, and shortly afterward the ports of Texas were blockaded. By November 15,000 Texans were enlisted for the Southern cause.
The election of 1861 showed the small majority of only 124 votes in favor of Fran- cis R. Lubbock for governor, over Clark, can- didate for re election, and he was inaugurated November 7, 1861.
Going back a little, we should state that in July of this year Lieutenant-Colonel John R. Baylor had occupied Fort Bliss, on the Rio Grande, and on the 25th Mesilla, across the Rio Grande. Major Lynde, commanding the United States fort, Fillmore, near by, having failed to dislodge Baylor, snrrendered his whole command of about 700 men. Lien- tenant-Colonel Canby was at this time in command of the department of New Mexico, and made preparations to meet the invasion, while Major Sibley, of the United States Army, had joined the Confederates, and with the rank of brigadier general was ordered in July to proceed to Texas and organize an ex- pedition for the purpose of driving Federal troops out of New Mexico. Sibley reached El Paso with his force about the middle of December, and issued a proclamation inviting his old comrades to join the Confederate army, but met with no response.
Early in 1862 Colonel Canby made Fort Craig, on the Rio Grande, his headquarters.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
February 21 he crossed the river and en- gaged the Texans, but was repulsed. This was the battle of Valverde, in which General Sibley had 1,750 men to 3,810 on Canby's side; but only 900 of Canby's men were reg- ulars, and the others were of but little serv- icc. Encouraged by success so signal, Sibley immediately marched on to Albuquerque, sending a detachment on to Santa Fé, and easily took those places, but, a part of his army meeting with defeat by Colonel Slough, he had to begin a retreat which did not end until he reached Texas. In this bootless cam- paign the Texans lost 500 men; and even General Canby afterward reported that that portion of the country was too unimportant to hold by the expenditure of blood and treasure.
In May, 1862, Commodore Eagle, of the United States Navy, demanded the surrender of the city of Galveston, but could not eu- force his demand. October 4 following lie was re-inforced and easily took the place without much resistance. The Texans criti- cised General Hebert for giving up that city, and he was superseded during the next month by General Magruder, who forthwith made preparations to recapture the island. He made good preparation, with great se- crecy, to attack the island by both land and water, and he was successful in regaining the point, after an engagement that cost the Federals great loss. But the port continued to be blockaded.
At first, and during the earlier part of Governor Lubbock's administration, the Tex- ans enlisted freely and cheerfully, believing that the contest would soon cnd in victory for them, but erc long they began to fecl the tedious burden of war iu many ways. Trade was interfered with, military law pro- claimed, conscription resorted to, etc. All
males from eighteen years of age to forty-tive were made liable to service in the Confed- erate army, with the exception of ministers of religion, State and county officers and slave-holders, the possession of fifteen slaves being the minimum number entitling to ex- cmption. Governor Lubbock was an ex- tremist in regard to this system. In his message to the Legislature in November, 1863, he suggested that every male person from sixteen years old and upward should be declared in the military service of the State; that no one should be permitted to furnish a substitute, and in the same message informed the Legislature that 90,000 Texans were already in the field. When one calls to mind that the greatest number of votes ever polled in the State was but little over 64,000, it will be seen what a tremendous drain had been made on the strength of the country!
August 31, 1861, thie Confederate congress passed a law confiscating all the property of Union men, and banishing the men them- selves. Many persons who had spent their lives in Texas thus lost their property, and even temporary absentees in the North, who would have found it difficult, if not impossi- ble, to return, were likewise deprived of their possessions. Many Unionists, in their at- tempts to cscape to Mexico, were caught and put to death. Says the San Antonio Herald, a paper loyal to the Confederacy: "Their bones are bleaching on the soil of every county from Red river to the Rio Grande, and in the counties of Wise and Denton their bodies are suspended by scores from the black-jacks."
By the close of Lubbock's administration. in 1863, the tide of public opinion and feel- ing began to ebb, as the Confederate arms had met with serious reverses, and the dark
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
shadow of the impossibility of an independent confederacy was casting a gloomy sky over the sunny Sonth.
After the recovery of Galveston island, no other operation of importance oceurred until September, 1863, when the Federals at- tempted to effect a lodginent at Sabine City, the terminus of a railroad. The blockade of Sabine Pass was temporarily broken by the capture of two United States gunboats, out- side the bar. Afterward the Confederates erected a fort at Sabine City, defended by a formidable battery of eight heavy guns, three of which were rifled. A detachment of 4,000 men, with gunboats, from Banks' army, made an attempt in September, 1863, to take Sa- bine City, but met with ignominions defeat, losing two gunboats, 100 men killed and wonnded, and 250 as prisoners. The garri- son of the fort consisted of only 200 Texans, of whom only forty-two took part in the ac- tion. These were presented by President Davis with a silver medal, the only honor of the kind known to have been bestowed by the Confederate government.
On the 26th of July this year General Houston died. Sce his biography on another page, to be found by the index.
The Rio Grande being a national bonndary line, it conld not be blockaded by the United States; but General Banks, after his failure to capture Sabine City, endeavored to take Brownsville, and thus at least cripple the trade between Texas and Mexico. Late in Octo- ber, 1863, supported by a naval squadron under Commander Strong, Banks sailed with 6,000 troops from New Orleans for the Rio Grande. The immediate command, however, was given to General Napoleon Dana. By November 2 the force reached Brazos Santi- ago, and on the 6th took Brownsville, and soon afterward Corpus Christi, Aransas Pass,
Cavillo Pass and Fort Esperanza at the month of Matagorda bay. By the close of thic year Indianola and the Matagorda penin- sula were also in the hands of the Federals. The Texans made but a show of resistance, withdrawing from the coast defenses west of the Colorado. But this possession of Texan forts was of short duration. After a few months the Federals withdrew from all except Brazos Santiago, leaving the duty of gnard- ing the coast to the navy, which soon after- ward captured several Confederate vessels.
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