USA > Texas > The history of the republic of Texas, from the discovery of the country to the present time; and the cause of her separation from the republic of Mexico > Part 16
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But it is almost impossible to believe that these, and they are but the first elements of civilization, will ever find their way to, and be cherished in Texas, a country filled with habitual liars, drunkards, blasphemers, and slanderers ; sanguinary gamesters and cold-blooded assassins ; with idleness and slug- gish indolence (two vices for which the Texans are already proverbial) ; with pride, engendered by ignorance and supported by fraud, the art of which, though of modern construction, is so well defined, and generally practised, that it retards even the development of the spontaneous resources of the country.
That all the elements of an intolerable and
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LANDOWNERS, SHAREHOLDERS, SPECULATORS.
despotic aristocracy are rife in the United States at this moment, no one can deny; and that these elements are for the most part confined to the · southern states (whence the Texans principally come from), is equally indisputable, and we need no further proof of their existence in Texas, than the simple fact, that every revolutionary movement that has occurred in Mexico since the establishment of an Anglo-American colony on the Mexican fron- tier, has been stigmatized and complained of by the democratic republican Texans, as " the acts of the populace," or " mob." Here we may ask what has the Mexican army been since the establish- ment of republican institutions in Mexico, but a citizen soldiery ? or, in other words, the republican constituency of the country in arms ?
The inconsistency of these complaints from a republican people, is only equalled by the warm sympathy which they drew forth from the people of the southern states; a fact that should not be overlooked by the well-wishers of democratic movements in the north.
But if we need any further proof of the aristo- cratic.disposition of the Texans, it will be found in the impenetrable lines of demarcation already es- tablished in society in Texas, which is divided into the four following and distinct classes ;- Despotic aristocratical Land-owners and Speculators, Usefuls, Contemptibles, and Loafers.
The first consists chiefly of Planters, Slave-
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USEFULS, CONTEMPTIBLES, AND LOAFERS.
holders, and Government Officers .* These men have not the least spirit of accommodation in them, and the simplest act of civility may be considered as a very great condescension for them.
The second are overscers, store-keepers, and master tradesmen. The contemptibles are those who are obliged to labour hard to get their daily bread ; these are also called " white niggers."
The Loafers are by far the most numerous class, and are those who go about from one dram-shop to another, for the purpose of gaming and sponging on their friends, and not unfrequently on strangers ; }. but this latter practice is by far too common in Texas to be confined or strictly applied to any one branch of the community. . Notwithstanding the existence of these several grades, there is nothing sufficiently remarkable in their dress to dis- tinguish the agriculturist from the soldier, the merchant, or mechanic ; but still, when you be- hold the Texans, either separately or en masse,
# I must beg to exempt the officers of the Texan navy from the criticisms I am now entering on. I cannot refrain from stating that I never met a more liberal, high-minded, and gentle- manly set of men in any part of the world. Their position afloat secures then from the contamination on shore.
+ Such are the people whom Mr. Kennedy represents as " brave, intelligent, enterprising, and calumniated, who are to afford to England the benefit of a profitable connexion," and to Mexico " the advantages resulting from the neighbourhood of a state founded by men of British origin." Sce his Letter, "Times," 12th August, 1811.
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COTTON OF TEXAS.
they exhibit all the features of a ruffianized Euro- pean mob, to whom, however, they are greatly inferior in social refinement, and much less formi- dable in a military point of view. The agriculturist being very deficient in his physical character, and totally ignorant of the manly exercises of the field ; the soldier, of the gentlemanly and professional acquirements of his calling ; the merchant, wanting in faith, stability, and business habits; and the me- chanic, in that inventive genius and perseverance for which the English nation is so justly famed. " Still made up of such motley materials, which have not had time to coalesce and unite into a homogeneous whole, no general and uniform character can be ascribed to the people of Texas. The new settler in mingling with his fellows, witnesses no common or uniform manners, customs, or language, -- sees no pattern to which he may conform, and hence each one retains his own previously formed habits, nor even thinks of adopting any model." *
The planters, however, are, on the whole, about the most moral and best-behaved people in the country. They are, with few exceptions, poor and in debt.+ The slave-labour employed by them, is
* Teras in 1810. By an Emigrant.
+ Very few of the inhabitants of Texas, with the exception of their lands, which are not yet available (being in the hands of their lawful owners, the Indians), are in possession of wealth, or even enough to preserve them from early want .- Teras in 1810. By an Emigrant. Page 233.
P
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COTTON OF TEXAS.
generally obtained on credit, and for which they pay so much monthly or quarterly to the slave- owners, either in cotton or hides.
The slaves thus employed are chiefly owned by New Orleans' cotton brokers, who keep agents con- stantly travelling through the country, to collect the cotton, &c., as the instalments fall due, and in this way the whole of the cotton raised in Texas is pre-engaged by these brokers for three and four years.
That the planters of Texas can stand this ruin- ous system, certainly appears problematical, when we consider their present immense public debt,* and the great burden imposed on them by the congress of 1840, under " an act to create a revenue by direct taxation ;" which is, without any exception, one of the most oppressive systems of taxation f ever yet introduced into any country, and indeed unjustly so, when applied to the Texan planter, whose substance was freely given to sup- port the government, and whose services were as freely given in the ranks of the army, during the
Mr. Hartnel, supposing the French loan of 37,000,000 francs to be realized, makes it 13,614,319 dollars. (See Texasand California, page 47.) If this be true, the proportion on the public debt bearing upon every individual of the 29,088 per- manent residents of Texas, is forty dollars, and not nine, as Mr. Hartnel calculates on Mr. Kennedy's wrong datum of 200,000 souls.
t For assessed taxes of Texas, vide Index, chapter ix.
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TEXAN RURAL ECONOMY.
war of independence, leaving his plantation to be- come a barren waste, his cattle to run wild again, and his wife and children exposed to all the horrors of an internal war.
On the plantations, the spade is seldom seen ; the plough, harrow, and hoe are the only imple- ments of husbandry generally in use in Texas. The fences are all made of wooden rails, and are said to be extremely durable, and are certainly constructed with much rustic taste. The houses of the planters are also made of wood, in the architecture of which they display but little taste for domestic comfort ; they are, however, open to travellers, but not, as some may suppose, without charge, and their charges are by no means so moderate as to lead visitors to suppose that hos- pitality has yielded altogether to the sheer neces- sity of " mine host," whose countenance either betrays low origin, or partakes at once of the acuteness of the Scotch, the discernment of the Irish, and the inflexible sternness of the English. The Texan ladies seldom show themselves to strangers, and, like those of the United States, they use either the pipe or the swab .* They have little
. The " swab " is a piece of soft wood about three inches long, which they chew at one end until it forms a brush, then dipping it into a small bottle of brown rappee snuff, which they carry about them for the purpose of cleaning their teeth; this operation being performed, the " swab" is placed on one side of the mouth, while the pipe sometimes takes the other.
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TEXAN SALUTATIONS.
neatness or cleanliness of person to attract the eye. Their figures are scarcely to be described; coarse from neglect, or emaciated by self-indulgence, their skins have borrowed from the sun the exact hue of the lemon ; and if the countenance be a true index of the mind, I doubt not that their dispositions have somewhat of the peculiar flavour of that sour bullet of the tropics ; but yet, to those who admire silence above every thing else in woman, per- mit me to introduce the ladies of Texas, par ex- cellence, as mutes.
The reader must here be left to forin his own ideas of the rising generation, from the stock above described, while I merely venture to add, that their " constant friction " with the negroes in carly life, will impart a striking " tincture " of the sambo character to the rising race, that will not be less amusing to their transatlantic brethren, than is Mr. Rice in his favourite character of " Jim Crow."
The usual salutation of the Texan gentlemen is, " How does your copperosity sagaciate this morn- ing ?"-" How are you now ?" (this is all after an ab- sence of some years.) " A pretty considerable of a jug full of sun this morning,"-" A tarnation up- street sort of a day this, I calculate."
On entering into conversation, they take out their knives and commence "whittling;"* first taking
* " Whittling" means cutting sticks, for which purpose every Texan as well as American carries a knife.
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YANKEE WHITTLING.
special care to eject from the innermost recesses of their "pants " those small detachments of fleas who are (backed by an auxiliary force of some twenty musquitoes) instinctively prone to locate themselves in those regions. So great is their propensity for " whittling," that they frequently, if sitting on a chair, put down their hand and bring it up again with a long slice off one of the legs, which they begin to "whittle," and " calculate " the exact value per thousand of the wood of which the chairs are made.
When speaking of those men who have been fortunate enough to gain their esteem, they say, " He's an up-street man that," -- " A right smart man," -- A pretty considerable of a man,"-" A tarna- tion tall man :" this last expression, when applied to some of their eminent men who happen to be considerably under the middle standard, is far more amusing than all the rest of their peculiari- ties, and cannot fail to probe the gravity of a stranger.
In no country in the world do men shave more clean than in Texas, and a barber is deemed as great an acquisition in a new settlement, as Sir Isaac Newton's studies have proved him to be in the ad- vancement of science ; indeed the calculations of the latter have not done more, in their way; than those of the former, who, while clinging to the nose, will tell one the exact length of beard a man shaves off' in the course of a life of seventy years, " com-
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RELIGION OF TEXAS.
mencing first to shave at the age of sixteen, and allowing that in every sixty-four days he shaves off one inch of beard, it would, on a calculation, be found, that, at the end of seventy years, he had shaved off fifty-eight feet, two inches of beard." This is certainly an heir-loom in the way of dis- covery, that must be set down to the Texan bar- bers.
The religion established in Texas previous to her separation from Mexico, was the universal re- ligion of the latter country-the Roman Catholic apostolic religion; and as the ceremonies, &c. of that church are so generally known, and celebrated for their uniformity in all Roman Catholic coun- tries, it would be superfluous here to enter into a detail of them; however, it may with safety be said, that the religion of the present white popula- tion of Texas, which is called Protestantism, about as much resembles the Church of England, in its forins and ceremonies, as the forms and ceremonies of the Church of England resemble those of the Greek Church.
But the following comparison, as drawn by an anonymous Texan author, between the Roman Catholic religion in Mexico and Protestantism in Texas, showing their moral influence on their re- spective countries, will serve to establish the truth of the above assertion.
" There is not," says the Texan author, " through- out the vast extent of Mexico, the least variation in
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TEXAN PROTESTANTISM.
the Roman Catholic ritual, from the frontiers of . Guatemala to Santa Fé. The churches are every where scrupulously built upon the same plan-the same number of bells suspended in every steeple -- the statues of the Holy Family, carved in the same posture, with the same inflexible strictness of fea- tures, and dressed exactly in the same style-the same processions are performed at the same hours, and the same cut of ecclesiastical furniture is pre- served. Thus the Roman Catholic religion appears like a figure dressed up for winter, with cloak and cap, and linings of fur. The Protestant religion consists rather of negatives, and is like a young fellow in his summer deshabille. It may be called Christianity in round-about. Our creed (the Pro- testant) sits upon us as light as summer air. It is of a most plastic nature, suffering itself to be moulded into any form or shape. There is but one simple point in it which can be considered as unal- terable, and in which we all agree -- it is to protest. Hence comes our name; but we are now divided into so many petty schisms and parties, that the whole is well nigh reduced to an impalpable powder, having lost all the original leaven and savour."
" As for us," continues the same author, " here, in Texas, we are no ways particular about reli- gion, since we reported ourselves as Roman Ca- tholics, though mortal enemies to that system of faith."
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RELIGION OF TEXAS.
When speaking of this imposition, our author does not go as far as the truth of the case will ad- mit to illustrate his assertion, for it will be remem- bered that the first Anglo-American colonists who entered Texas with General Austin, not only re- ported themselves as, but they solemnly swore that they were, Roman Catholics, which the fundamen- tal laws of Mexico peremptorily required. But the author I am quoting goes on to say, "Think not that we deny the necessary articles which consti- tute the basis of all religions, such as the existence of a Supreme Being, the spirituality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments. We hold fast that indispensable substratum, without which not even civil government could be main- tained ; and we may say, also, that we are more pure in morals than the Mexicans. There are no highway robberies amongst us, nor thefts, except such as proceed from negroes."
Here our author overlooks the cold-blooded as- sassinations committed with the Bowie knife and pistol, that are the constant tenants of every Texan's bosom, and with which hundreds have been killed (white men) since their introduction to the country, to say nothing of the host of Indians who are mur- dered without mercy in Texas daily.
However, he says, " In point of chastity, also, the most important and influential qualification of northern nations, we are infinitely superior to them. Lust is with us hateful and shameful; with them it
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RELIGION OF TEXAS.
is a matter of indifference. This is the chief curse of the south. The leprosy, which unnerves both body and mind, is what caused the mighty Roman empire to sink under the assaults of the northern barbarians." Here he indulges us with the com- mon boast of the Anglo-Americans. "A mighty wave is again starting from the same point, and it will sweep even to the Equator. * * The southern races must be renewed, and the United States are the officina gentium of the new continent. Mexico cannot withstand the shock, nor her people resist. How could they ? who is there to rouse and direct them ? Their priests ? Are they not sunk into gross immorality and ignorance ? What will a sacri- legious priesthood, loaded with concubines and bastards, do for them? Are they not polluted to their heart's core ? Have they not introduced a pestilent distinction between morality and religion ? It is not so with Protestantism, Christianity, with us, is one and the same thing with morality, or, at least, we never attempt to separate them."
" There are," he adds, " undoubtedly hypocrites amongst us also, but I would say they are compa- ratively few. They cannot trust in outward rites, as possessing any value of themselves, in order to lay a deceitful unction to their souls. The Roman Catholic religion, I know, possesses in itself all the rules of morality, and the most efficient spiritual means of enforcing the practice of virtue ; but that religion with them receives a strange hue, from
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RELIGION OF TEXAS.
their system of civilization, which is in the main too much akin to the morisco."
Leaving theological polemics to Doctors Wise- man, Philpots, Pusey, and Chambers, it is only fair to the Catholics to quote what M. de Tocqueville says of them in his book on America. He observes, " I think that the Catholic religion has erroneously been looked upon as the natural enemy of demo- cracy. Amongst the various sects of Christians, Catholicism seems to me on the contrary, to be one of those which are most favourable to the equality of condition. In the Catholic church the religious community is only composed of two elements, the priest and the people. The priest alone rises above the rank of his flock, and all below him are equal."
" On doctrinal points," says our author, " the Catholic faith places all human capacities upon the same level; it subjects the wise and the ignorant, the man of genius and the vulgar crowd, to the details of the same creed; it imposes the same observances upon the rich and the needy; it in- fliets the same austerities upon the strong and the weak ; it listens to no compromise with mortal man, but reducing all the human race to the same standard, it confounds all the distinctions of society at the foot of the same altar, even as they are con- founded in the sight of God."
Finding these loose opinions universally dissemi- nated through Texas, I felt, as a Protestant, anxious to attend some Protestant place of worship,
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RELIGION OF TEXAS.
in order to be able to judge of the extent of the schisms and doctrines of the several religious parties.
Hearing, one day, that the Rev. W. Taylor, a Protestant clergyman, from the United States, who was generally spoken of as an able and ortho- dox preacher, was going to preach, I went to hear him. On entering a room set aside as a place of worship, I found the ladies seated on one side, busily engaged with their fans, while the gentlemen were as industriously employed chewing tobacco on the other. Prayers commenced, and I soon de- tected that the general confession, the Litany, and its substitute, together with the Communion ser- vice, were totally omitted. When the prayers were over, the reverend divine above named, gave a whole chapter from the Romans as his text, and proceeded with his discourse, a portion of which I will here give :- " What," said he, " is all this bustle and fussing we hear in the world about the salva- tion of man's soul ? Why, it is the simplest thing alive-the simplest thing in the world. It is a simple matter of fact, and I'll tell you how it is to be done-I'll tell you how. Why, go home, and be- lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ-that's all-that's all you have to do. I have always preached this doctrine, and, to illustrate the comfort it has given to the afflicted, I'll mention a case. A poor Dutch- man, who had lost two children, came running -- [Mark ! the Dutchman ran !! ] -- in great trouble.
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RELIGION OF TEXAS.
I asked him what was the matter? when he ex- claimed, ' Oh, Sir!
' Mine two babes, Sir, so dead as knits,
' Whom Got did take avay vid fits ;
' Dem vas too good to live vid me,
'So Got did take dem home to live vid he.'
' Well, well,' I said, ' you must go home, too.' The man stared at me; but I said to him again, ' You must go home!'-he looked down -- ' and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ !' He did not wait to make any answer, but ran away, and in a few days he came to me again, and said, ' Oh, Sir,
' If Got did kill mine babes so dead as knits,
' You did take avay mine fits.'"
This discourse was delivered with great energy, and at the conclusion of it the congregation sung a hymn to the air of " Auld lang syne," and retired .**
They have in Texas, Methodists, Independents, and a long string of other dissenters from their Protestant church, but whether these constitute the schisms which the Texan author alludes to, I am not prepared to say, though I soon discovered the existence of both " the petty schisms, parties," and the " impalpability " of the "powder" to which Protestantism is reduced among the Texan com-
* This sermon was actually delivered at Houston, in Texas, in 1840.
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RELIGIOUS TOLERATION IN TEXAS.
munity, who have been lauded by many travellers as the warmest advocates of religious toleration ! But to bring this subject to the test, we will suppose the man who "ran" to Mr. Taylor, in such sad dudgeon, to be a black man, -- a negro, and Mr. Taylor seeing the trouble of the father for the loss of his children, would he dare say to the poor negro, " Go home, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ ?" Not he : for if he were to approach the negro, even in the capacity of a clergyman, or if a Roman Catholic priest were to venture to put the sign of the cross on a black man in Texas, what would be the consequence ? He would be either shot on the spot, or he would be taken, tarred, feathered, whipped, and started on a log into the nearest river, to find his way to the bottom, or to some more hospitable locality. Such is the truc spirit of religious toleration in Texas.
In these criticisms of the white population, I may be considered by some, who are unacquainted with the character of the frontier settlers of the transatlantic states, to be biassed by some personal or political prejudice ; but such is not the case, and in order to prove this, I will avail myself of Mr. Kennedy's description of a solitary member of a very numerous Anglo-American fraternity. " Bring down my baggage," said one of these worthies, an adventurer (a gambler) from Arkansas, to the waiter of an inn. "What is it, sir ?" in- quired the latter. " Three pistols, a bowic-knife, a
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TEXAN HOTELS AND BOARDING HOUSES.
pack of cards, and a shirt." " Among all ranks and classes in Mexico," continues Mr. Kennedy, as if fearing that the above anecdote would tell too strongly against the Texans, "the mania for gambling ruinously prevails." But this he ad- vances from hearsay, never having been in Mex- ico, and therefore must not be taken as an infalli- ble authority on this subject ; however, the mania for gambling does prevail in Mexico to about the extent that it does in Old Spain.
The hotels and boarding-houses in Texas are conducted in the most miserable way, being ex- tremely filthy, filled with vermin of every descrip- tion, and wretchedly supplied with food. Their charges are exorbitant, and after the description I have given of the people, the reader can easily imagine what the society must be. These esta- blishments on the sea coast, such as at Galveston, Matagorda, and at Houston, are in a slight degree better than those in the interior, one of which we find thus described by the author of " Texas in 1840," pages 49 and 50. " Hard lodging! In due time after supper we were shown to our lodging in an outer apartment, only partially covered by a roof, and that part far from being water-proof. Our bed consisted of a quilt spread upon the floor, and our covering of another we brought with us. The upper parts of the room were occupied by the poultry, whose frequent noises, and the dripping of the rain, rendered sleep a difficult though
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TEXAN HOUSES.
a desirable business." Having been weather-bound for some days at this establishment, which is situated on the Colorado, I can bear the fullest testimony to the difficulty attending the desirable business alluded to in the above quotation.
The ordinary furniture of the houses in Texas, is of the rudest construction. The tables are made of boards cut from the trunk of a tree with a com- mon axe, and pegged or nailed to cross-pieces, so as to keep them together. The chairs are formed with round sticks and cross-pieces, and then covered with the raw hide of oxen or deer skin, to form the seat ; and a great many of the bedsteads are also covered in the same way. On this hide, which becomes as hard and as tight as the head of a drum when dry, without covering of any kind or even mattress, the traveller is frequently obliged to lay his weary bones ; but at some places you find mattresses made of Spanish moss, corn husks, or coarse prairie grass; but as for feather-beds, they are not to be found in Texas, where they would be by no means a contemptible creature- comfort of a winter's night.
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