Texas was a part of the Spanish province
of Mexico which had declared itself independent of Spain. In 1824, when a considerable number
of colonists from the United States were there, the Mexican government
united Coahuila, previously a separate state, with Texas, and placed a
Mexican as governor over the united states. He treated the Americans
there with great injustice, and some of them, engaged in a revolution
(SEE
THE FREDONIAN REVOLUTION),
were
compelled
to retreat into the United States in 1827. In 1830
Bustamente, who had
made himself dictator of Mexico, issued a decree forbidding the people
of the United States to enter Texas as colonists. The American settlers
in Texas then numbered about 20,000, and in 1833 they held a convention,
determined to separate Texas from Coahuila,
prepared a State
constitution, and requested
Santa Anna, then at the head of the
government of Mexico, to admit them as a separate State of the republic.
COL. STEPHEN F. AUSTIN, representing the American colonists,
went to
Mexico, where Santa Anna detained him until 1835; during which
time—keeping the Texans quiet by promises of compliance with their
desires—he prepared to occupy the country with his troops. A
committee
of safety was created in Texas, which assumed governmental powers. The
people armed. A skirmish took place with some Mexicans, near Gonzales (Battle
of Gonzales),
Oct. 2, 1835, and other battles followed. On Nov. 9 a
provisional
government was formed in a delegate convention, called the "
Consultation," and a governor and lieutenant-governor were chosen.

At the same time
SAM HOUSTON, of
Tennessee, who had settled in Texas, was chosen commander-in-chief of
the forces, and Austin was sent as commissioner to the United States.
After San Antonio de Bexar was captured (Dec. 10), the entire Mexican
force was driven out of Texas, and on the 20th a declaration of
independence was adopted, and issued at Goliad, by Capt. Philip Dimitt
and others.
Santa
Anna, with a well-provided army of 7,500 men, set out for the
recovery of Texas. He invested the ALAMO, a strong fort near San
Antonio, with 4,000 men, and, after bombarding it eleven days, carried
it by storm. It was garrisoned by about 170 men, under Capt.
W. B.
Travis. The whole garrison was massacred (March 6) by order of
Santa
Anna—only one woman, a child, and a servant were saved. " Remember
the Alamo!" was a Texan war cry after that. The Mexicans lost, in the
attack, 1,600 men.

Map of the Battle of San
Jacinto
On March 1 a convention issued a
declaration of independence, and a provisional president (David G.
Burnet) was chosen. On the 27th the command of
Colonel Fannin, at
Goliad, were massacred in cold blood, and successive defeats of the
Texans produced a panic. Houston, meanwhile. in order to scatter the
Mexican forces, continually fell back, until he reached
San Jacinto.
There, at the head of a force of 800 troops, he gave battle (April 21,
1836) to about twice that number of Mexicans, and in the pursuit of them
killed 630, wounded 208, and took 730 prisoners. Among the latter,
captured the next day, was President Santa Anna. His force was
annihilated. The survivors fled westward in terror. The war was
practically at an end. The Mexicans did not again invade Texas. Houston
was elected president of the republic (September, 1836). The
independence of Texas was acknowledged by the United States in March,
1837, but Mexico did not give up her claim to it. See
WESTWARD EXPANSION;
BENTON, THOMAS HART.
On July 4, 1845 Texas was annexed to the
United States. This activity was favored by southerners, since Texas
would expand the ranks of the Slave States. For this same reason,
the Annexation of Texas was generally
opposed in the North.
Seeds of Conflict With
Mexico
After the cession of Louisiana to the
United States a controversy arose about its western boundary, which was
amicably settled, in 1806, by General Wilkinson and the Spanish
commander, establishing the territory between the Sabine River and
Arroya Honda as neutral ground. In 1806 revolutionary movements, incited
by those of AARON BURR, began in that region, and many skirmishes and
battles occurred, chiefly by invasions of Americans. In conflicts in
1813 the Spanish lost about 1,000 men; and in a conflict the same year,
a force of about 2,500 Americans and revolted Mexicans was nearly
destroyed. Only about 100 escaped. The Spaniards murdered 700 of the
peaceable inhabitants of San Antonio. After the close of the War of
1812—15 Lafitte made Galveston Island his headquarters, established
there a town named Campeachy, and remained there until 1821, when the
settlement was broken up by United States forces. In 1819 the Sabine was
established as the eastern boundary of Texas, but dissatisfaction caused
disturbances to continue, and the territory was almost deserted. In 1820
Moses Austin, then living in Missouri, received from the Spanish
authorities of Mexico a grant of land in Texas, and dying, his son,
Stephen F., received a confirmation of the grant in 1823. Emigrants from
the United States flocked into Texas. A thousand families were soon
there. Spanish rule was harsh towards the American colonists, and they
were so oppressed that, in 1833, they took the measures to obtain the
independence of the State already described. The
annexation of Texas to the United
states led to a war with Mexico (see
MEXICO, WAR WITH), begun in 1846, and ended by treaty in February,
1848. It then embraced an area of 376,163 square miles. In 1850 the
State ceded to the United States its claims to all territory beyond its
present limits (274,356 square miles), in consideration of $10,000,000
in bonds, with the proceeds of which the State debt was paid.
Secession of Texas
In 1860 politicians began to move for
secession. The venerable governor, Samuel Houston, opposed the movement
with all his might; but members of the
KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE were working secretly and effectively.
Among the Knights were many members of the legislature, and active
politicians all over the State. Sixty of these irresponsible persons,
early in January, 1861, called a State convention, to meet at Austin on
the 28th of that month; and a single member of the legislature issued a
call for the assembling of that body at the same time and place. When
they met, the legislature, by a joint resolution, declared the
convention a legally constituted body. Governor Houston protested
against the assumption of any power by the convention, except to refer
the matter of secession to the people. The convention assembled in the
hall of the House of Representatives, on the appointed day, under the
chairmanship of JUDGE JOHN H. REAGAN. A commissioner from South Carolina
(McQueen) was there to assist. Not one-half of the 122 counties in the
State were represented. On Feb. 1, 1861, an ordinance of secession was
adopted by a vote of 166 against 7. It declared that the national
government had failed " to accomplish the purpose of the compact of
union between the States," and the chief grievance complained of was
that the national government would no longer uphold the slave system.
They therefore abrogated, in the name of the people of Texas, the
ordinance of annexation adopted July 4, 1845. They talked of a "
resumption of sovereign powers " with some plausibility, for Texas was
the only State in the Union that had ever possessed them, as an
absolutely independent State. They decreed that the ordinance should be
submitted to the people, but the day named (Feb. 23) was so early that
no opportunity was afforded the people for discussion.
The convention appointed a committee of
safety to carry out its decision before the people could think or act
upon the ordinance of secession. The committee was immediately
organized, and appointed two of their number (Devine and Maverick)
commissioners to treat with
General David E. Twiggs, then in command of the National troops in
Texas, for the surrender of his army and the public property under his
control to the authorities of Texas. Twiggs performed that act. In
counting the votes cast on Feb. 23 concerning the ordinance of secession
there seemed to be fully 23,000 majority in favor of the ordinance, when
it is asserted that really a very large proportion of the people of
Texas were opposed to it.
Sam Houston's Position on
Secession and the Civil War
Governor
Houston, in his address to the people of his State, early in March,
1861, revealed what he called its usurpations. He had denounced the
convention as an illegal body, gathered through fraud and violence. " To
enumerate all its usurpations," he said, " would be impossible, as a
great portion of its proceedings were in secret. This much has been
revealed: It has elected delegates to the provisional council of the
Confederate States at Montgomery before Texas had withdrawn from the
Union; and also, on the 2d day of March, annexed Texas to the
Confederate States and constituted themselves members of Congress, when
it was not officially known by the convention until the 4th of March
that a majority of the people had voted for secession. While a portion
of these delegates were representing Texas in the Congress of the
Confederate States, two of them, still claiming to be United States
Senators, have continued to represent Texas in the United States Senate,
under the administration of
Mr. Lincoln—an administration which the people of Texas have
declared odious and not to be borne. Yet Texas has been exposed to
obloquy and forced to occupy the ridiculous attitude, before the world,
of attempting to maintain her position as one of the United States, and,
at the same time, claim to be one of the Confederate States. It has
created a committee of safety, a portion of which has assumed the
executive power of the government, and, to supplant the executive
authority, have entered into negotiations with federal officers. This
committee, and commissioners acting under it, have caused the Federal
troops to be removed from posts in the country exposed to Indian
depredations, and had them located, with their arms and field-batteries,
on the coast, where, if their desire is to maintain a position in the
country, they cannot only do so successfully, but destroy the commerce
of the State. They have usurped the power to withdraw these troops from
the frontier; but though in possession of ample stores, munitions of
war, and transportation, have failed to supply troops in place of those
removed. As a consequence, the wail of women and children is heard upon
the border. Devastation and ruin have thus come upon the people; and
though the convention, with all the means in its power, has been in
session two weeks (adjourned session), no succor has been sent to a
devastated frontier.... The convention has assumed to appoint agents to
foreign States, and created offices, civil and military, unknown to the
laws, at its will, keeping secret its proceedings. It has deprived the
people of a right to know its doings. It has appointed officers and
agents under its assumed authority." " It has declared," he said, " that
the people of Texas ratify the provisional government of the Confederate
States, requiring all persons then in office to take an oath of
allegiance to the same or suffer the penalty of removal." It had changed
the State constitution and established a test-oath of allegiance to the
Confederate States, and, " in the exercise of its petty tyranny," had
required the governor and other officers to appear at its bar at a
certain time to take the oath. It had assumed to create organic laws,
and to put the same into execution. " It has overthrown," he said, " the
theory of free government by combining in itself all the departments of
government and exercising the powers belonging to each." The governor
concluded by saying: " I have refused to recognize this convention. I
believe it has received none of the powers it has assumed either from
the people or the legislature. I believe it guilty of a usurpation which
the people cannot suffer tamely and preserve their liberties. I am ready
to lay down my life to maintain the rights and liberties of Texas. I am
ready to lay down office rather than yield to usurpation and
degradation."
Texas in the Civil War
In 1863
General Banks sent
General Franklin, with 4,000 troops, accompanied by four gunboats,
under Lieutenant Crocker, to seize the Confederate post at Sabine Pass,
on the boundary-line between Louisiana and Texas, preparatory to an
attempt to recover the latter State from Confederate control. The
expedition sailed from
New Orleans Sept. 5. A premature attack was made by the gunboats on
the garrison at Sabine Pass (Sept. 8) , and the expedition was a
disastrous failure. Two of the gunboats were captured, and the tra
nsports, with Franklin's troops, fled back to New Orleans, the Nationals
having lost 200 men made prisoners and fifty killed and wounded; also
two gun-boats and fifteen heavy rifled cannon. The garrison attacked
consisted of about 200 men, and only forty were present. Banks now
concentrated his forces on the Atchafalaya, for the purpose of
penetrating Texas by way of Shreveport, on the Red River; but this
design was abandoned for a time (see RED RIVER EXPEDITION), and it was
determined to attempt to seize and hold the coast harbors of Texas. To
mask this movement, Gen. C. C. Washburne, with a considerable body of
troops, advanced from Brashear City to Opelousas, to give the impression
that a march upon Alexandria and Shreveport was again begun. When, in
obedience to orders, he began falling back, he was suddenly and
furiously struck by Confederates under General Richard Taylor, and a
regiment (23d Wisconsin) on which the blow fell was reduced from 226 men
to ninety-eight, most of them made prisoners. Meanwhile about 6,000
National troops, under General Dana, with some war-vessels, had sailed
for the Rio Grande. Banks, in person, accompanied the expedition. The
troops debarked (Nov. 2) at Brazos Santiago, drove a small Confederate
cavalry force stationed there, and followed them to Brownsville,
opposite Matamoras, which Banks entered on Nov. 6. At the close of the
year the National troops occupied all the strong positions on the Texan
coast excepting Galveston Island and a formidable work at the mouth of
the Brazos River, and the Confederates had abandoned all Texas west of
the Colorado River.

STATE
CAPITOL AT AUSTIN, TEXAS.
Notwithstanding the downfall of the civil
and military power of the Confederacy east of the Mississippi, the
insurgents west of it, under the command and influence of
General E. Kirby Smith, were disposed to continue the conflict
longer. He addressed his soldiers on April 21, 1865, telling them that
upon their prowess depended " the hopes of the [Confederate] nation." He
assured them that there were hopes of succor from abroad. " Protract the
struggle," he said, "and you will surely receive the aid of nations who
already deeply sympathize with you." Public meetings were held in Texas,
where resolutions to continue the contest were adopted. To meet this
danger,
General Sheridan was sent to New Orleans with a large force, and
made preparations for a vigorous campaign in Texas. His appearance
dismayed the trans-Mississippi insurgents, and they refused to longer
follow their leaders in the hopeless struggle. General Smith formally
surrendered his whole command to
General Canby (May 26), but exhibited " the bad faith," said
Grant in his report, " of first disbanding most of his army, and
permitting an indiscriminate plunder of the public property." So ended
the Civil War in the field.
Andrew J. Hamilton was appointed by the
President provisional governor in the summer of 1865, and measures were
taken for the reorganization of civil government there. Under the
reconstruction acts of 1867, Texas, with Louisiana, was made a military
district, and subjected to military rule under General Sheridan. A
convention assembled Dec. 7, 1868, adopted a constitution, which was
ratified at an election (Nov. 30 to Dec. 3) in 1869, and a governor and
legislature were chosen at the same time. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments to the national Constitution were ratified (Feb. 23, 1870),
and on March 30, by act of Congress, the State was entitled to
representation in Congress. On April 16 the government was transferred
to the civil authorities. Population in 1890, 2,235,523; in 1900,
3,048,740. See BENTON, THOMAS H.
References:
From Harper's United States History (Content edited for
style and length)
History of Texas, Henderson Yoakum
Harper's Weekly 1861 Volume V. |