The British Question

Retaliation against Mexico so far had been a major fail except in one respect - it did revive US interest in Texas and the whole annexation question.  The best hope for Texas' survival lay in the United States and Houston knew that, but how was he to prove that to an uncertain country who often voted against anything to do with Texas?

Houston became a shrewd diplomat, creating the impression that Britain was exerting considerable influence on him in wanting Texas as a territory.  The US expansionists who were always eager for adding territory to the US would take notice, he figured.

Britain was interested in Texas but wanted Texas to remain independent.  British industrialists wanted cheap cotton and a market without US tariffs on manufactured goods.  They also wanted to persuade Texas to ban slavery.  This was the main point...In 1843 President Tyler (photo right), a southern sympathizer, heard of the slavery ban pressure by Britain and begin to get nervous.

In 1843, Santa Anna, in the middle of his own rebellion in the Yucatan sent word to Houston that he wanted to open peace negotiations.  Houston read Santa Anna's terms - Mexico would cease hostilities if Texas would acknowledge Mexico's sovereignty in controlling the internal affairs - and Houston refused.

But, he didn't tell Santa Anna right away.  he allowed the British to intercede in the negotiations.  When the peace treaty was signed in June of 1843, Houston made it a point of advertising his gratitude to the British.

Washington was alarmed.  "For the safety of New Orleans, the prosperity of the great valley of the Mississippi and our whole union, require the annexation of Texas".  President Tyler sent word to Houston that the US would not oppose annexation if Texas would submit her request to join the Union. 

Houston smiled - the plan had worked beautifully!

Next time...The Final Round
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Today in Pioneer History:  On November 10, 1808, in a decision that would eventually make them one of the wealthiest surviving Indian nations, the Osage Indians agree to abandon their lands in Missouri and Arkansas in exchange for a reservation in Oklahoma.

Change of Leadership Ends Badly

For two years Sam Houston's economy and moderation kept the republic alive.  Texans were growing impatient for annexation.  The constitution barred Houston from succeeding himself, so in 1838, Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar became the new president.

Lamar was a violinist, a poet and a Houston foe who opposed annexation and dreamed of making Texas a powerful independent nation.  He opened  thousands of acres to settlers by driving Cherokee out of east Texas and crushing the Comanche in west Texas.  He moved the capital to Austin in 1839.

By 1840 Britain, France and the Netherlands all recognized the republic, thanks to Lamar, but his lavish spending exceeded his income by more than $4 million! The Texas "red back" dollar's value plunged, and credit collapsed. 

Then Lamar launched his greatest scheme - a secret invasion of New Mexico.  He hoped to corner Santa Fe trade and extend Texas borders all the way to the Pacific.  He believed that New Mexico, plagued by Indian revolts, would welcome Texas traders and would rally behind the Lone Star Flag.

In June 1841, 300 soldiers and traders, along with 24 wagons set out for Santa Fe. You might say the trip didn't go so well...first they got lost.  Then Indians picked off the stragglers.  Finally prairie fires destroyed the wagons.  After 1300 miles of desert, they were seized by Mexican troops and marched on bleeding feet another 2000 miles to Mexico City and prison.  No, didn't go well!

The fiasco didn't help relations between Texas and Mexico either.  Lamar's career was  obviously over.  Houston took back the presidency in 1841.  As one the people recorded, "Houston drunk in a ditch is worth a thousand of Lamar sober."  :)

Next time...Can you say oui, oui?
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Today in Pioneer History:  On October 24, 1901, a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Texas' Early Years

Mexico withdrew the peace treaty signed by Santa Anna, exiled him from office and kept the Texas settlers alarmed and fearful for the next 10 years after the victory at San Jacinto.

Nevertheless, Sam Houston was easily elected the first president, promoting annexation by the United States.  Americans did not necessarily approve of the idea for statehood, for many political reasons, including the debate on the balance of slave states going on at that time, and also because the United States really didn't want to buy into all of Texas' problems.

The Texas treasury was empty by this time and the war had left a staggering debt.  From the presidential "log cabin" called the "Executive Mansion" in Houston, (the capital from 1837-1839), Sam imposed unpopular taxes, slashed spending and basically worked hard to keep Texas solvent.  Houston was even forced to exhaust his personal credit to pay his reduced army of 600.

It was during these troubled years that Texas earned their reputation for self-reliance and swagger.  Texas towns attracted "cornstalk lawyers" who were ill-trained but eager to make fortunes on land disputes. 

There was little respect for the law in those days.  They worked hard, played hard, and liked to settle arguments by fists, guns and the popular Bowie knife.  Cattle rustling and horse stealing were the only thieving going on because Texans didn't have much to steal, but they would rather a hang a man that put up with theft.  They were notorious gamblers, consumers of whiskey and chewing tobacco.
The following was found on the entrance to an Austin church in those days:

"Ye chewers of that noxious weed which grows on earth's most cursed soil,
Be pleased to clean your filthy mouths outside the sacred house of God.
Throw out your plug and Cavendish, your "pig tail" "twist" and "honeydew"
And not presume to spit upon the pulpit, altar or in the pew."

Next time...Change of Leadership
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Today in Pioneer History: "On October 13, 1845, a majority of the citizens of the independent Republic of Texas approve a proposed constitution, that when accepted by the Congress, will make Texas the 28th American state.

Sam Houston Part 2

In 1812 Sam Houston married 18 year old Eliza Allen, the daughter of delight in Nashville society.  Unfortunately the union was not a delight - three months after the wedding Eliza deserted Sam and took refuge in her father's house.  The public turned on Houston and demanded he explain himself.  He chose to resign the governorship and said "This is a painful affair. I do not recognize the right of the public to interfere."  The public didn't agree, burning Houston in effigy as a coward.  On April 28, he boarded the steamer Red River and returned to the land of the Cherokees.

Deep in Cherokee wilderness, Houston opened a trading post called Wigwam Neosho and took a girl named Tiana as his Indian bride,  He became an alcoholic, but not for long.  Shortly after, he became the spokesman for all the tribes between the Missouri and the Great Plains.  He traveled to Washington to seek justice for the Indians with his good friend Andrew Jackson.

In 1832 Sam crossed the Red River into Texas to become their leader because he said they needed someone "brave enough for any trial, wise enough for any emergency, and cool enough for any crisis."

After leading Texas to independence in 1836 Houston became the president of the Republic of Texas and served in the Texas House of Representatives.  He took time out to marry Margaret Lea of Alabama in 1840 and had eight children with her.  Sam went on to serve as president for another term, a US Senator, and governor of the state of Texas.

When the South seceded in 1861, Houston refused to take the Confederate oath and was dismissed from office.  He retired to his farm in Huntsville, Alabama, always critical of the Confederate stand.  He died of pneumonia in July of 1863.

It has been said that Sam Houston was a commanding, gallant man who possessed courtly manners and a magnetism approaching that of General Andrew Jackson.  Sam would have appreciated that.

Next time...Texas's Early Years
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Today in Pioneer History: On October 10, 1845, the United States Naval Academy opens in Annapolis, Maryland, with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors

Sam Houston - First Citizen of Texas

Sam Houston left home at the age of 20 for the War of 1812 with this advice from his widowed mother: "My son, take this musket and never disgrace it, for remember, I had rather all my sons should fill one honorable grave than that one of them should turn his back to save his life.  Go, and remember, too, that while the door of my cabin is open to brave men, it is certainly shut against cowards."

Houston made his mother and his hometown proud.  After getting an arrow in the thigh at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, he refused the order to leave the battlefield.  He was the first to volunteer for a new charge in which he was wounded twice more.  His valor won  General Andrew Jackson's undying respect.  As Jackson's protégé, he won acclaim as a senator, governor, and savior of the Lone Star Republic.

Houston was one of nine children, born on March 2, 1795.  His father was a professional soldier (Major) and veteran of the Revolution.  His mother Elizabeth was a gentlewoman of the tidewater.  Houston was enrolled at Porter Academy and became a voracious reader, fond of quoting the Iliad.  School was not for Sam, however, and he wanted to live among the Indians.  At age 16 he was adopted by a Cherokee chief, Oo-loo-neh and given the Indian Co-lon-neh (the Raven).

Three years latter, he settled down at home again and returned to Porter Academy.  Again his heart as not in it, and in 1813, when a visit of the US Regulars passed through town offering silver dollars for enlistment, Sam was ready.

At 25, he went to Nashville to study law.  A good student, he was admitted after six months to the bar.  In 1823 he was elected to two terms in Congress and just two later years later he became governor of Tennessee.

Next time...Part 2
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On This Day in Pioneer History:  On September 29, 1913, Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the engine that bears his name, disappears from the steamship Dresden while traveling from Antwerp, Belgium to Harwick, England.

San Antonio Falls Early

Stephen Austin called a "consultation" of Texas leaders in November 1835.  The delegates appointed a provisional government of Texas with a 12 man council.  Three of the commissioners including Austin, were dispatched to the United States to solicit loans and rally volunteers.  One of the experienced frontiersmen recruited was Sam Houston who was named commander-in-chief of the Texas army.

American aid would be crucial to Texan success, and Houston's appeals appeared in the US newspapers.  "Let each man come with a good rifle, and come soon!" the ads read.  Promises of land as a reward for any man who helped defeat Santa Anna were given, and Texas rallies across the US brought ready volunteers.

On paper, Santa Anna's 6000 men army looked formidable, but many of the soldiers were poorly armed and poorly trained Indians who didn't even speak Spanish, led by incompetent officers.  Morale was low and supplies inadequate.

The provisional government was unwillingly to give Sam Houston total control of the settlers outside San Antonio. The settlers took it upon themselves and mounted a savage assault on the town led by Ben Milam who died in the attack.   General Cos and his  1100 man army surrendered on December 10, 1835 and vowed to go home and not fight again.  The volunteer settlers left a small force in the walled Alamo mission and set out to attack Matamoros in the south.

In 1836, Houston ordered the skeletal forces at the Alamo disbanded but, the provisional governor, Henry Smith, countermanded Houston and dispatched William Travis, now a colonel in the Texas Army, to reinforce the Alamo mission, setting up one of the most celebrated tragedies in American history. 

Next time...Remember the Alamo!
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On this Day in Pioneer History: "On September 22, 1554,  Spanish explorer Francisco Coronado, his health badly deteriorated from injuries and the toll of his strenuous travels, dies. He never found the fabled cities of gold that he had sought for decades.

Horseshoe Bend Ends the Forest Wars

In the Tennessee skirmishes with the Creek Red Sticks, the settlers gathered at Fort Mims on the Alabama River where 500 settlers were killed.  Nine days later after being shot 3 times, with his arm in a sling, in pain and fever, Andrew Jackson accepted command of the 1500 settlers.  Among his new recruits - Joseph "Captain Joe" Walker.

Jackson's men were met by the Creek at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River. Assured by their medicine man of victory, the Creeks were ambushed and defeated by troops lead by Sam Houston on March 27, 1814.  Fifty settlers died, 150 were wounded, one of them being Joel Walker, Joe's older brother.

Following victory, Jackson poured 2 cups of brandy, drank and ordered that the Creeks be allowed to leave camp freely and safely.  Thus ended for all practical purposes the Appalachian Forest Wars of generations...

Next time...Creeks and Jackson's problems continue

It Pays to Know Somebody!

In the early 1800s, children were an economic asset and work was labor intensive.  Boys were taught to split rails, pile rocks, hoe corn, stoke fires, butcher, do carpentry, tanning and smithy work, and distilling skills.  Most likely boys also knew basic cooking, sewing and home remedy skills as well.  Receiving a boy's first rifle was a sure passage into manhood.

Although education as we know it was non-existent on the frontier in the early 1800s, the Walkers were treated as members of the better educated class.  There is a hint in history as to why...

Sam Houston lived with the Cherokee as a runaway and dropout from white society.  After returning to Tennessee, he set himself up as a schoolmaster based on a degree from "Indian University", as he called it.  He was an avid reader and a good speller and his one room school in Tennessee was said to have been his favorite place in his life.  The means by which any Walker children probably learned their ABCs as well.

Next time...The Jacksonian Man

Lack of Communication Creates More Problems

The lack of communications between the settlers and the Native Americans led to situations of disrespect and dishonor.  Settlers, for the most part treated the Indian will suspicion and distrust and even refused to attempt to speak to them.

Gestures, actions totally misinterpreted, demonstrated a lack of sympathy, understanding and compassion toward the Indian population they were supposedly trying to "civilize".

Sam Houston attempted to take the part of an American Indian and divert harsh actions against them.  The Cherokee Bill of the 1840s annulled the Indian's right to all lands because of their barbarity.  Sam's protests fell on deaf ears.

Ironically the white settlers were often just as savage, vicious and barbaric as they claimed the Indians were.

Few white settlers considered moving to a safer territory as did the soldiers at Fort Dodge in Iowa where they lived in peace for 3 years.  It was easier to overpower the Indian and make them submit to the white man's way - not a proud period in America's history...

What do you think?

Next ...The Attitudes They are a Changin'