Life and select literary remains of Sam Houston of Texas/Chapter 7
CHAPTER VII.
Taxation had become oppressive. Commerce was placed under the most oppress restrictions. The administration of the customs was committed to the worst men. All attempts to secure justice had been baffled. The people had improved their lands. Their titles were guaranteed by the Mexican Government, and still large sums of money had been extorted from them in obtaining titles. The disapprobation of the Mexican Government evidently had settled upon the colonists, and yet they were ruled by Mexican laws, and were governed by beings who blindly carried out Mexican edicts. Alarmed, the colonists undertook precautionary measures. But when an edict of Santa Anna commanded the people to surrender their private arms — thus exposing their wives and children to the rage of savage Indians, as well as to the horrors of starvation, for many families depended on wild game for their daily food — the final stroke of tyranny which rends the will of the subject from the will of the despot, had been delivered; and no other thought occupied Texan minds but freedom from Mexican despotism and misrule. On the eastern bank of the Guadaloupe, about seventy miles from San Antonio de Bexar, is situated Gonzales, which was originally the capital of De Witt's colony. Almost weekly incursions of the Indians had made it necessary for the defence of the place, that it should have a piece of artillery. Santa Anna commanded Ugartchea, a Colonel commanding several dragoons in the Mexican army, to march from San Antonio de Bexar to Gonzales, to carry off this four-pounder. Inconsiderable skirmishing took place, as the people flocked to the place to hold possession of the little field-piece. A great point was, however, gained: the Mexican army had fired the first shot. Swords drawn from their scabbards that day were no more to be sheathed, until every link of Mexican fetters, then encircling the youthful form of Texan liberty, should be burst asunder, and Texas stand free and unfettered by despotism among the nations of the earth.
Stephen F. Austin repaired to Gonzales and was chosen commander of the forces. The little army, animated by his leadership, rescued their four-pounder, and. resolved to pursue the foe to San Antonio, and drive from the soil the miserable tools of the tyrant, Santa Anna. Texas rose everywhere, like one man. As far as the eastern boundary, where the people—believing that rumors were exaggerated — were disposed to be tranquil the tocsin of war was sounded and the torch of war was lighted.
A partial organization of militia was effected and committees of vigilance and safety constituted in the municipalities of Nacogdoches and San Augustine. At the same time, Sam Houston was chosen General of Texas, east of the Trinity River. The people of Brazoria, well satisfied that there was little to hope for from Santa Anna, the despot of Mexico, invited the other municipalities to co-operate with them in electing delegates to meet for a general consultation, for the purpose of providing means of safety in case of imminent danger. General Austin with the forces under his command advanced to San Antonio de Bexar and invested the place. Eight hundred armed men from all parts of the province flocked to his standard. These occurrences took place in October, 1835; early in which month, fifty-six delegates met in consultation at Washington. After a brief conference on their first meeting, they changed their place of deliberation to San Felipe de Austin; at which place they were invited by General Austin to meet him at San Antonio, assuring them, that on their compliance, he would reduce the place in three days. Citizens, residing near Victoria and Matagorda, after his advance upon San Antonio under the command of Captain Collinsworth, formed a company, advanced on Goliad, reduced and obtained possession of the town. On the first meeting of the delegates in consultation, General Austin sent a message to General Houston to send forward his division of troops. General Houston, immediately on receipt of the message, took the only five dollars he possessed, gave it to a good rider with dispatches to his division, which, as soon as received, caused the East Texans to march to the scene of war. Houston, with the major party of the consultation, immediately after receiving General Austin's invitation, proceeded, without delay, to General Austin's camp, at the Salada, within three miles of San Antonio.
Gen. Austin, soon after the union of the two divisions, proposed to surrender his command to Gen, Houston. All personal considerations weighed nothing in the mind of Austin, when balanced with love of country. Houston declined the offer. He had good reasons for declining. Diffidence, not want of bravery nor patriotism, had influenced Austin. But the troops then in the field had marched to the camp in obedience to his requisition; they had elected him their commander. General Houston rightly thought that a change of commanders at that time would afford a pretext to the seditious and disaffected to abandon the service, and thus defeat the objects of the campaign; but he cordially offered to aid General Austin in any way in his power, in organizing and drilling the command.
A council of war was held; the principal officers and members of the consultation were present. Should a Provisional Government be formed? If so, ought not the delegates to the consultation to be reassembled at San Felipe de Austin? How were these questions which were started to be answered? To answer them the council of war determined to refer them to the army. Accordingly, on the day after the council of war, the troops were drawn up and their vote taken. The army unanimously decided that the consultation should reassemble and form a Provisional Government, to adopt measures to give to Texas credit beyond her limits, and to provide means to maintain the army then in the field.
The army was conducted by General Austin to the Mission of Espada, some ten or twelve miles distant, and the members of the consultation reassembled at San Felipe, reorganized and renewed their deliberations. A provisional declaration, establishing an organic law for the Provisional Government of the Province of Texas, organizing a temporary administration, and exhorting all Mexicans to unite in maintaining the Constitution of 1824, and to pledge their lives, property, and sacred honor in support of its principles, was enacted.
General Houston served on the committee to frame the provisional declaration. Some of the committee advocated a declaration of absolute independence, and succeeded at first in adopting a resolution to this effect. Houston regarded a declaration of absolute independence at that time as ill-judged and ill-timed, and prevailed on one of the majority to move a reconsideration of the vote. The reconsideration was carried. A considerable majority, influenced by one of the ablest efforts of Houston's life, voted in favor of a provisional declaration.
The deliberations which issued in forming the first government of Anglo-Saxon pattern on the soil of Texas, were held in a small framed house of one room, without ceiling or plaster. The costume of the members of that political conference was rude and unsightly, yet they were dressed as well as their means and misfortunes allowed. Houston had worn the costume of the Indian race, among whom he took up his abode, ever since he had entered upon his exile. In dress, he was then an Indian. His friend, Andrew Jackson, commenting upon his strange freak of dress, said he " thanked God that there was one man in Texas who was made by the Almighty and not by the tailor." Appearances are not always decisive. Dress indicates either strength or weakness of human character. So reasoned Sam Houston at that time, while he, adopted as a son by the chief of an Indian tribe, continued to cherish a free and courageous spirit under cover of an Indian blanket. In the elections by this primitive convention, he refused to accept any civil office. A Governor and Lieutenant-Governor were appointed. One member chosen by each municipality, made up the council, which was to continue in session till superseded by officers elected by the people. Other officers requisite for the administration of such a government were chosen. Henry Smith was chosen Provisional Governor, and J. W. Robinson Lieutenant-Governor; but the event which certainly decided the destiny of Texas was the election of Sam Houston, by a vote among fifty members lacking only one of unanimity, to be Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of Texas. He was born to command. He possessed the great qualities with which gifted leaders are usually invested. The appointment was accepted; for, having promised to do whatever was possible for him to do, he had no alternative. He immediately proceeded to appoint his staff. All the necessary measures were taken for raising and organizing a regular army, as well as originating a competent militia system.
Texas was without money, and there were few men then living who properly considered the importance of the early movements for its redemption from Mexican misrule, or forecasted the wonderful changes fifty years would witness. Stephen F. Austin, W. H. Wharton, and B. F. Archer were appointed commissioners to visit the United States to procure a loan wherewith to sustain the colonists under the strong pressure of their bold undertaking. Houston, looking upon Texas as dependent upon her own resources, based on her intrinsic values and the individual generosity of her citizens and their sympathizers, issued a proclamation inviting five thousand volunteers to join in maintaining the cause of Texas. In the interval between the departure of Gen. Austin to the United States as a commissioner and the assumption of command by General Houston, the army was under the command of General Edward Burleson, an early settler of Texas, a worthy man and an estimable civilian. Some military events transpired, irregular in their character, yet indicative of great personal heroism on the part of the volunteers. Before Austin left the army, Cols. Fannin and Bowie sustained with about one hundred Americans a gallant action with five hundred Mexicans at the Mission Conception. Leaving some dead on the field and carrying away with them many wounded, the Mexicans retreated and the Americans in triumph marched to the vicinity of San Antonio and posted themselves above the place. About two hundred Americans acceded to the proposition of Colonel Benjamin R. Milam, then without command in the army, to enter and storm the place. Milam was a gallant and chivalric soldier, inspiring confidence in those under his lead. With his brave followers he entered the town at night, obtained possession of certain buildings, and forced his way from house to house through the walls by means of crowbars. Milam, after performing many acts of great bravery for several days, fell in the heart of the place, pierced by a rifle-ball. The troops, shortly after their leader's fall, obtained entire possession of the town, and compelled the enemy's fortress (the Alamo) to capitulate. Not often has such a scene been witnessed or was presented the morning after the capitulation. A little band of less than two hundred Texans was drawn up in martial array, and not less than eleven hundred Mexican soldiers passed before them and laid down their arms. On their parole of honor, they were released; and, led by Gen. Cos, marched to Mexico, Cos violated his faith, and the next year appeared in arms at San Jacinto. The main body of forces, consisting chiefly of colonists, was now discharged, and marched home to the pursuits of ordinary life. The gallant company mainly instrumental in reducing the Alamo, was alone detained. It should here be noted that during the siege of San Antonio, volunteers from the United States arrived; a company called the New Orleans Grays, under Captain Morris, and another company from Mobile, under Captain Breeze; who bore a gallant part in the memorable siege and reduction of San Antonio in 1835.
Events now transpired which did not harmonize with Gen. Houston's views. A plan was conceived of capturing Matamoras; but it was more out of hatred to Mexicans than in earnest sympathy with the best interests of Texas. A Scotchman, Dr. Grant, who had been engaged with an English mining company at Parras, fell under the displeasure of the Mexican Government, and was compelled to fly. He possessed more than ordinary capacity, but not the usual shrewdness of the Scotch people. After General Burleson had retired with most of the army, he claimed, as one of the aids of General Austin, the command of the remaining troops. Under this assumed authority he induced the New Orleans Grays and Captain Breeze's company from Mobile, to take up their march for Matamoras, by way of Goliad. There were men in the General Council, utterly destitute of moral principle, then occupied in machinations which terminated most disastrously for Texas. With these malcontents. Dr. Grant opened a correspondence, and induced the Military Committee of the General Council to coincide with him in his plan for an attack upon Matamoras. They desired to supersede General Houston; and knowing that he was opposed to Grant's plan, they thought that Matamoras should be captured to destroy Houston's influence. General Houston had appointed J. W. Fannin, Jr., Inspector-General on his staff; and he had commanded at the battle of the Mission of Conception. When this soldier came to the Council of San Felipe, Houston caused him to be appointed Colonel of the regiment of artillery, a position next in rank to himself. The Council seems to have had strange ideas of military affairs. While they were holding their sessions at San Felipe de Austin, they established the headquarters of the army, with General Houston as its chief, fifty miles distant from their own position. Obedient to orders, Houston repaired to Washington, the headquarters, and engaged earnestly in his arduous duties. Recruiting stations were established; and officers assigned to them were ordered to make such reports as would at any time put him in possession of the number and condition of the regular force. The principal recruiting rendezvous was at Brazoria, to which place Colonel Fannin was ordered. General Houston's dispatches to Fannin were disregarded and his authority set at naught; and letters were written and circulated generally, aimed to arouse the suspicion that, under the sanction of the General Council, by raising five thousand volunteers he aimed to establish a military government. Gov. Smith detected the secret intrigues of the Council with Grant, Fannin and others, while General Houston was at the headquarters of the army at Washington; and, about the ist of January, 1836, he ordered General Houston to repair to San Felipe de Austin. General Houston had with his usual sagacity, issued orders for all troops arriving in the country to report to Governor Smith as nominal commander-in-chief and to himself on their arrival as commander of the army. Volunteers from Alabama and Col. Ward's command from Georgia arrived about this time at the mouth of the Brazos. Being in the neighborhood of the United States volunteers when they landed, Col. Fannin, paying no attention to General Houston's orders, abandoned his pos'tionas an officer in the regular army, and became a candidate for the colonelcy of the regiment proposed to be formed by the union of the Alabama and Georgia troops. By the influence of the Council he was elected Colonel, and Col. Ward, Lieutenant-Colonel. The regiment then sailed, according to orders, from Velasco to Copano; marched thence to Refugio Mission, a place twenty miles distant from the first landing; where the command of Grant was to unite with them on the way to Matamoras.
A crisis had now arrived in the affairs of Texas, and disaster befell all involved in precipitating this crisis upon Texas. The ill-starred plan to seize on Matamoras, the fall of the Alamo, and the massacre at Goliad, all contributed in a way, not designed by the martyrs nor approved by the hero of San Jacinto, to the consummation of Texan independence. Truth in history requires that events shall be stated as they transpired. In directing the campaign on Matamoras, the only object of the Council was to control the revenues of the place. Matamoras possessed by an enemy, cut off from all intercourse with the interior, and communication with the sea prevented, could afford no revenue to the captors. If seven hundred men could reach Matamoras without opposition, they could not keep it a single week. With no means of transportation, with not three days of breadstuffs, with men unprovided in every respect for a campaign, with an area of several hundred miles to cross, it was not likely that they could ever reach the walls of Matamoras. Discovering the absurdity of such a plan, Houston remonstrated with the officers in a friendly way, pointing out the futility of the project, the great difficulties to be encountered, and the disasters inevitably attendant upon a failure. Governor Smith highly disapproved of the plans of the Council, and on that account incurred their hottest displeasure. Gen. Houston obeyed the Governor's orders, and reported to him at San Felipe. Receiving orders to repair to Refugio, where a junction of the troops of Grant and Fannin was to be effected, after he had returned to Washington, and arranged pressing matters at headquarters, he proceeded to Goliad, about the middle of January, 1836, and made known to the troops his orders, and enjoined obedience on his authority. Grant and his troops were on the eve of marching to Refugio. They refused obedience to the orders of the Governor submitted to them by Gen. Houston, Commander of the Regular Army. He, unable to account for their extraordinary conduct, ignorant of the counsels and plans of the Council, knowing that the troops at San Antonio de Bexar would be unable to maintain the place against the advancing army of Santa Anna, sent Colonels Bowie and Bonham with an escort, to San Antonio de Bexar, on the 15th of January, with orders to Col. W. B. Travis to blow up the Alamo and fall back to Gonzales, on the Guadaloupe River, at which place he intended to establish his line of defence. Notwithstanding the refusal of Grant and Morris to obey orders, Gen. Houston marched twenty-five miles with them to Refugio, leaving a few regulars at Goliad to maintain the post, with nothing but the cattle of the country for subsistence. When the troops reached Refugio, they received no intelligence of the landing of Fannin at Copano, whence he was to march to Refugio. Unable to influence the leaders by regular authority, or by friendly remonstrance, and unwilling to excite sedition among troops, reluctant to bow to the command of any other general, accompanied by a few of his staff. Gen. Houston set out at night, from Refugio, to return to San Felipe de Austin. On the road he received startling intelligence. Under the organic law, a certain number constituted a quorum in the Council to transact business. When that number was not present it was not a lawful body. The measures and counsels of the stormy spirits induced the more patriotic and conservative members to withdraw, thus leaving the Council a number incompetent, legally, to transact business. The remaining members, acting independently, proceeded to extreme measures. First: Not finding Governor Henry Smith a suitable agent for their designs, they deposed him. Second: Equally disapproving the views and plans of Gen. Sam Houston, they superseded him, and chose another as commander of the army. Besides these facts, published letters of Col. Fannin, indicating his reliance on the Council, and disregard of the authority of Gov. Smith and Gen, Houston, met his eye. The true situation of the country was disclosed to him. After having embarked in the enterprise of freeing a struggling province from Mexican tyranny, having exchanged tranquillity among friendly Indians in their forest homes for war and danger, having greeted with joy the first dawning of Anglo-Saxon liberty in the fair province of New Estramadura, that he should still be followed by persecution, and hunted down by ambitious rivals, could not fail, for a moment, to becloud his hopes and cause his great heart to be cast down with sadness. Troubled by the most painful suspense, he journeyed on to San Felipe. Two trains of reflection passed through his mind, as he rode most of the day in silence, undisturbed in his reveries by the conversation of his companions. One moment his mind wandered away to the deep solitudes of nature; to a life of communion with the Great Spirit and His sublime creations, as in the days of his boyhood and exile, where the world's treachery and persecution would not reach him. At another moment he had boldly marked out a new track for himself, and saw himself trampling dov/n all opposition, and leading a new people to liberty and independence. Toward evening he reached San Felipe. His sagacious mind had discovered that unless something was speedily done to repair present foreshadowed evils, all would be lost for which a struggling people had been contending in Texas. His purpose was fixed and nothing could change it. He addressed the people of San Felipe at the close of that remarkable day in his history. He made his official report to the Governor, and then in pursuance of instructions received from the consultation, proceeded with Major Hockley to the Cherokee nation, to form treaties with them and other tribes. He met the Indians in the Council and accomplished his mission.
In the short course of two months, events stranger than fiction had occurred, and in two months more events among the most striking in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race were to occur. Between the first of January, 1836, and the first of May, 1836, Texan struggles culminated, Texan martyrs won immortality, Texan liberty was won, and Texan independence was secured. The Convention which made the declaration, met March 1, 1836. Gen. Houston having been returned as a delegate to this Convention, arrived at Washington on the last day of February. The Convention assembled, composed of true men; men tried by every standard of character: great,, heroic, and patriotic; men not inferior in many elements of character to any others of any similar assembly. The day after the organization, the second of March, 1836, the Declaration of Independence was adopted unanimously and signed. Public feeling was mature. Events had precipitated the adoption of this measure; but the people of Texas hailed it with joy and acclamation. The people of the United States, who were conversant with the issues made in the struggle and with the great magnitude of the results to follow, received the news with equal joy; and nowhere was the intelligence more welcome than at "the White House," where Andrew Jackson was filling the Presidential chair for the last year of his term. The spirit of the hero of New Orleans, and the spirit of the coming hero of San Jacinto, were in full sympathy.