In the Matamoras expedition the Texan forces were severely
crippled on account of a quarrel between Governor Smith, who
desired independence, and the majority of his council, who
favoured union with the Mexican Liberals. The command
was divided between Houston, who was supported by the
governor, and two leaders, Frank W. Johnson and J. W. Fannin,
who were appointed by the council. The Mexicans under
Santa Anna captured the Alamo on the 6th of March 1836 and
slaughtered its garrison of 183 men; on the 20th of the same
month they captured Fannin and his force of 371 men, and a
week later slaughtered all except twenty who escaped. Houston
now assumed active command and, surprising Santa Anna near
the San Jacinto, on the 21st of April, he dealth the enemy
a crushing blow and brought the war to an end; nearly all of
Santa Anna's army were killed, wounded or taken prisoners,
and even Santa Anna himself was captured the next day,
while the Texans lost only two killed and twenty-three wounded.
The weakness of the Mexican Liberals and the necessity of
securing aid in the States led the Austin party to abandon
their opposition to independence. A convention, assembled
in the town of Washington on the 1st of March, adopted a
declaration of independence on the 2nd and a republican constitution
on the 17th. Houston was elected president in
September 1836, and the independence of the republic was
recognized in 1837 by the United States, Great Britain, France
and Belgium. After a long conflict over the slavery question,
the state was admitted into the Union under a joint resolution
of Congress adopted on the 1st of March 1845,[1] on condition
that the United States should settle all questions of boundary
with foreign governments, that Texas should retain all of its
vacant and unappropriated public lands, and that new states,
not exceeding four in number, might be formed within its
limits. The western boundary claimed by the republic was
the Rio Grande to its source and the meridian of longitude
from that point to the forty-second parallel, although as a
political division of Mexico its limits never extended farther
west than the Nueces and the Medina. The United States
government asserted the Rio Grande claim and prepared to
enforce it at the cost of war; at the same time the Mexican
government considered annexation, regardless of the boundary
question, a declaration of war by the United States. An army
of 2000 men under Zachary Taylor (q.v.) arrived on the north
bank of the Rio Grande, opposite Matamoras, on the 28th of
March 1846. The Mexican commander, Pedro de Ampudia,
demanded Taylor's withdrawal beyond the Nueces within
twenty-four hours. He did not obey, and Mariana Arista,
Ampudia's successor, opened hostilities. The Americans, outnumbered
three to one, defeated the Mexicans in the battles
of Palo Alto (May 8th) and Resaca de la Palma (May 9th).
The War terminated in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
(February 2, 1848) by which Mexico accepted the Rio Grande
boundary. By the Compromise of 1850 Texas received
$10,000,000 for its territory lying north and west of a line
drawn from the 100th meridian to the Rio Grande, following
36° 30' N., 103° W. and 32° N. The final step in the determination
of the present boundaries of the state was taken in 1896,
when the Supreme Court of the United States decided the Greer
county case. Under the Florida treaty of 1819-21 a portion
of the Red river was to be the northern boundary of Texas
east of the 100th meridian, but as there are two branches of the
river meeting east of the meridian the enclosed territory (Greer
county) was in dispute. The decision of 1896 selected the
southern branch and thus deprived Texas of a large tract of
fertile land over which it had previously exercised jurisdiction.
In the crisis of 1860-61 Texas sided with the other Southern States in spite of the strong Unionist influence exerted by the German settlers and by Governor Sam Houston. An ordinance of secession was adopted February 1, 1861, and Governor Houston was deposed from office on March 16th. The state was never the scene of active military operations during the Civil War (1861-65), although it is interesting to note that the last battle of the conflict was fought on its soil, at Palmito, near Palo Alto, on the 13th of May 1865, more than a month after the surrender at Appomattox. In conformity with President Johnson's plan of reconstruction, a constitution recognizing the abolition of slavery, renouncing the right of secession, and repudiating the war debt was adopted in 1866, and J. W. Throckmorton, Unionist Democrat, was elected governor. When, in 1867, the Congressional plan of reconstruction was substituted, Texas was joined to Louisiana to constitute the fifth military district, and the first commander, General P. H. Sheridan, removed Throckmorton from office as “an impediment to reconstruction” and appointed E. M. Pease in his place. Delegates to a new constitutional convention were elected in 1868, the constitution framed by this body was ratified in November 1869, state officers and congressmen were elected the same day, the new legislature ratified the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, and on the 30th of March 1870 Texas was readmitted to the Union. But the state remained under the rule of negroes and carpet-baggers, supported by United States troops until the inauguration of Governor Richard Coke in 1874. It has since been consistently Democratic. The supremacy of the party was threatened for a time by the growth of Populism, but the danger was avoided by the acceptance of free silver, and the partial adoption of the Populist local programme. This surrender aroused strong opposition among the conservative or Cleveland Democrats, which culminated in the Hogg-Clark gubernatorial campaign of 1892. The victory of the Radicals resulted in the establishment of a railway rate commission, based upon a constitutional amendment of 1890 and a statute of 1891, the passage of an alien land law in 1891, which was declared unconstitutional and amended in 1892, the adoption of the Australian ballot system for cities and towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants (1892), the retirement of Roger Q. Mills from the United States Senate (1899) and the sending of free silver delegations to the national conventions of 1896 and 1900.
| Governors | ||||||
| Spanish Period (1690-1821)[2] | ||||||
| Domingo Terán de los Rios. | ||||||
| Don Gaspardo de Anaya. | ||||||
| Don Martin de Alarcón. | ||||||
| Marquis San Miguel de Aguayo. | ||||||
| Fernando de Almazan. | ||||||
| Melchior de Mediavilla y Arcona. | ||||||
| Juian Antonio Bustillos y Cevalos. | ||||||
| Manuel de Sandoval. | ||||||
| Carlos de Franquis. | ||||||
| Prudencio de Oribio de Basterra. | ||||||
| Justo Boneo. | ||||||
| Jacinto de Barrios y Jaurequi. | ||||||
| Antonio de Martos y Navarrete. | ||||||
| Juan Maria Baron de Ripperda. | ||||||
| Domingo Cabello. | ||||||
| Rafael Pacheco. | ||||||
| Manuel Muñoz. | ||||||
| Juan Bautista Elguezabal. | ||||||
| Antonio Cordero. | ||||||
| Manuel de Salcedo. | ||||||
| Juan Bautista Casas, provisional. | ||||||
| Manuel de Salcedo. | ||||||
| Christoval Dominquez. | ||||||
| Antonio Martinez. | ||||||
| Mexican Period (1821-36)[3] | ||||||
| Trespalacios. | ||||||
| Don Luciana Garcia, provisional. | ||||||
| Rafael Gonzales, provisional. | ||||||
| Victor Blanco. | ||||||
| José Maria Viesca. | ||||||
| José Maria Letona. | ||||||
| Francisco Vidauri y Villaseñor, provisional. | ||||||
| ||||||
| Augustin Viesca. | ||||||
| Henry Smith, | provisional | 1835-36 | ||||
| Period of the Republic (1836-46)[4] | ||||||
| David G. Burnet, | provisional | 1836 | ||||
| Sam Houston | 1836-38 | |||||
| Mirabeau B. Lamar | 1838-41 | |||||
| Sam Houston | 1841-44 | |||||
| Anson Jones | 1844-46 | |||||
- ↑ This acquisition of foreign territory by joint resolution instead of by treaty was followed in the case of Hawaii in 1898.
- ↑ Coahuila and Texas, 1690-1725, Texas alone 1725-1824.
- ↑ Coahuila and Texas, 1824-35.
- ↑ The state was annexed to the Union in 1845, but the government of the Republic continued in existence until early in 1846.
