Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar

Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar [source]

Georgia
Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar was born in Georgia in 1798. He grew up on a cotton plantation and was a voracious reader. Though he was accepted to Princeton College, he chose not to attend. Instead he went into business, first as a merchant, then running a newspaper, but was unsuccessful at both. In 1823, he became secretary to Georgia Governor George Troup, his first foray into politics.

Tragedy
Lamar married Tabitha Jordan in 1826, but his wife’s health was poor and he soon resigned his post with Governor Troup to take care of her. Lamar reentered politics in 1829, running for state senator, but after his wife’s death in 1830, he declined to run for reelection. Instead, he turned to travel and writing, publishing some of his best known poems. After time had softened his grief, Lamar turned his attention to studying law and passed the bar in 1833. He unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1832 and 1834, but his brother’s suicide in 1834 set him wandering once again.

Texas
Lamar followed James Fannin, Jr., an old friend, to Texas in 1835. Lamar threw himself wholeheartedly into the Texas Revolution, writing poems supporting the cause. He had to return to Georgia to settle his affairs, but quickly returned in 1836 after the news of the Alamo and the massacre at Goliad to join the Texas army. On April 20, 1836, he was involved in a skirmish with the Mexican Army where he distinguished himself and was promoted to Colonel and given command of the cavalry. After the Battle of San Jacinto, Lamar was a vocal supporter of executing Santa Anna. He was briefly put in command of the entire Texas Army, but the men did not accept him and he quickly retired. Lamar ran for President in the first election for the Republic of Texas, but lost to Houston and became his Vice President. In 1838, with Houston ineligible and the other two candidates having committed suicide, Lamar won the Presidency almost unanimously.

President
Lamar succeeded Sam Houston as President of the Republic of Texas in 1838. Houston reportedly gave a three hour “Farewell Address,” after which Lamar was indisposed and his aide read his inaugural remarks. Lamar was a bit of a mixed bag as a president. He moved the capital to its present location in Austin (largely to get it out of Houston), and set aside land to fund higher education in Texas, what would become UT and A&M. However, he was also determined to drive the Cherokee and Comanche out of Texas, believing they needed to be exterminated to allow for white settlement. This led to several battles and massacres. Lamar also drastically drove up Texas’s debt, up to $7 million, one of the factors leading to Texas’s eventual annexation by the US. Houston was reelected in 1943, and attempted to undo much of what Lamar had done, including moving the capital back to Houston, which led to the very short Archives War. The same year, Lamar’s daughter, back in Georgia, died at only 16.

Post Presidency
Lamar retired for while to his plantation in Richmond, where he began writing poetry again. Lamar passionately defended slavery and eventually advocated for Texas’s annexation to the US because he thought it would preserve slavery in the US. He served in the US army during the Mexican-American War and as a state legislator for the first few years of Texas statehood. He remarried in 1851 to Henrietta Maffitt, and the couple had a daughter shortly thereafter. In 1857, Lamar published a poetry collection and, later that year, President Polk appointed Lamar as ambassador to Nicaragua, then simultaneously to Costa Rica. Lamar served in Managua for almost two years, before returning to Texas due to his failing health. He died in December of 1859.

Texas Votes for Secession

Texas was the seventh state to secede from the Union – the last to do so before the firing on Fort Sumter. Sam Houston, governor at the time and an ardent Unionist, had delayed the convention for secession until January of 1861 and helped force the public referendum. The vote was 46,153 for and 14,747 against, with only 18 out of 122 counties, largely Germans in the Hill Country, voting against Secession. 

This vote ratified the Declaration of Causes written by the convention, which, in part reads:

We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.

That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding States.

This document is historically inaccurate, as African Americans fought in the Texas Revolution, explored Texas with the first Spanish conquistadors, and remained important members of their communities during and after the Republic era.

Texas officially seceded on March 2, 1861, Texas Independence Day. Sam Houston urged Texas to revert to a Republic and remain neutral, but the legislature voted to join the Confederacy. Houston refused to sign the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and was removed from office on March 16.

Elisabet Ney

By Friedrich Kaulbach – Thanks to Mrs. Fisch, Public Domain, [source]

Education and a Celebrated Career
Franzisca Bernadina Wilhelmina Elisabeth Ney was born in Münster, Westphalia, in what is today Germany, in 1833. Her father was a stonecutter and she grew up on tales of her sculptor ancestors. At 19, she announced her intent to move to Berlin and study sculpture. Her family was outraged. It was not considered proper for a girl to live by herself in a strange town or to study sculpture. Besides, art academies did not admit women. In retaliation, she went on a hunger strike. With a little help from the Bishop of Munster, she reached a compromise with her parents and headed to Munich. In 1854, Ney became the first woman to graduate from the Munich Art Academy and then headed to Berlin, to study with the celebrated Christian Daniel Rauch. In 1857, Ney set up her own studio and began a career as a celebrated portrait sculptor, sculpting busts of Otto von Bismark, Jacob Grimm, and King Ludwig II.

Liendo Plantation, 1934. Historic American Buildings Survey, James I. Campbell, Photographer March 10, 1934 VIEW OF FRONT FROM EAST. – Liendo, Farm Road 1488 and Wyatt Chapel Road Vicinity, Hempstead, HABS TEX,239-HEMP.V,1-3.tif [source]

Pause for Family
In 1863, Ney married Edmund Montgomery, a celebrated Scottish scientist. In 1871, when the Franco-Prussian was broke out, the couple immigrated to the United States, first to Georgia, then to Minnesota. In 1873, Ney traveled by herself to Texas, where she found Liendo Plantation and declared it home. Her family followed shortly after. Ney spent the next 20 years managing the plantation. By the late 1880s, Ney was calling Liendo Plantation a “lovely cursed retreat.” She had little artistic stimulation and little society, since her husband was quite happy to be a reclusive scientist. In 1891 Ney separated from her husband and went to Austin.

A Sculptor Again
In Austin, Ney built a studio she called Formosa and began taking commissions. However, she didn’t really see success until the Texas Legislature commissioned statues of Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston and a grave memorial for Albert Sydney Johnson. Ney continued to sculpt and was active in the art scene of Austin until her death in 1907. In 1911, a group of Ney’s friends got together to preserve her studio and all the works therein, creating the Elisabet Ney Museum, which is still open to visitors today. Visitors to Washington, D.C. can also see a few of her works. Copies of her Austin and Houston statues represent Texas in the Statuary Hall at the National Capitol and her Lady Macbeth is on display in the National Museum of American Art.

Elisabet Ney in her Austin Studio, c. 1900. By Unknown – Stadtmuseum Münster, Public Domain, [source]

The Annexation of Texas

A Long Road
Though Texas had sought annexation by the United States right after the Texas Revolution, it would take nearly 10 years before it was completed. US President Jackson had supported Texas Independence and was personal friends with Texas President Houston. However, due in part to the threat of war with Mexico, he declined to annex Texas when it won independence in 1836. Texas President Lamar was uninterested in annexation, but Houston revived it during his second term. US President Tyler attempted to get a very pro-slavery treaty passed in 1844, but it would fail. He tried again in 1845, toning down the pro-slavery overtones and was successful, but Tyler had already lost the election to James K. Polk. The resolution passed March 1st, 1845 and Polk was inaugurated March 4th. Polk had run on a platform of pro-Texas annexation and allowed the resolution to proceed.

From the Newark Daily Advertiser, February 11, 1845 source Caption:
Annexation as Proposed by the House
The following map which we have caused to be reduced and engraved from the official map of Texas published by order of Congress gives a striking view of the relative size of the slave and free districts provided for in the Resolution of the House, now before the Senate. No more verbal description could give the reader so clear a conception of this shameless mockery on the part of the Texas scrip and slave-dealing speculators. The whole scheme is here exposed to the eye, at a glance:

A Final Vote
Texas convened a popularly elected Convention in July to vote on the proposed terms of annexation, and, if agreed, to create a state constitution. The vote was 55 to 1 in favor of annexation. The lone dissenter was Richard Bache who, according to Texas legend, voted against annexation because his wife lived in the United States and he had come to Texas to get away from her.

Texas’s new State Constitution was approved by the US Congress on December 29^t, 1845. As part of the agreement, Texas retained control of all of its public land and its public debt (about $10 million). It could divide into up to five states, with land north of 36 degree 30 minutes (the line of the Missouri Compromise) free soil and any states formed south of the line able to vote slave or free. Texas would not choose this option, instead giving up land north of the line, among other land, in return for the US taking on its debt.

The Texas Navy and the Battle of Campeche

A False Start
In 1841, Yucatan declared independence from Mexico. It would remain independent for the next 7 years, but not without struggle. Mirabeau Lamar was sympathetic to the Republic of Yucatan, and in 1841 he allowed the ailing Texas Navy to be hired by the rebels in Yucatan to harry the Mexican ships. The ships sailed December 13th, 1841, only a couple of weeks after Sam Houston had become president and, apparently, missing the notice that Houston had called them back. Upon hearing of the order, Commodore Moore hurried the ships back to Galveston. But Houston had no interest in the Navy and even less in the struggles of the fledgling Republic of the Yucatan: when Congress approved funds to re-outfit the Navy, Houston refused. The fleet languished in New Orleans. In February of 1843, Col. Martín Peraza of the Republic of the Yucatan arrived in New Orleans with funds to pay for the Texas Navy’s help. In defiance of Houston’s orders, Moore outfitted his ship and set to sea.

Texas ships Austin (left, [source]) and Wharton (right, [source]). Public Domain.

First Engagment
On April 30th, they had their first major run in with the Mexican Navy, two steamers, the Moctezuma and the Guadalupe, which resulted in a retreat by the Texan brigs, Austin and Wharton, but no major damage. While the steamers blockaded the port, Moore took the time to upgrade his guns for a rematch.

The Battle of Campeche
On May 16th, 1843, the Mexican and combined Texan and Yucatecan Navies engaged again. Despite the superior technology of the Mexican steamers and unfavorable weather conditions for the Texan sailing ships, the rebels managed to fight the Mexicans to a standstill. This is the only time in recorded history that sailing ships have fought steamers to a draw. The Mexican steamers retreated, breaking the blockade of Campeche and giving the Republic of the Yucatan – and the Republic of Texas – some breathing room.

Portrait of Commodore Moore in the Moore Co., Texas Courthouse.
By The original uploader was Billy Hathorn at English Wikipedia – “I took photos on July 15, 2008.Billy Hathorn (talk) 19:30, 15 October 2008 (UTC)Photo by Billy Hathorn Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Vasyatka1., CC BY-SA 3.0, [source]

Pirates!
Commodore Moore was not so lucky. About that time word reached him that Houston had offered a reward for the two brigs, calling their crew pirates. Moore returned the Texas fleet to Galveston, where he and his men were hailed as heroes. Moore demanded a trial to answer Houston’s charges and was fully exonerated. However, Moore, and much of the rest of the Navy, spent years trying to get paid for their time and work. It wasn’t until Texas joined the US that the sailors were finally paid back pay. Moore would continue his quarrel with Houston until the ends of their lives.

The Fate of the Yucatan
As for the Republic of the Yucatan, it didn’t last much longer. In late 1843, Mexico recognized the Yucatan’s right to full autonomy and generally considered it a self-governing part of Mexico. In 1845, the Mexican Congress would revoke that right, declaring it unconstitutional. The Yucatan would again declare independence in 1846, but internal divisions would see it returned to Mexico in 1848, though it should be noted that in many ways the indigenous Maya of the Yucatan have never completely given up fighting for independence.

Engraving used on the Colt Navy Revolvers. Commodore Moore’s signature is visible in the bottom right.

Story on a Gun
The Battle of Campeche might be familiar to collectors of antique guns for its commemoration on both the 1851 and 1861 Colt Navy Revolvers. The Texas Navy placed a large order with Colt for his Patterson Revolvers, an order that saved his business and provided his first big success. In gratitude, Colt had an engraving of the battle placed on the cylinders of the revolvers, which has led to their designation as Navy Revolvers.

The Borders of the Republic of Texas

The Republic of Texas was big. Like, ridiculously big. At least, it claimed to be. The Eastern and Northern borders of Mexico were settled when the US completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, but Texas was considered more of a region than a state. Under the Mexican constitution of 1824, Texas was organized with Coahuila into a single state, Coahuila y Tejas.

By derivative work: Bytor (talk)Wpdms_republic_of_texas.svg: Ch1902 – Wpdms_republic_of_texas.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, [source]

The generally agreed upon boundaries for Texas during this time were the Nueces River to the south, up to the source of the Medina R., then north to the Red River. When Texas became independent, it claimed land all the way west to the Rio Grande and north to the Arkansas R. and then to the 42nd parallel. Claiming all the land to the Rio Grande referred to a long dispute of where the western border of Louisiana was, which France and the US had at different points claimed stretched all the way to the Rio Grande based on La Salle’s short-lived colony. Placing the border at the Rio Grande was also an attempt to curry favor with the US, which many Texans hoped would quickly annex Texas.

Mexico never acknowledged Texas’s claim west of the Nueces, but it wouldn’t really cause international problems until Texas was annexed by the US in 1845. Then President Polk, after an attempt to purchase the land from Mexico, provoked the Mexican-American War by stationing troops in the disputed territory. The aftermath of the war would cause Mexico to lose much of its northern territory.

On the Rio Grande as Texas Boundary

More on La Salle’s Colony