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TEXAS INDEPENDENCE DIDN’T LAST

In spite of the fact some claiming to represent Texas had declared Texas an
independent republic Spain maintained control of Texas and Mexican revolutionaries
continued to roam areas of Texas. It was clear that only a large and well-disciplined
army could drive them out. No one had such an army except the United States and they
had already signed a treaty with Spain wherein they renounced all claims to Texas.
That treaty, signed in 1818, was part of the payment the United States made for
Florida.

AMERICANS WERE ORDERED NOT TO GO INTO TEXAS BUT MOSES
AUSTIN DID

American President Madison ordered all American citizens not to enter Texas. But,

Texas was a country where a man could be a man and a good man could be a king.
Since 1800 America had more than doubled its territory but Americans were still
pressing West in search of more. One of those searching was a man named Moses
Austin. Moses had been a citizen of Spain and had been commissioned by Spain to do
some investigating in the area known as Missouri. Before Missouri became a state
Moses Austin had become wealthy on lands granted to him by Spain where vast lead
deposits were discovered.

In 1820 Moses left his home in Missouri and rode the 800 miles to a place in Texas
called San Antonio de Bexar. He arrived in the Fall unannounced and called on the
Spanish Governor who, when he found out Moses was now an American citizen,
kicked him out and ordered him out of Texas. But Moses didn’t leave and in time, with
some help from others, convinced the Spanish government to allow him to establish a

colony in Texas with some 300 families.

Moses returned to Missouri to recruit the 300 families but got sick on the way and
arrived just in time to die. Before he died, however, Moses persuaded his son, Stephen
Austin, to carry on the project when he was gone and at age 27, young Austin traveled
to Texas.

The Spaniards quickly recognized Stephen as the heir to his father’s grant and Stephen
signed a resolution prepared by the Spaniards which said, in part:

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