Page 325 - American Stories, A History of the United States

magnified the Anglo rebels’ valor at the Mexicans’
13.1 UNORGANIZED expense. The folklore is based on fact—only 187
TERRITORY rebels fought off a far larger number of Mexican sol-
diers for more than a week before capitulating—but
ARKANSAS
13.2 Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 not all rebels fought to the death. The folk hero Davy
Crockett and seven other survivors were captured
ARKANSAS and executed. Nevertheless, a tale that combined
actual and mythical bravery inside the Alamo gave
the insurrection inspiration, moral sanction, out-
Brazos R.
side support, and the rallying cry “Remember the
REPUBLIC OF TEXAS LOUISIANA Alamo.”
The revolt ended with an exchange of slaugh-
Disputed Area Washington- ters. A few days after the Alamo battle, another
on-the-Brazos
Alamo San Jacinto Texas detachment was captured near the San
March 6, 1836 April 21, 1836
San Antonio Anahuac Antonio River and marched to the town of Goliad,
San
Dec. 10, 1835 Felipe captured June 30, 1835 where most of its 350 members were executed. The
Gonzales de Austin Galveston
Oct. 2, 1835 Velasco next month, on April 21, 1836, the main Texas
Goliad massacre Gulf of Mexico
March 20, 1836 Refugio army, under Sam Houston, assaulted Santa Anna’s
March 14, troops at an encampment near the San Jacinto River
MEXICO Nueces R. 1836 Texan victories during the siesta hour. The final count showed that
630 Mexicans and only a handful of Texans had
Mexican victories
been killed. Santa Anna was captured and forced
0 50 100 miles
to sign treaties recognizing the independence of
Rio Grande
0 50 100 kilometers Texas and its claim to territory all the way to the Rio
Grande (See Map 13.2).
mAP 13.2 mAjoR bAttleS of tHe texAS RevolUtion the texans Houston became the first president of Texas. He
suffered severe losses at the Alamo and Goliad, but they scored a stunning victory at
san jacinto. immediately sent an emissary to Washington to test
the waters for annexation. Houston’s agent found
sympathy for Texas’s independence, but Andrew Jackson and others told him that
domestic politics and fear of a war with Mexico made immediate annexation impos-
sible. The most that he could win from Congress and the Jackson administration was
formal recognition of Texas sovereignty.
In its ten-year existence as the Lone Star Republic, Texas drew settlers from the
United States. The Panic of 1837 impelled many debt-ridden and land-hungry farmers
to take advantage of the free grants of 1280 acres that Texas offered immigrating heads
Quick Check of white families. By 1844, Texas’s population had soared from 30,000 to 142,000. Both
What aspects of the Alamo folklore newcomers and old settlers assumed that they would soon be annexed and restored to
are true, and which are fictionalized?
American citizenship.

the Annexation of texas

President John Tyler initiated the politics of Manifest Destiny by making Texas annex-
ation a major issue. As an “accidental president,” a vice president who became presi-
dent in 1841 when William Henry Harrison died after scarcely a month in office, Tyler
needed an issue people could rally around. In 1843, he put the full weight of his admin-
istration behind the annexation of Texas, which he thought would solidify his support
in the South. Secretary of State John C. Calhoun negotiated an annexation treaty that
was brought before the Senate in 1844.
The strategy of linking annexation explicitly to the interests of the South and slav-
ery led northern antislavery Whigs to charge that the whole scheme was a proslavery
plot to advance the interests of one section of the nation against the other. The Senate
rejected the annexation treaty by a decisive vote of 35 to 16 in June 1844. Tyler then
attempted to admit Texas as a state through a joint resolution of both houses of
Congress, but Congress adjourned before the issue came to a vote. The whole question
was deferred in anticipation of the election of 1844.

292