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CHAPTER I.

Arrival of Volunteers at Galveston-Orders of the United States Government for the Protection of the Frontier-Protest of Gorostiza-Embarkation and ultimate Detention of Santa AnnaMirabeau Lamar-Protest of Santa Anna and President Burnet's Reply-Election of President and Meeting of Texan CongressThreatened Mexican Invasion-Legislative Proceedings--Death and Character of Stephen Austin.

IN consequence of his wound, received at San Jacinto, General Houston retired from active duty, and removed for the benefit of regular medical attendance to New Orleans. T. J. Rusk was appointed to the command of the army, his vacated office of Secretary of War being conferred upon Mirabeau Lamar. A division of the army under Rusk advanced to Goliad, to superintend the observance by Filisola of the conditions stipulated by his chief.

The

A considerable number of volunteers from the United States arrived at Galveston about the end of May. Felix Huston, an eminent and successful lawyer of Mississippi, had incurred an expense of 40,000 dollars in the spring for the purpose of equipping 500 armed emigrants to Texas. ladies of Nashville, moved by the appeals of Stephen Austin, who, with his fellow Commissioners, delivered public addresses in behalf of the Texan cause in the chief cities of the Union, furnished the means of arming and transporting a company of vo

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lunteers. These and similar movements in progress in Kentucky and North Carolina, the Mexican Minister at Washington, Gorostiza, represented and denounced to the Secretary of State, Mr. Forsyth, who directed the legal authorities in the several places to inquire into the transactions alluded to, and institute such proceedings as might be necessary to protect the neutral relations of the United States. In the case of Felix Huston, the district attorney at Natchez, "after using great exertions to obtain a warrant, failed to do so." Popular feeling, excited against the Mexicans in consequence of the execution of their prisoners, neutralized the endeavours of the Federal officers.

In obedience to instructions from President Jackson, General Gaines began, at the close of March, to arrange for the defence of the western frontier of Louisiana. The President, adopting a suggestion of the General, authorized him "to take such a position on either side of the imaginary boundary line" between Mexico and the United States, "as might be best for the defensive operations," with the understanding that he would "under no circumstances advance further than old Fort Nacogdoches, which was within the limits of the United States, as claimed by the government." Nor was he to exercise the permission then granted unless he should find it necessary for the security of the frontier. Gaines, having received information that several tribes of Indians residing on the territory of the United States had crossed the boundary line into Texas; that General Santa Anna was approaching, determined to put to death all he found in arms,

or who did not yield to his dictation; and that it was the intention of the Indians on the Trinity River to unite with him in his war of extermination, -thought it his duty to "prepare for action," as no boundary line, unless guarded with an efficient force, would arrest the sanguinary career of the savages. He, therefore, applied on the 8th of April, 1836, for three brigades and one battalion of mounted militia, to the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama. A second requisition made by him on the 28th of June was formally disapproved by the President, who, on examination of the facts, deemed the appointment of 10,000 militia under the Volunteer Act, with the power of calling out 2,000 volunteers in Arkansas and Missouri, aided by the regular troops stationed in the locality, sufficient for the protection of the frontier. A larger levy, he remarked, in writing to the governor of Tennessee, "when it was well known that the disposition to befriend the Texans was a common feeling with the citizens of the United States," might "furnish a reason to Mexico for supposing that the government of the United States might be induced, by inadequate causes, to overstep the lines of neutrality which it professed to maintain." The Mexican Minister declared himself satisfied with President Jackson's disapproval of the requisition made by General Gaines, but continued to protest against the authority which had been given him to advance with his troops as far as Nacogdoches.

There was reasonable cause for jealousy and apprehension on the part of Gorostiza. The Treaty of 1819 between Spain and the United States had

restricted the western limits of the latter to a line beginning at the Sabine. This boundary was definitively settled by the Treaty with Mexico in 1828. But the American Government, desirous of extending its limits, instructed its Envoy, in 1829, to offer five millions of dollars for the province of Texas. Instructions to repeat this offer were given in August, 1835, before the convention of the 2nd of April, of that year for surveying the limits according to the line agreed upon in 1819, and recognised in 1828, had been ratified. The proposal to purchase not having been accepted by Mexico, the ratification of that convention took place on the 20th of April, 1836; and it was agreed that commissioners and surveyors, to settle and mark the dividing line between the two countries, should meet for that purpose at Natchitoches, within one year from the date of the signature of the convention imposing the obligation. Under these circumstances, it is not extraordinary that the Mexican Minister should have protested against the authority given to General Gaines to advance as far as Nacogdoches, although for no other object than "to preserve the territory of the United States and of Mexico from Indian outrage, and to protect the commissioners and surveyors of the two governments, whenever they should meet to execute the instructions to be prepared under the treaty of limits between the United States and the Mexican United States."*

* Memorandum for Mr. Gorostiza, by Mr. Forsyth. It appears singular that the Government of the United States did not recognise the fact, that the Mexican Government possessed no constitutional right either to cede or sell Texas to a foreign power.

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