Confederate "Heritage" Month, April 9: Texas and Mexico

US President John Tyler, later a supporter of the Confederacy

Texas was a province of Mexico until they achieved their independence in 1836. Mexico never recognized the independence of Texas. Mexico ceded their claims to Texas at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War (1846-48).

It was in 1821 when Mexico was still ruled by a Spanish viceroy that a grant given to Moses Austin had allowed 300 American families to settle in the province of Texas.

Walter LaFeber on Texas independence from The American Age (1989):

The three hundred American families led by Moses Austin into Texas during 1819-1821 had become 15,000 Americans by 1830. The Mexican province turned into another part of the American frontier as immigrants, lured by the possibility of obtaining 4,400 acres of land for a mere $200, flocked in to find their fortune. In addition to accepting Mexican citizenship. Mexico required the settlers to be Roman Catholic and have no slaves. The Americans ignored the last two rules. In 1830. Mexico City officials realized that Texas was being swamped by the multiplying Americans, some of whom ranked among the most uncontrollable gunslingers on the frontier. Santa Anna, who ruled Mexico, finally abolished all state legislatures, centralized power in Mexico City, and moved an army into Texas to control the settlers. Instead of obeying, the Texans replayed 1775—1776: they demanded full restoration of their rights, set up Committees of Correspondence to coordinate resistance, and finally, in 1836, declared their independence. Texas won a short, bloody war. The new government was helped by thousands of Americans who rushed in for glory, action and land. Some of the emigrants died when the Texas garrison at the Alamo was wiped out in early 1836, but others helped win the pivotal battle of San Jacinto. Meanwhile, Stephen Austin, Moses' son, borrowed most of his funds from the United States to fight the war.

The antislavery movement was emerging into general public consciousness and becoming a real political force in the 1830s. Slavery oppenents like John Quincy Adams and the writer and advocate of women's rights Lydia Maria Child raised opposition to the annexation of Texas to the US because it would increase the American territory in which slavery was allowed.

James Polk won as the Democratic Presidential candidate in 1844 against Whig Henry Clay. Polk ran on the promise of annexing Texas and a maximal version of Oregon to the United States. The negotiations with Britain over the boundaries of Oregon led to a lot of militant rhetoric, and also inspired editor John L. O'Sullivan of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review to coin the term Manifest Destiny. After quite a bit of posturing, Polk agreed to settle the border at what's now the Washington-Canadian border (the 49th parallel). Polk was facing a war with Mexico, which he figured would be easier to win than a war with Britain, especially if he didn't have to fight both simultaneously.

LaFeber notes an interesting aspect of this confrontation. Polk expected that Britain would back down because of their dependence on American cotton. But Britain mobilized for war and it was Polk who wound up retreating from his maximum demands. Fifteen years later, the Southern planters expected that the power of King Cotton would get the Confederacy British recognition and aid. They, too, were disappointed.

Outgoing Whig/Democratic President John Tyler failed to win the two-thirds Senate approval for a treaty annexing Texas. (Tyler was kicked out of the Whig Party while he was President and returned to the Democratic Party after his Presidency.) But he established a new Constitutional precedent by asking them to annex the new state by joint resolution, which required only a majority, though in both houses. Concerns over conflict with Mexico and over the addition of a new slave state held the Senate approval to a 27-25 vote. But that was good enough. Texas formally entered the Union as a slave state on December 29, 1845.

President Tyler, it's worth noting, later supported the Confederacy. He died in 1862, when he was a member of the House of Representatives of the Confederate State of America, though it was a few days before he could formally begin service in the Rebel Congress. It's sad and outrageous that a former President of the United States would embrace out-and-out treason like Tyler did.

Tags: confederate heritage month 2008, guerra de estados unidos a méxico, guerra mexicano-estadounidense, mexican-american war