Republic of Texas
Republic of Texas | |||||||||
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| 1836–1845 | |||||||||
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| Capital | Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco, Columbia (1836) Houston (1837–1839) Austin (1839–1845) | ||||||||
| Common languages | English (de facto) Spanish, French, German and Native American languages regionally | ||||||||
| Government | Republic | ||||||||
| President1 | |||||||||
| Sam Houston | |||||||||
| Mirabeau B. Lamar | |||||||||
| Sam Houston | |||||||||
| Anson Jones | |||||||||
| Vice President1 | |||||||||
| Mirabeau B. Lamar | |||||||||
| David G. Burnet | |||||||||
| Edward Burleson | |||||||||
| Kenneth L. Anderson | |||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| March 2 1836 | |||||||||
| December 29 1845 | |||||||||
• Transfer of power | February 19 1846 | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| 1840 | 1,007,935 km2 (389,166 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1840 | 70,000 | ||||||||
| Currency | Republic of Texas Dollar ($) | ||||||||
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The Republic of Texas was a country in North America between the United States and Mexico that existed from 1836 to 1845. Formed as a break-away republic from Mexico as a result of the Texas Revolution, the nation claimed borders that encompassed an area that included all of the present U.S. state of Texas, as well as parts of present-day New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming. The eastern boundary with the United States was defined by the Adams-Onís Treaty between the United States and Spain, in 1819. Its southern and western-most boundary with Mexico was under dispute throughout the existence of the Republic, with Texas claiming that the boundary was the Rio Grande, and Mexico claiming the Nueces River as the boundary. This dispute would later become a trigger for the Mexican-American War, after the annexation of Texas.
History
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 Texas portal | ||||||||||||||||||
- Previous article: Mexican Texas
The first Texas provisional government was formed at San Felipe de Austin on November 7, 1835. This council passed a declaration of support for the 1824 Mexican constitution, and appointed a governor and other officials, though it stopped short of declaring Texan independence. The first declaration of independence for modern Texas, by both Anglo-Texian settlers and local Tejanos, was signed in Goliad on December 20, 1835. The Convention of 1836 was convened at Washington-on-the-Brazos with Richard Ellis presiding, and the Texas Declaration of Independence was enacted on March 2, 1836, effectively creating the Republic of Texas.
Four days later, the thirteen-day Siege of the Alamo ended as Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna's forces defeated the Alamo's approximately 183 defenders (the estimate of 183 is disputed, as a number of people appear to have been excluded from the list; experts say it is likely that the defenders from many U.S. states together with those of direct Mexican descent totaled over 200[citation needed]). The Alamo was outside the then-sleepy town that would eventually become the center of the city of San Antonio. Remember the Alamo! became the battle cry of the Texas Revolution that most remember, but in fact this was a shortened version of the actual cry, which was "Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad". At Goliad, Santa Anna had Colonel James Fannin and 341 of his men—who had surrendered at the Battle of Coleto—marched one mile out of town and massacred.
The Battle of San Jacinto was fought on April 21, 1836, near the present-day city of Houston. General Santa Anna commanded a force of 1,600 men, of which more than 600 were killed and the rest captured by Texas General Sam Houston's army of 800 Texians, while only nine Texians died. Santa Anna was captured the next day dressed as a poor Mexican peasant. During this battle Sam Houston was wounded in the leg, but would recover. Houston also lost control of his men as anger over the Alamo and Goliad overcame his troops; they showed no mercy for those 18 minutes it took to destroy Santa Anna's army. Houston, however, spared Santa Anna's life, and forced him to sign letters to his two remaining armies instructing them to leave Texas. This decisive battle resulted in Texas's independence from Mexico. With a population of 30,000 Anglo-American Texians, 5,000 blacks (most of them slaves) and 3,470 Hispanic Tejanos, this was quite an accomplishment even with the approximately 14,200 Native Americans, mostly Comanche, staying out of the war. Today the Battleship Texas is moored near the battle site, alongside the more-than-500 foot tall San Jacinto Monument, built in 1936.
Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its southern and western limit, according to the Treaties of Velasco of May 1836, which were signed by General Santa Anna. When Santa Anna returned to Mexico, the Mexican congress rejected the treaty as invalid and refused to recognize the existence of the Republic of Texas. Mexico insisted that Texas remained its province. Texas tried to gain recognition from Mexico as an independent state, putting the Nueces River as the territorial limit on the negotiation table, to no avail. The British tried to mediate but the Mexican government refused to accept mediation. In 1845, the United States agreed to uphold Texas's claims upon the Rio Grande if it agreed to join the U.S.; Mexico threatened war if annexation took place.
After the Battle of San Jacinto, Sam Houston was elected President of the new republic. The first Congress of the Republic of Texas convened in October 1836 at Columbia (now West Columbia). Stephen F. Austin, known as the "Father of Texas", died December 27, 1836, after serving two months as Secretary of State for the new Republic.
In 1836, five sites served as temporary capitals of Texas starting with Velasco (now Freeport) and also including Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, and what was then Columbia, before Sam Houston moved the capital to Houston in 1837. In 1839, the capital was moved to the new town of Austin.
Internal politics of the Republic were based on the conflict between two factions. The nationalist faction, led by Mirabeau B. Lamar advocated the continued independence of Texas, the expulsion of the Native Americans, and the expansion of Texas to the Pacific Ocean. Their opponents, led by Sam Houston, advocated the annexation of Texas to the United States and peaceful coexistence with Native Americans.
The first flag of the republic was the Burnet Flag (which was inspired by the Bonnie Blue Flag), followed shortly thereafter by official adoption of the Lone Star Flag.
The Republic received diplomatic recognition from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the Republic of Yucatán.
Historical context
Texas was not the only Mexican state to secede from Mexico and declare independence. The Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas would also withdraw themselves from Mexico and would form their own short-lived federal republic called the Republic of the Rio Grande with Laredo as the capital, which is in the present day State of Texas. The Mexican state of Yucatán also seceded and formed the Republic of Yucatán. Several other states also went into open rebellion including San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Durango, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Jalisco and Zacatecas. Texas, however, was the only seceding Mexican state to retain its independence.
All the Mexican states that revolted, including Texas, were upset with off-and-on President Antonio López de Santa Anna over abolishing the Mexican Constitution of 1824, dissolving the Mexican Congress and changing the structure of the Mexican government from a federal one to a centralized one. In fact, Yucatán, in its declaration of independence, expressed its desire to reaccede to the Mexican Union if federalism was reestablished.
See Texas Revolution for a more detailed account on what lead to the formation of the Republic of Texas.
Statehood
On February 28, 1845, the U.S. Congress passed a bill that would authorize the United States to annex the Republic of Texas. On March 1 U.S. President John Tyler signed the bill. The legislation set the date for annexation for December 29 of the same year. On October 13 of the same year, a majority of voters in the Republic approved a proposed constitution that specifically endorsed slavery and the slave trade. This constitution was later accepted by the U.S. Congress, making Texas a U.S. state on the same day annexation took effect, December 29 1845 (therefore bypassing a territorial phase)[1]. One of the primary motivations for annexation was that the Texas government had incurred huge debts which the United States agreed to assume upon annexation. In 1852, in return for this assumption of debt, a large portion of Texas-claimed territory, now parts of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Wyoming, was ceded to the Federal government.
The annexation resolution has been the topic of some incorrect historical beliefs—chiefly, that the resolution granted Texas the explicit right to secede from the Union. This was a right argued by some to be implicitly held by all states at the time, up until the conclusion of the Civil War. However, no such right was explicitly enumerated in the resolution. The resolution did include two unique provisions: first, it gave the new state of Texas the right to divide itself into as many as five states with approval of its legislature [2]. Second, Texas did not have to surrender its public lands to the federal government. While Texas did cede all territory outside of its current area to the federal government in 1850, it did not cede any public lands within its current boundaries. This means that generally, the only lands owned by the federal government within Texas have actually been purchased by the government. This also means that the state government has control over oil reserves which were later used to fund the state public university system. In addition, the state's control over offshore oil reserves in Texas runs out to 3 leagues (approximately ten miles) rather than three miles as with other states [3].
Presidents and vice presidents
| From | To | President | Vice president | Presidential candidates |
Pres. votes |
Vice pres. candidates |
V.P. votes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 March 1836 | 22 October 1836 | David G. Burnet (interim) |
Lorenzo de Zavala (interim) |
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| 22 October 1836 | 10 December 1838 | Sam Houston | Mirabeau B. Lamar | Henry Smith Stephen F. Austin |
5119 743 587 |
Mirabeau B. Lamar | |
| 10 December 1838 | 13 December 1841 | Mirabeau B. Lamar | David G. Burnet | Mirabeau B. Lamar Robert Wilson |
6995 252 |
David G. Burnet | |
| 13 December 1841 | 9 December 1844 | Sam Houston | Edward Burleson | Sam Houston David G. Burnet |
7915 3619 |
Edward Burleson Memucan Hunt |
6141 4336 |
| 9 December 1844 | 29 December 1845 | Anson Jones | Kenneth L. Anderson | Anson Jones Edward Burleson |
__ __ |
Kenneth L. Anderson |
Notable figures of the republic
Footnotes
References
- Republic of Texas Historical Resources
- Republic of Texas from the Handbook of Texas Online
- The University of Texas/history
- The State of Texas website/history
- Texas: the Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas, Vol. 1, published 1841, hosted by Portal to Texas History
- Texas: the Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas, Vol. 2, published 1841, hosted by Portal to Texas History
- Laws of the Republic, 1836-1838 from Gammel's Laws of Texas, Vol. I. hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
- Laws of the Republic, 1838-1845 from Gammel's Laws of Texas, Vol. II. hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
- The Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Texas - From Independence to Annexation
See also
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- Timeline of the Texas Revolution
- Timeline of the Republic of Texas
- History of Texas
- Republic of the Rio Grande
- The Texas Legation
- The French Legation
External links
- The Texas Declaration Of Independence TexasBob.com.