Republic of Texas

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-Onis Treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819. Its southern and western-most boundary with Mexico was under dispute throughout the lifetime 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.

1 History
2 Historical context
3 Statehood
4 Presidents and Vice Presidents
5 Notable figures of the Republic
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History


History of Texas
Spanish Texas
Mexican Texas
Republic of Texas
State of Texas

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. This council stopped short of declaring Texas 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 183 number is disputed by many including those whose loved ones were excluded from the final list; experts say it was more likely that the number of defenders from many U.S. states and included those of direct Mexican decent number over 200.) The Alamo which was outside the then-sleepy town 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 then massacred.

The Battle of San Jacinto was fought on April 21, 1836, near the present-day city of Houston. The battlefield sits next to the Houston ship channel which was built in early 1900's. The Battleship TEXAS is moored here along side the more than 500 foot tall San Jacinto Monument built in 1936. Back in 1836 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 Texans while only nine Texans died. Santa Anna was captured the next day dressed as a poor Mexican peasant. During this battle Sam Houston was wounded in his 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. Sam Houston showed true wisdom though by sparing Santa Anna's life for which he got Santa Anna 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 Texians’ 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.

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 General 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 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.

Republic of Texas. The present-day outlines of the U.S. states are superimposed on the boundaries of 1836–1845

Sam Houston, a native of Virginia, was President of the Republic of Texas for two separate terms, 1836–1838 and 1841–1844. Houston also served as U.S. Senator from Texas following annexation of the State on December 29, 1845. Sam Houston was a Jacksonian Democrat who was considered a possible presidential candidate during his time in Washington. He also was Governor of the state of Texas from 1859 to 1861. Sam Houston was removed as Governor of Texas in 1861 due to his refusal to pledge allegiance to the Confederacy, and stood against Texas leaving the Union. Sam Houston has so far been the only man in history to be Governor of two states (Texas and Tennessee) and the President of a foreign country, Texas. 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.

[edit] 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 Santa Anna over the abolishing of 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.

[edit] 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 (therefore bypassing a territorial phase). 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. 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.

[edit] Presidents and Vice Presidents

**Presidents and Vice Presidents of the Republic of Texas with election results**
From	To	President	Vice President	Presidential Candidates	Pres. Votes	Vice Pres. Candidates	V.P. Votes
16 Mar 1836	22 Oct 1836	David G. Burnet (interim)	Lorenzo de Zavala (interim)
22 Oct 1836	10 Dec 1838	Sam Houston	Mirabeau B. Lamar	Henry Smith Stephen F. Austin	5119 743 587	Mirabeau B. Lamar
10 Dec 1838	13 Dec 1841	Mirabeau B. Lamar	David G. Burnet	Mirabeau B. Lamar Robert Wilson	6995 252	David G. Burnet
13 Dec 1841	9 Dec 1844	Sam Houston	Edward Burleson	Sam Houston David G. Burnet	7915 3619	Edward Burleson Memucan Hunt	6141 4336
9 Dec 1844	29 Dec 1845	Anson Jones	Kenneth L. Anderson	Anson Jones Edward Burleson	__ __	Kenneth L. Anderson

[edit] Notable figures of the Republic

Stephen F. Austin, known as the "Father of Texas"

[edit] 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.

[edit] See also

Texas Portal

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[edit] External links

The Texas Declaration Of Independence TexasBob.com.

Image:Flag of Texas.svg	State of Texas </b> Texas Topics \| History \| Republic of Texas \| Geography \| Government \| Politics \| Economy \| Texans
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