How the States Got Their Shapes Too_ The People Behind the Borderlines - Mark Stein [89]
Though the accuracy of this report is open to question, it was the version that “Texians” received. The same news report continued:
Immediately after the capture, Gen. Santa Anna sent … [a] servant to Gen. Houston’s camp … offering the Texians peace and general amnesty if they would lay down their arms and submit to his government. Gen. Houston’s reply was, “True, sir, you have succeeded in killing some of our brave men—but the Texians are not yet conquered.” The effect of the fall [of the Alamo] throughout Texas was electrical. Every man who could use a rifle and was in a condition to take the field marched forthwith to the seat of war.
Once again, an unfortunate affair ended up working in Houston’s favor. Six weeks later, with the Texans’ manpower boosted, events went differently. In May Washington’s National Intelligencer reported:
During the night of the 20th, after the skirmish between Mexican and Texian forces, Gen. Houston … gained a position within rifle distance of the enemy before they were aware of his presence. Two discharges of small arms and cannon loaded with musket balls settled the affair.… The officers broke and endeavored to escape; the mounted riflemen, however, soon overtook all but one.… The pursuers … searched the woods for a long time in vain, when it occurred to an old hunter that the chase might, like a hard-pressed bear, have “taken a tree.” The tree tops were examined, when lo! the game was discovered snugly ensconced in the forks of a large live oak. The captors did not know who their prisoner was until they reached the camp, when the Mexican soldiers exclaimed, “El General! El Gefe! Santa Anna!”
The captured Mexican leader signed a surrender. Though it did not include recognition of the Republic of Texas, for all practical purposes Texas was now an independent nation.
On September 5, 1836, Sam Houston became the second president of Texas, defeating the ailing Stephen Austin by a margin of nearly ten to one. Though Houston, like his mentor, Andrew Jackson, had earned a reputation for brash statements and acts, both men were capable of caution, as reflected at this politically critical moment. President Jackson’s remarks on Texas called for moderation:
My friend Sam Houston, after he thrashed Stanberry of Ohio, went to Texas.… Santa Anna said to Houston … “You must give up your arms.” At this, Sam, whom I taught to fight, the rogue, stood straight up and told him, “Come and take them.” On this Santa Anna … marched into Texas, passed the Rio del Norte and all the other rivers whose names I cannot remember, till he got as far as the San Jacinto. There Sam and his troops … attacked the Mexicans—routed, killed, chased, and captured the whole lot—pulled Santa Anna from a tree, up which he had climbed, and thus almost equaled—not quite—my victory at New Orleans. On this the Texians have established their independence.… I am informed that they want to be admitted into the Union, but we must not let that come yet. Let their recognition be openly made. Let Mexico and Europe be persuaded that it is no use to think of stopping Texas from going her own way.7
Houston echoed this view when addressing the Texas legislature on the subject of annexation to the United States. “It is not possible to determine what are to be [our] future relations,” he stated. “Texas, with her superior natural advantages, must become a point of attraction, and the policy of establishing with her the earliest relations of friendship and commerce will not escape the eye of statesmen.”
Houston devoted his presidency to the mundane tasks required to bring economic stability to his deeply indebted nation. Limited by law to one term, Houston subsequently served in the Texas House of Representatives, where he counseled moderation regarding plans to expand into regions of Mexico that today include New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The initial target