CHAPTER XXII. THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS
The domestic history of the Republic may be briefly summarized. President Burnets administration was inaugurated at the gloomiest moment of the war. The Alamo had fallen, and Santa Annas main division was advancing toward the heart of the colonies; Urrea, after destroying Johnson and Grants forces, was pushing toward Fannin at Goliad; Houstonwas retreating from Gonzales; and the roads east of the Guadalupe were thronged with fugitives, seeking a refuge in Eastern Texas or across the Sabine. Considering Washington on the Brazos too exposed for the seat of government, President Burnet established himself at Harrisburg. From there the approach of Santa Anna drove him about the middle of April to Galveston Island; but there were no accommodations at Galveston, and after the battle of San Jacinto the government made its third shift to Velasco. Finally, the close of the administration in October found the government at Columbia. In the midst of such confusion definite policies were not to be expected. The president simply met problems as they arose and dealt with them as he could.
Prior to the battle of San Jacinto, such time as the wanderings of the government permitted was employed in efforts to calm the fugitives, strengthen the army, and obtain supplies. These efforts were not conspicuously successful. The people were panic-stricken, and paid little attention to Burnets reassuring proclamations; volunteers came but slowly to the army; and the substitution of Thomas Toby and brother in New Orleans for William Bryan as purchasing agent of Texas was all but disastrous. Bryan had been appointed by the general council in the fall of 1835, and had used his personal credit for nearly eighty thousand dollars in the Texan cause; while the Toby brothers were said to be on the verge of bankruptcy at the time of their appointment, and proved themselves far less efficient than Bryan had been.
Following the battle of San Jacinto the execution of the Treaty of Velasco became an issue. According to the secret treaty, the Texan government was to release Santa Anna and send him back to Mexico, where he agreed to use his influence to induce his government to recognize the independence of Texas. On June 1 Santa Anna was placed on board a government vessel destined for Vera Cruz, but before it got under way, on June 3, a party of immigrant volunteers arrived from New Orleans, and on learning that it was the intention to liberate the author of the Alamo and Goliad massacres demanded that he be surrendered to them. In the end the civil authorities were compelled to recall Santa Anna and hand him over to the army. He protested against this breach of the treaty and complained of the hardships to which he was exposed; but to this Burnet somewhat sharply replied that Santa Annas visit among them had caused the Texans some privations and that for that reason they were little inclined to regret that he should share them. In July Santa Anna appealed to President Jackson to offer intervention in adjusting the relations between Texas and Mexico, but the Mexican government had disavowed the treaty of Velasco and had notified the powers that it would not recognize as binding upon it any act of Santa Anna, so that President Jackson took no action. After the failure of an attempt to rescue the distinguished prisoner he was placed in a very rigorous confinement, and it was not until the inauguration of President Houston in October that he was released. He then visited Washington and again proposed intervention to President Jackson, who still declined to act. In February, 1837, he returned to Mexico, being carried to Vera Cruz by a naval vessel of the United States. The other Mexican prisoners captured at San Jacinto were liberated early m Houstons administration, after detention first at Galveston and later at Liberty.
The interference of the army in the case of Santa Anna reveals another source of confusion during the period of the ad interim government. The refusal of Mexico to accept the verdict of San Jacinto and its evident determination to renew the invasion of Texas made it necessary to maintain a strong defensive force. This was composed chiefly of volunteers from the United States, many of whom did not yield patiently to discipline. When General Houston went to New Orleans to obtain treatment for his ankle, wounded at San Jacinto, the command devolved on Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, secretary of war, and when, shortly afterward. Rusk resigned and the cabinet appointed Mirabeau B. Lamar to succeed him, the men refused to receive him and elected instead Gen. Felix Houston.
By mid-summer order was sufficiently restored for the people to give some attention to the establishment of a regular government. On July 23 President Burnet issued a proclamation calling an election for the first Monday in September. The congress then elected was to meet at Columbia the first Monday in October. Besides the election of officers the people were asked to vote on two other matters: (1) whether congress should be given authority to amend the constitution, and (2) whether Texas should seek annexation to the United States. Three candidates for the presidency appeared, Austin, Henry Smith, and General Houston. Houston was elected by a large majority and immediately appointed Austin secretary of state and Smith secretary of the treasury. The constitution was ratified and the power of amendment was withheld from congress, and the vote in favor of annexation stood 3.277 to 91.
President Burnets message to the first congress on October 4 reviewed the troubled career of the ad interim government and indicated the subjects which in his opinion required the immediate attention of congress. Concerning his administration he said:
It will be recollected that the powers conferred on the government, ad interim, were extraordinary, that they comprised the plenal attributes of sovereignty, the legislative and judicial functions excepted. The circumstances under which that government has been administered have been equally extraordinary.
Sometimes, when Texas was a moving mass of fugitives, they have been without a local habitation and scattered to the cardinal points; again they have been on Galveston Island, without a shelter, and almost without subsistence, and never have they been in circumstances of comfort and convenience suitable to the orderly conducting of the grave and momentous business committed to their charge. That errors should have been committed under such circumstances will not surprise those who have an honest consciousness of their own fallibilities. But that those extraordinary powers have not been perverted to any sinister purpose, to the damage of the country, to personal aggrandizement, or to the creation or advancement of a party, or to the success of a speculation, I assert with a modest but firm and assured confidence.
First, and most pressing, of the problems with which congress must deal was the organization of a system of finance. The debt incurred during the revolution was more than a million and a quarter, and the danger of renewed invasion by Mexico entailed a continuance of heavy expense in the army. As a Mexican province Texas had had no system of taxation, and congress must attack the subject de novo. Burnet recommended a tariff as the most ready means of revenue. For the army he recommended a continuance of the land bounty law which had expired in July, 1836, and the discouragement of short terms of enlistment. The navy was inadequate and an additional large vessel was needed. The judicial system should be organized, a postal system established, and some internal improvements begun such as the bridging of small streams and the establishment of ferries on the larger ones. On October 22 President Burnet resigned his office and General Houston was inaugurated.
