For a BASIC start FUBAR
Sam Houston was elected as the new President of the Republic of Texas on September 5, 1836.
[18] The second
Congress of the Republic of Texas convened a month later, 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 (
Washington-on-the-Brazos,
Harrisburg,
Galveston,
Velasco and
Columbia), before
President Sam Houston moved the capital to
Houston in 1837. The next president,
Mirabeau B. Lamar, moved the capital to the new town of
Austin in 1839.
The first flag of the republic was the "
Burnet Flag" (a single gold star on an azure field), followed in 1839 by official adoption of the Lone Star Flag.
Internal politics of the Republic centered on two factions. The nationalist faction, led by Lamar, advocated the continued independence of Texas, the expulsion of the
Native Americans (Indians), and the expansion of Texas to the
Pacific Ocean. Their opponents, led by Houston, advocated the annexation of Texas to the United States and peaceful coexistence with the Indians, when possible. The
Texas Congress even passed a resolution over Houston's
veto claiming
the Californias for Texas.
[19] The 1844 presidential election split the electorate dramatically, with the newer western regions of the Republic preferring the nationalist candidate
Edward Burleson, while the cotton country, particularly east of the
Trinity River, went for
Anson Jones.
[20]
Armed conflicts[edit]
The
Comanche Indians furnished the main Indian opposition to the Texas Republic, manifested in multiple raids on settlements, capture, and rape of female pioneers, torture killings, and trafficking in captive slaves.
[21] In the late 1830s, Sam Houston negotiated a peace between Texas and the Comanches. Lamar replaced Houston as president in 1838 and reversed the Indian policies. He returned to war with the Comanches and invaded
Comancheria itself. In retaliation, the Comanches attacked Texas in a series of raids. After
peace talks in 1840 ended with the massacre of 34 Comanche leaders in
San Antonio, the Comanches launched a major attack deep into Texas, known as the
Great Raid of 1840. Under command of Potsanaquahip (
Buffalo Hump), 500 to 700 Comanche cavalry warriors swept down the
Guadalupe River valley, killing and plundering all the way to the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, where they sacked the towns of
Victoria and
Linnville. The Comanches retreated after being pursued by 186 rangers, and were caught at the
Battle of Plum Creek wherein they lost the plunder they had taken.
[22]Houston became president again in 1841 and, with both Texians and Comanches exhausted by war, a new peace was established.
[23]
Although Texas achieved self-government, Mexico refused to recognize its independence.
[24] On March 5, 1842, a Mexican force of over 500 men, led by
Ráfael Vásquez, invaded Texas for the first time since the revolution. They soon headed back to the Rio Grande after briefly occupying
San Antonio. About 1,400 Mexican troops, led by the French mercenary general
Adrián Woll, launched a second attack and captured San Antonio on September 11, 1842. A Texas militia retaliated at the
Battle of Salado Creek while simultaneously, a mile and a half away, Mexican soldiers
massacred a militia of fifty-three Texas volunteers who had surrendered after a skirmish.
[25][26] That night, the Mexican Army retreated from the city of San Antonio back to Mexico.
Mexico's attacks on Texas intensified conflicts between political factions, including an incident known as the
Texas Archive War. To "protect" the Texas national archives, President Sam Houston ordered them removed from Austin. The archives were eventually returned to Austin, albeit at gunpoint. The Texas Congress admonished Houston for the incident, and this episode in Texas history solidified Austin as Texas's seat of government for the Republic and the future state.
[27]
There were also domestic disturbances. The
Regulator–Moderator War involved a land feud in Harrison and Shelby Counties in
East Texas from 1839 to 1844. The feud eventually involved
Nacogdoches, San Augustine, and other East Texas counties. Harrison County Sheriff
John J. Kennedyand county judge Joseph U. Fields helped end the conflict, siding with the law-and-order party. Sam Houston ordered 500 militia to help end the feud.
Criteria of citizenship[edit]
Citizenship was not automatically granted to all previous inhabitants of Texas and some residents were not allowed to continue living legally within the Republic without the consent of Congress. The Constitution of the Republic of Texas (1836) established different rights according to the race and ethnicity of each individual. Section 10 of the General Provisions of the Constitution stated that all persons who resided in Texas on the day of the Declaration of Independence were considered citizens of the Republic, excepting "Africans, the descendants of Africans, and Indians."
[28] For new white immigrants, Section 6 established that, to become citizens, they needed to live in the Republic for at least six months and take an oath. While regarding the black population, section 9 established that black persons who were brought to Texas as slaves were to remain slaves and that not even their owner could emancipate them without the consent of Congress. Furthermore, the Congress was not allowed to make laws that affected the slave trade or declare emancipation. Section 9 also established that: "No free person of African descent, either in whole or in part, shall be permitted to reside permanently in the Republic, without the consent of Congress."
[29]