This is episode 52 of the Hidden History of Texas – The Compromise of 1850 and some Texans are already angry and ready to leave the union

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This is episode 52 of the Hidden History of Texas – The Compromise of 1850 and some Texans are already angry and ready to leave the union

In the past few episodes, I’ve talked about relations between Texas and Mexico, Anglos and Mexicans, and how slavery was part and parcel of life in Texas. The fact that there was, and in reality, still is racial animosity and other types of bigotry towards non-whites and non-protestants among the Anglo citizens of Texas isn’t, or at least shouldn’t be a surprise. The earliest Anglo settlers primarily came from the Southern states and carried with them their culture.  They were very much like a large percentage of those who resided in many of the States, including some in the north. At the same time America was flexing its muscles and trying to expand its territory.

From 1845 to 1865, America operated under the concept of Manifest Destiny as put forth by John L O’Sullivan when in 1845, he wrote,  “…the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions”.  Although originally written as a defense in the argument for admitting Texas into the Union, the article laid the foundation for justification of government actions that consequently had a negative effect on those who fell outside of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant group.

By 1850 one outgrowth of this belief was the birth of  a secretive society known as the American Order. The group stood firmly against Catholics, foreigners, and supported restrictions on immigration. They came to be known as the “National American Party’ or more commonly labeled the “Know-Nothing” political party. In Texas, they were known as the “American Party” and as a whole they argued that any foreign-born citizen be barred from voting or holding public office. In Texas, the party was anti-Mexican, pro-slavery, and they pledged to vote only for native-born Protestants for public office.

Remember from last episode, after the Mexican and American war ended, Texas wanted to annex the eastern part of New Mexico. Texas was also insistent on making certain that slave owners were not only allowed to keep their slaves but also to acquire more. Southern states who identified with  the Texas political views also wanted to make certain that Texas was a slave state.  It was not only Texas that the Southern leaders were concerned with; they also began to insist that ALL of the territory that was acquired as a result of the treaty of Guadalupe-Hildago that ended the war be opened to slavery. Needless to say, this did not sit well with those in the north who were abolitionists, and they were determined to prevent this from taking place.  

Meanwhile Robert S. Neighbors, who had been sent to New Mexico by then Texas Governor Peter Bell to organize the 4 eastern counties of New Mexico into a part of Texas failed in his mission.  As a result of his failure in June of 1850 there was a public outcry where some called for the use of military force to take the territory and still others called for secession from the Union.

Governor Bell chose to call a special session of the legislature (in Texas the legislature only meets every 2 years, usually it keeps them out of trouble) to deal with the issue. However, even before the session began, things managed to get worse. The government in New Mexico put forth a proposed constitution for a future state and the citizens easily approved it. In their constitution, they declared the state’s boundaries to include the land claimed by Texas.  At this point, President Fillmore decided to become involved, and he ordered that the army should reinforce their contingent that was stationed in New Mexico. He also publicly proclaimed that if any militiamen from Texas entered the area, he would order the troops to resist them. Needless to say, this didn’t exactly calm the situation down, and multiple southern leaders offered to send Governor Bell military support, which he wisely turned down.

Meanwhile back in Washington.

Congress was doing what congress usually did and still does a lot of and that is argue.  Back on the 16^th of January 1850  Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri had introduced a bill that called for Texas to sign over all land west of 102° longitude (which is near Fort Stockton Texas) and then north of the Red River to the United States. In exchange for this the U.S. would pay Texas $15 million. This bill also proposed that Texas should be divided into two states, not exactly something that thrilled Texans, but Senator John Bell of Tennessee offered one that was even worse, because it would have divided Texas into three states.

Not to be outdone, a Senate committee, which  was chaired by Henry Clay of Kentucky, offered up a bill that would have given Texas an unspecified sum in exchange for giving up claims on all land’s northwest of a straight line from the El Paso area to that point on the 100th meridian (an area that encompasses Greer County)  that cuts across the Red River. Needless to say, none of these efforts was successful.

 Senator James A. Pierce of Maryland finally introduced a bill that proposed to pay Texas $10 million if the state would give  up its claim to everything north and west of a boundary beginning at the 100th meridian where it intersects the 36^th parallel of 36°30’, The boundary would then go west along that and parallel to the 103d meridian, then turn south to the 32nd parallel, and go from that point head westward to the Rio Grande. This is Modern Texas.  Finally, this bill was successful because it not only had the support of the Texas delegation but also from the moderates in both the North and South.

The people who held bonds that represented debts incurred by the Republic of Texas gave their support and worked hard for the bill. They supported it because the bill guaranteed that a part of the settlement would be used to repay those debts. Finally in late summer of 1850 the measure passed both houses of Congress and was signed by President Fillmore.

Even though the bill was passed it still faced some serious opposition in Texas, especially in the media. There were two major newspapers that opposed the compromise, the Marshall Texas Republican and the Austin State Gazette.

 The Marshall Texas Republican had been around only since the prior year of  1849. The political beliefs of the paper’s founders, Trenton A. and Frank J. Patillo, was clearly seen as the paper became one of the most strident supporters of states’ rights, slavery, and secession. In July of 1849, Robert W. Loughery, who was a Calhoun Democrat, (Calhoun was according to his official biography at the U.S. Senate, “A staunch defender of the institution of slavery, and a slave-owner himself, Calhoun was the Senate’s most prominent states’ rights advocate, and his doctrine of nullification professed that individual states had a right to reject federal policies that they deemed unconstitutionally). was named the associate editor, then in November of 1849 became the owner.  Loughery’s editorials frequently found their way to other newspapers and the paper opposed the Compromise of 1850 and supported the rise of the American (Know-Nothing) party in the mid-1850s. In the months before the civil war, the paper strongly advocated for withdrawal from the Union, and it was among the strongest and most loyal supporters of the Confederacy during the war years. In a strange twist, once the war ended, the paper supported the need for people to comply with the requirements of surrender.  As time went on, he initially supported reconciliation, but eventually he turned against Congressional Reconstruction, and the paper ceased publication in 1872. The other paper to speak out against any compromise was the Austin State Gazette.

The State Gazette was one of the most influential newspapers in Texas from the pre-Civil War era until Reconstruction. It was started in Austin by William Cushney in 1849, under the original name of the Tri-Weekly State Gazette.  This paper was one of the state’s strongest supports for states’-rights positions and it served almost as the official voice of the state’s pro-slavery  Democratic party. This was a well-earned reputation that it gained from its many political battles with Sam Houston during the years leading to secession.

The Gazette’s editorial policies were very similar to the editorial policies of many of the modern-day conservative media outlets and that they “opposed a high protective tariff, internal improvements at government expense and a banking system.”  The paper’s editors maintained that they were “thoroughly democratic” politically, by this they meant that, as I said, they gave voice to the official platform of the Texas Democratic party. Now the party  then was in no way even remotely similar to today’s Democratic party, in those days, the party not only endorsed slavery, but they also strongly urged that slavery be allowed to spread in the United States. The paper also followed what was a standard news-gathering practice of the time, and that was the exchange of information with any of the twenty-nine newspapers operating in Texas at that time. Editorially the paper not only promoted states’ rights, but it also called for the reopening of the slave trade in Africa, vehemently opposed the Compromise of 1850, and claimed that if there was any slave problem it was because the north overreacted to fugitive-slave laws.

Regardless of the opposition of some of the state’s leaders, during a special election Texas voters approved it by a three to one margin. The legislature then passed an official  resolution of acceptance, and Governor Bell signed that on November 25, 1850. Simultaneously the boundary act and four additional bills all were passed just about at the same time and since they all dealt with various controversial sectional issues, they came to be known collectively as the Compromise of 1850.

That’s going to do it for today, I hope you’ve enjoyed, and if not enjoyed at least learned something you might not have known before about the Hidden History of Texas. Please subscribe to the podcast. If you want more information on Texas History, visit the website of the Texas State Historical Association. I also have four audiobooks on the Hidden History of Texas, The Spanish Bump Into Texas 1530s to 1820s,  Here Come The Anglos 1820s to 1830s, Years of Revolution 1830 to 1836. And, my latest A Failing Republic Becomes a State 1836-1850. You can find the books pretty much wherever you download or listen to audiobooks. Just do a search for the Hidden History of Texas by Hank Wilson and they’ll pop right up. Or visit my website https://arctx.org. By the way if you like audiobooks, visit my publisher’s website there’s an incredible selection of audiobooks there. In addition to mine you’ll find the classics, horror, science fiction, mental-health, and much more. Check it out visit https://ashbynavis.com

Thanks for listening y’all