Texas Government Chapter 2

as we mentioned earlier texas had

attempted to join the union join the

united states uh immediately after

gaining independence from mexico of

course the issue of slavery blocked that

but by the 1840s

uh the the attitudes had changed with

regard to uh expansion and expanding the

united states

and one of the ideas or concepts of the

time was something called manifest

destiny

manifest destiny is a term that was

coined by a a newspaper editor by the

name of john o'sullivan

and basically manifest destiny

is an argument that the the us

and the americans had a divine purpose

or a divine

destiny it was god's will in their minds

that uh

we expand across the continent that the

us extends its uh reach and its

influence and its uh

power from the atlantic ocean all the

way to the pacific ocean across the

continent

and so this attitude was very prevalent

in the 1840s and

everybody's talking about expansion

expansion expansion of course railroads

is something that we'll talk about later

that will come in that will uh

that will spur this because the

the uh more railroads that are being

built uh that allows us to push farther

westward more quickly more efficiently

faster

but

then james k polk is elected as

president of the united states on the

platform of annexing texas and oregon

now first oregon oregon is a uh

was jointly uh held by the us and great

britain and of course it's in what we

now know as the

northwest part of the continent

or the united states but then it

extended

much farther north

and the argument was that uh because

it's on the north american continent

that it should be part of the united

states and not jointly held anymore and

so uh polk began arguing for uh

us to take control of it

up to what's called the

5440 parallel and that's a latitudinal

uh

parallel

that really if you look at it and i'll

show you a map here in a moment that

extends almost to what we now know is

this as the southern border of what is

now alaska so polk is is basically

arguing that the united states should

be allowed to take or control a

significant part of what is now part of

was not canada of course the um

the brit the british are not going to

agree to this and so that you know

that's polk's extreme claim the farthest

he would want and the extreme claim of

uh great britain or england is the 42nd

parallel which

maybe comes in about the

southern border what we now know is

washington state or maybe in oregon

somewhere

but um but anyway so when you go into a

negotiation you ask for everything you

want and then you compromise and that is

kind of what happened here

even though uh

those that wanted oregon were boasting

with their motto 5440 or fight

pretty much they were willing to

negotiate and they ended up compromising

about halfway

at the 49th parallel which is where the

current border is and it makes perfect

sense because it just extends

the border between uh

canada and the united states that

existed farther east you know whether

you know

minnesota

north dakota some of those places that's

that that parallel is the same border

so oregon is um is annexed and then

texas will be annexed in 1845 as a slave

state

now even

prior to this

president polk had attempted to purchase

other parts of what isn't at this point

mexico including california

and new mexico

uh in areas that are also known as you

know we now know as arizona

but uh that did not come to fruition but

um he was able to annex uh eventually

texas in

1845.

so a couple of dates you'll want to know

is that texas gained its independence

from um

well actually uh mexico gained its

independence from spain in 1821

texas gained its independence from

mexico in 1836

and texas was annexed into the united

states in 1845

so i don't ask a lot of dates but those

are a couple of dates you might want to

think about and remember for testing

purposes

but what this did show in 1845 is that

already the united states was eyeing

the northern

reaches of mexican territory

california and new mexico included

here's a that map of um

the uh

oregon and you can see the very very top

of that map 5440 that was the original

extreme claim of polk in the united

states

at the very bottom there the extreme

claim of the british

and then of course they met about

halfway and which is how negotiations

often work and so the 49th parallel will

be the uh

the border

now texas here is uh

we will lead into the mexican war here

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texas

um that gray area was the original claim

or the original

um

when santa ana surrendered uh that's the

territory uh later the claim will be

the rio grande the new asus river was

the uh claim at the uh at the base uh

the or the southern

uh part of it uh

the united states is going to claim the

rio grande and that um eventually all

that uh purple and gray will be disputed

territory that will come into play uh

eventually

in the uh

in the mexican-american war

now

as i mentioned before the united states

had been eyeing that territory uh in

northern mexico california new mexico

what is now arizona colorado utah all of

that and had

president polk had attempted to purchase

it but with that failing he's going to

find another way

and

the the

the beginning of it is the dispute over

the southern border of texas the u.s

claims the rio grande river mexico

claims the new asus river so as in that

you saw in that map that area between

the new aces

and the rio grande is a disputed area

mexico claims it is their own and now

the us claims it as their own

now

that being said if somebody

sends another nation sends troops into

an area that you claim that you would

consider that an invasion

well polk knows this and he orders his

troops under american troops under

zachary taylor into this disputed area

of course the response will come from

mexico and there is a some fighting

into battle

and it leads to 16 american casualties

either killed or wounded

and with this

polka is able to go to the us congress

and persuade them to declare war on

mexico

so

we begin a war with mexico

and it is opposed by many especially

people that are against slavery or

abolitionists or those that don't want

the expansion of slavery which is very

important there are there are many

groups at this time that that maybe they

weren't abolitionists

uh they didn't really necessarily want

the abolition of slavery but they for

sure did not want the expansion of

slavery

so many of these were opposed to this

war because they felt like that if the

us wins the war they will gain territory

and uh and that would those would

eventually be slave states well the

objectives of um

the us in this war because you have to

have a plan is a control northern mexico

and new mexico what is now texas and new

mexico

two sees california

and three capture mexico city in order

to force the surrender of mexico kearney

captures uh dr stephen kearney

captures santa fe which

checks the box of uh new mexico

moves on to help take california which

checks the set checks the second box

and then winfield scott general winfield

scott takes mexico city and forces

the surrender

of the mexican government

and this war did not last very long the

surrender in 1848 was finalized by the

treaty of guadalupe hidalgo

and it was a treaty that was very

favorable to the americans of course

that you know the phrase as to the

victor go the spoils well that means

when you win

uh you get to dictate the terms of

you know the treaty and how it all ends

and so the u.s in the treaty of

guadalupe dogo receives the mexican

session

which is basically the territories the

huge amount of territory of california

new mexico what is now arizona was now

nevada in utah and portions of colorado

and wyoming

and the texas border of course the the

the initial reason for starting the war

the texas border is the rio grande river

uh

the mexican uh

ins uh in seated territory promised u.s

citizenship so if you were part if you

lived if you were a mexican citizen and

lived in any of those territories you

would get u.s citizenship

when the territories became states which

they would eventually do

in the us agrees to pay 3.5 million

dollars in mexican debt

and cash payment of 15 million dollars

which is absolutely a steal this i mean

that considering the amount of land that

is acquired

what is now new mexico california

arizona utah nevada all those uh areas

for basically 18.5 million dollars total

is a very very uh

good deal

here's a map that shows um

the uh

texas originally with the which is it's

funny looking it'll change

shape

soon enough but then that mexican

session

basically

that includes parts of new mexico and

all the other areas that we talked about

now at this point uh texas is part of

the union after the uh but after the um

their annexation and after the mexican

war but there's also uh problems brewing

in the national government and that is

the from the flu from the 1840s up

through the 1850s

is the tensions over the rise of uh

the increase in slavery in the south and

the abolition of it in the north most

all of the northern states by this point

by the 18

late 1850s

had already outlawed slavery there was

really no slavery in the northern states

but because of the rise of cotton which

we'll talk about in a little while

and the profitability of cotton slavery

has been increasing in the southern

states so obviously this is going to

create tension

and this tension comes to a boil of

course uh with the election of abraham

lincoln who as a as the first

elected

republican president and at this point

in our history the republicans were the

abolitionist party they were the party

of

ending slavery or

actually lincoln ran on

no expansion of slavery he didn't run as

an abolitionist

now uh

the south threatened to succeed if

lincoln won the election in 1860 well

lincoln wins the election in

1860 and south carolina immediately

secedes from

uh the union after the election

the rest of the uh shortly after the

rest of the deep south and i'll show you

a map here

in just a moment the rest of the deep

south

basically the states that most of them

are the states that board the gulf of

mexico

and uh including also georgia and south

carolina they um

they succeed with south carolina

uh the rest of the slave states that are

you know the upper south they're holding

off but then we have the first major

battle or first battle it's not really a

major battle but it was the first

conflict

of the civil war which is the battle of

fort sumter the attack on fort sumter

and it is after this with the first

shots fired really in the civil war that

the rest of the uh

uh

the upper the rest of those that will

succeed to see the upper south now there

will also be some slave states that stay

with the union but we'll talk about that

in a moment

and when this happens as

texas of course will

secede with the first wave

texas delegates vote in february

of

1861 to succeed from the u.s

but

there was pushback from governor sam

houston of course sam houston was the

early president of texas and he becomes

when texas becomes part of the united

states he's the governor and he is

resisting uh

secession he doesn't want to secede he

doesn't think it's a good idea he

doesn't think that

the south can win but he is greatly

outnumbered as you can see one in the in

the

legislative delegation 166 to eight

and uh this quote by uh

the texas secession convention

kind of is clear about their intentions

and why they're succeeding

uh there are many people out there that

i would like to have revisionist history

that argue that you know

the civil war and secession wasn't about

slavery it was about states rights well

this statement uh contradicts that we

hold as undeniable truths that the

governments of the various states and of

the confederacy itself were established

exclusively for the white race for

themselves and their posterity that the

african race had no agency and in their

establishment that they were rightfully

held and regarded as an inferior and

dependent race and in that condition

only could their existence in this

country be rendered beneficial and or

tolerable

that pretty much states clearly the

reasons for secession

and of course they vote eventually to

secede

after the ratification of secession sam

houston uh being the governor of now a

seceded state refused to swear loyalty

to the confederate states of america

and he was deposed from office basically

kicked out of office because of his

unwillingness to be on board with

secession

uh now there were wasn't just san

houston there were pockets of

secessionists i mean excuse me pockets

of those that wanted to remain loyal to

the union throughout texas not a lot it

wasn't it was a significant minority but

there were still quite a few many of the

germans that had immigrated that were

living in the hill country uh and the

czechoslovakians and some of the others

from uh

the interior of western europe

were generally anti-slavery

uh some of the northern texas counties

uh if you were a uh a vocal unionist if

you were vocally especially if you were

trying to persuade others to

uh stay with the union and

resist secession you could be

arrested and of course uh executed and

that happened

to quite a few people

and of course other controversies

and uh

and resistance to secession was the

conscription act which is basically the

draft of getting people to of drafting

people to join the military and like in

every war ever fought in human history

basically uh there were exceptions

to who would be drafted which mainly

included

those who were the wealthiest and in the

texas uh

conscription act basically people who

owned 15 or more slaves

which would be considered fairly wealthy

people were exempted from the draft and

of course this this uh kind of

highlights what many people argue

about war

is that oftentimes wars are started by

the rich people and fought by the poor

people

and

some people argue that is true

throughout really not just you know

american history but human history

and of course sam houston he had a

prediction

on what was coming when he was forced

out of office and the secession was

finally uh

official

he's this is his quote let me tell you

what is coming after the sacrifice of

countless millions of treasure and

hundreds of thousands of lives you may

win southern independence if god be not

against you but i doubt it

i tell you that while i believe with you

in the doctrine of states riots the

north is determined to preserve the

union

they are not a fiery impulsive people as

you are for they live in colder climates

but when they begin to move in a given

direction they move with the steady

momentum and perseverance of a mighty

avalanche

and what i fear is they will overwhelm

the south

and that is

very prophetic because that is basically

what happens in the civil war

millions of treasure spent hundreds of

thousands of lives lost on both sides

and the eventual loss

by the south

uh now this is a good map of state

secessions i mean for testing purposes

you're going to want to know the the the

of all the slave states

uh

which ones seceded first which ones

seceded after fort sumter and which ones

stayed with the union so that peach

color there in the maps texas louisiana

mississippi alabama georgia florida

south carolina those were slave states

that seceded before the attack on fort

sumter so after

lincoln's election and before fort

sumter

those are the states that seceded

now the yellow

arkansas tennessee north carolina and

virginia

those are the states that seceded after

the attack on fort sumter

the brown states

those are the border states those are

the slave states that remain with the

union and they were very important in

the civil war because they they created

a buffer between the uh the free states

and

the the confederacy

so missouri kentucky west virginia which

was carved out of virginia because when

virginia seceded the western part of

virginia did not want to

secede with them so they just basically

created their own state that still

exists to this day so west virginia

maryland

delaware

[Music]

um

and uh

so that's um

know those know those that seceded

after the election of lincoln and before

fort sumter those that seceded after

fort sumter and those that stayed with

the union

now military recruitment in

texas

had a lot of volunteers and also a lot

of um

conscripted uh 70 000 plus uh texans

served in the confederate army of course

we were far away from the uh

all the heavy fighting texas was and of

course and we were separated from the

main fighting by the mississippi river

as was louisiana

but texas had 45 regiments of calvary 23

regiments of infantry 12 battalions of

calvary four battalions of infantry

uh five regiments of heavy artillery and

30 batteries of light all chillers so

it's a pretty significant amount of uh

troops that served in the confederate

army there were a few thousand though

that served in the union army as well um

of course they had to leave that they

were

union

members of the union army and in texas

they're uh they wouldn't have lasted

long

there were very few civil war battles in

texas

mainly because um

um

the mississippi river

prevented uh the the union controlled

the mississippi river for the most part

so there wasn't a whole lot of crossing

over

of uh

the uh

the mississippi from texas and louisiana

into um

into the eastern part of the country

where most of the fighting was

uh second battle being passed maybe one

of the most significant where a small

little garrison of 46 soldiers defeated

a union navy attack

uh

texas was

galveston was occupied for most of the

war port lavaca indianola brownsville

also other ports though were

available uh

and uh they were able to uh

at least to some extent uh keep their

ports open

and of course this war continued on with

like as i said most of the fighting

being done in the in the eastern part of

the country but as we know eventually

robert e lee will surrender at

appomattox courthouse

on april 9 1865

and then union reconstruction begins at

this point they take over

the reconstruction officials come in and

announce

the end of uh slavery and the um

the freedom of the slaves on june 19

1865

which is today

celebrated as

juneteenth

now during reconstruction uh the

president of course after lincoln is

assassinated

uh is andrew johnson and he appoints

union general andrew hamilton as the

military leader

uh the south is is broken up and divided

into uh union military districts

reconstruction districts that are

controlled by the military

this is to enforce and to ensure that

these newly freed slaves

are uh are given their uh their

citizen rights

uh that the war was fought for uh the

the union knows and especially the

reconstruction congress the uh

reconstructionists in congress

us congress know that if left to their

own devices

the uh southern states including texas

will simply re-uh implement very

oppressive and suppressive

laws and policies on the newly freed

slaves

that

the old guard would return and in no way

do they want to have any semblance of

equality or give any semblance of rights

to the former slaves and of course with

all of this going on and

the reconstructionist trying to enforce

these new freedoms you saw violence and

disorder and upheaval

uh

the first governor of reconstruction was

edmond davis and elected in 1869

davis worked to protect civil rights of

the newly freed slaves created the state

guard of texas and the reserve militia

which eventually morphed into the texas

national guard

but he was defeated in re-election by

democrat richard koch

which because of the democrats winning

and we're seeing

coming to the end of uh

reconstruction there are many

irregularities and other uh

there were

accusations of fraud in that election of

code

but um once coke is uh as a democrat

is uh elected things begin to rapidly

change

and it is not good for the for the

former slaves

eventually texas was re-admitted to the

union on march 30th 1870

and by the late 70s democrats had taken

back control of the state

and that by democrats we mean the

basically the political elites

and the economic elites that had

governed and ruled texas before the

civil war

they began to establish paramilitary

groups meaning outside of the

governmental

control in a lot of ways to intimidate

african americans in texas uh including

groups like the ku klux klan

and then in 1876 after we'll talk about

the the many the few constitutions that

occurred in this period

the current texas constitution was

established in 1876