THE REPUBLIC GROWS LARGER
SAM HOUSTON
In a preceding chapter you learned how the great territories of Louisiana
and Florida came to belong to America. We are now to learn of still other
additions, namely, the great regions of Texas and California.
The most prominent man in the events connected with our getting Texas was
Sam Houston.
[Illustration: Sam Houston.]
He was born, of Irish descent, in 1793, in a farmhouse in Virginia. When
he was thirteen years old the family removed to a place in Tennessee, near
the home of the Cherokee Indians. The boy received but little schooling
out in that new country. In fact, he cared far less about school than he
did for the active, free life of his Indian neighbors.
So when his family decided to have him learn a trade he ran away from home
and joined the Cherokees. There he made friends, and one of the chiefs
adopted him as a son. We may think of him as enjoying the sports and
games, the hunting and fishing, which took up so much of the time of the
Indian boys.
On returning to his home, at the age of eighteen, he went to school for a
term at Marysville Academy. In the War of 1812 he became a soldier and
served under Andrew Jackson in the campaign against the Creek Indians. In
the battle of Horseshoe Bend he fought with reckless bravery. During that
fearful struggle he received a wound in the thigh. His commander, Jackson,
then ordered him to stop fighting, but Houston refused to obey and was
leading a desperate charge against the enemy when his right arm was
shattered. It was a long time before he was well and strong again, but he
had made a firm friend in Andrew Jackson.
Later Houston studied law and began a successful practice. He became so
popular in Tennessee that the people elected him to many positions of
honor and trust, the last of which was that of governor. About that time
he was married, but a few weeks later he and his wife separated. Then,
suddenly and without giving any reason for his strange conduct, he left
his home and his State and went far up the Arkansas River to the home of
his early friends the Cherokee Indians. The Cherokees had been removed to
that distant country, beyond the Mississippi, by the United States
Government.
About a year later Houston, wearing the garb of his adopted tribe, went in
company with some of them to Washington. His stated purpose was to secure
a contract for furnishing rations to the Cherokees.
But another purpose was in his mind. He had set his heart on winning Texas
for the United States. Perhaps he talked over the scheme with his friend,
President Jackson. However that may be, we know that some three years
afterward Houston again left his Cherokee friends and went to Texas to
live. His desire to secure this region for his country was as strong as
ever.
[Illustration: Scene of Houston's Campaign.]
At that time Texas was a part of Mexico. Already before Houston went down
to that far-away land many people from the United States had begun to
settle there. At first they were welcomed. But when the Mexicans saw the
Americans rapidly growing in numbers they began to oppress them. The
Mexican Government went so far as to require them to give up their private
arms, which would leave them defenseless against the Indians as well as
bad men. Then it passed a law which said, in effect, that no more settlers
should come to Texas from the United States, so that the few thousand
Americans could not be strengthened in numbers.
[Illustration: Flag of the Republic of Texas.]
Of course, the Texans were indignant, and they rebelled against Mexico,
declaring Texas to be an independent republic. At the same time they
elected Houston commander-in-chief of all the Texan troops. This began a
bitter war. The Mexican dictator, Santa Anna, with an army four or five
thousand strong, marched into Texas to force the people to submit to the
government.
The first important event of this struggle was the capture of the Alamo,
an old Texan fortress at San Antonio. Although the garrison numbered only
one hundred and forty, they were men of reckless daring, without fear, and
they determined to fight to the last.
DAVID CROCKETT
Among these hardy fighters was David Crockett, a pioneer and adventurer
who had led a wild, roving life. He was a famous hunter and marksman and,
like some of our other frontiersmen, was never happier than when he was
alone in the deep, dark forests.
Born in eastern Tennessee, in 1786, he received no schooling, but he was a
man of good understanding. His amusing stories and his skill with the
rifle had made him many friends, who chose him to represent their district
in the Tennessee Legislature and later in Congress.
[Illustration: David Crockett.]
Like Sam Houston, he had served under Andrew Jackson in the war with the
Creek Indians, and when the struggle with Mexico broke out he was one of
the many brave backwoodsmen who left their homes and went down to help the
Texans.
After a long journey from Tennessee, in which more than once he came near
being killed by the Indians or wild beasts, he at last reached the
fortress of the Alamo. He knew he was taking great risks in joining the
small garrison there, but that did not hold him back. In fact, he liked
danger.
The Mexican army, upon reaching San Antonio, began firing upon the Alamo.
Their cannon riddled the fort, making wide breaches in the weak outer
walls through which from every side thousands of Mexicans thronged into
it. The Americans emptied their muskets and then fought with knives and
revolvers. They fought with desperate bravery until only five of the
soldiers were left.
[Illustration: The Fight at the Alamo.]
One of these was David Crockett. He had turned his musket about and was
using it as a club in his desperate struggle with the scores of men who
sought his life. There he stood, his back against the wall, with the
bodies of the Mexicans he had slain lying in a semicircle about him. His
foes dared not rush upon him, but some of them held him at bay with their
lances, while others, having loaded their muskets, riddled his body with
bullets. Thus fell brave David Crockett, a martyr to his country's cause.
* * * * *
A few weeks after the tragedy of the Alamo, Santa Anna's army massacred a
force of five hundred Texans at Goliad. The outlook for the Texan cause
was now dark enough. But Sam Houston, who commanded something like seven
hundred Texans, would not give up. He retreated eastward for some two
hundred and fifty miles. But when he learned that Santa Anna had broken up
his army into three divisions and was approaching with only about one
thousand six hundred men Houston halted his troops and waited for them to
come up. On their approach he stood ready for attack in a well-chosen spot
near the San Jacinto River, where he defeated Santa Anna and took him
prisoner.
The Texans now organized a separate government, and in the following
autumn elected Houston as the first President of the Republic of Texas. He
did all he could to bring about the annexation of Texas to the United
States and at last succeeded, for Texas entered our Union in 1845. It was
to be expected that the people of Mexico would not like this. They were
very angry, and the outcome was the Mexican War which lasted nearly two
years.
In 1846 Texas sent Houston to the United States Senate, where he served
his State for fourteen years. When the Civil War broke out he was governor
of Texas and, although his State seceded, Houston remained firm for the
Union. On his refusal to resign, he was forced to give up his office. He
died in 1863.
JOHN C. FRÉMONT THE PATHFINDER
Still another man who acted as agent in this transfer of land from Mexico
was John C. Frémont. He helped in securing California.
He was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1813. His father died when he was a
young child, and his mother went to Charleston, South Carolina, to live,
and there gave her son a good education. After graduating from Charleston
College he was employed by the government as assistant engineer in making
surveys for a railroad between Charleston and Cincinnati, and also in
exploring the mountain passes between North Carolina and Tennessee.
[Illustration: John C. Frémont]
He enjoyed this work so much that he was eager to explore the regions of
the far western part of our country, which were still largely unknown.
Accordingly, he made several expeditions beyond the Rocky Mountains, three
of which are of special importance in our story.
His first expedition was made in 1842, when he was sent out by the War
Department to explore the Rocky Mountains, especially the South Pass,
which is in the State of Wyoming. He made his way up the Kansas River,
crossed over to the Platte, which he ascended, and then pushed on to the
South Pass. Four months after starting he had explored this pass and, with
four of his men, had gone up to the top of Frémont's Peak, where he
unfurled to the breeze the beautiful stars and stripes.
The excellent report he made of the expedition was examined with much
interest by men of science in our own country and in foreign lands.
In this and also in his second expedition Frémont received much help from
a follower, Kit Carson. Kit Carson was one of the famous scouts and
hunters of the West, who felt smothered by the civilization of a town or
city, and loved the free, roaming life of the woodsman.
[Illustration: Frémont's Expedition Crossing the Rocky Mountains.]
Before joining Frémont, Kit Carson had travelled over nearly all of the
Rocky Mountain country. Up to 1834 he was a trapper, and had wandered back
and forth among the mountains until they had become very familiar to him.
During the next eight years, in which he served as hunter for Bent's Fort,
on the Arkansas River, he learned to know the great plains. He was,
therefore, very useful to Frémont as a guide.
He was also well acquainted with many Indian tribes. He knew their
customs, he understood their methods of warfare, and was well liked by the
Indians themselves. He spoke their chief languages as well as he did his
mother tongue.
After returning from his first expedition, Frémont made up his mind to
explore the region between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific. He
succeeded in getting orders from the government to do this, and set out on
his second expedition in May, 1843, with thirty-nine men, Kit Carson again
acting as guide.
[Illustration: Kit Carson.]
The party left the little town of Kansas City in May and, in September,
after travelling for one thousand seven hundred miles, they reached a vast
expanse of water which excited great interest. It was much larger than the
whole State of Delaware, and its waters were salt. It was, therefore,
given the name of Great Salt Lake.
Passing on, Frémont reached the upper branch of the Columbia River. Then
pushing forward down the valley of this river, he went as far as Fort
Vancouver, near its mouth. Having reached the coast, he remained only a
few days and then set out on his return (November 10).
His plan was to make his way around the Great Basin, a vast, deep valley
lying east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. But it was not long before
heavy snow on the mountains forced him to go down into this basin. He soon
found that he was in a wild desert region in the depths of winter, facing
death from cold and starvation. The situation was desperate.
Frémont judged that they were about as far south as San Francisco Bay. If
this was true, he knew that the distance to that place was only about
seventy miles. But to reach San Francisco Bay it was necessary to cross
the mountains, and the Indians refused to act as guides, telling him that
men could not possibly cross the steep, rugged heights in winter. This did
not stop Frémont. He said: "We'll go, guides or no guides!" And go they
did.
It was a terrible journey. Sometimes they came to places where the snow
was one hundred feet deep or more. But they pushed forward for nearly six
weeks. Finally, after suffering from intense cold and from lack of food,
they made their way down the western side of the mountains, men and horses
alike being in such a starved condition that they were almost walking
skeletons.
At last they reached Sutter's Fort, now the city of Sacramento, where they
enjoyed the hospitality of Captain Sutter. After remaining there for a
short time, Frémont recrossed the mountains, five hundred miles farther
south, and continued to Utah Lake, which is twenty-eight miles south of
Great Salt Lake. He had travelled entirely around the Great Basin.
From Utah Lake he hastened across the country to Washington, with the
account of his journey and of the discoveries he had made.
In 1845 Captain Frémont--for he had now been promoted to the rank of
captain by the government--started out on his third expedition, with the
purpose of exploring the Great Basin and then proceeding to the coast of
what is now California and upward to Oregon.
[Illustration: Frémont's Western Explorations.]
Having explored the basin, he was on his way to Oregon, when he learned
that the Mexicans were plotting to kill all the Americans in the valley of
the Sacramento River. He therefore turned back to northern California, and
with a force made up in part of American settlers gathered from the
country round about, he took possession of that region, marched as fast as
possible to Monterey, and captured that place also. Within about two
months he had conquered practically all of California for the United
States.
Frémont then made his home in California. On the 4th of the following July
he was elected governor of the territory by the settlers then living
there. Eleven years later the Republican party of the United States
nominated him for President, but failed to elect him. He died in 1890. He
has well been called "the Pathfinder."
Frémont's conquest of California was, in effect, a part of the Mexican
War, which began in 1846. After nearly two years of fighting a treaty of
peace was signed, by which Mexico ceded to the United States not only
California but also much of the vast region now included in Nevada, Utah,
Arizona, and New Mexico.
This region, which is called the Mexican Cession, contained five hundred
and forty-five thousand seven hundred and eighty-three square miles, while
Texas included five hundred and seventy-six thousand one hundred and
thirty-three square miles. These two areas together were, like Louisiana,
much larger than the whole of the United States at the end of the
Revolution. With the addition of Louisiana in 1803, of Florida in 1819, of
Texas in 1845, and of this region in 1848, the United States had
enormously increased her territory.
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD
On the same day on which the treaty of peace was signed with Mexico
(February 2, 1848), gold was discovered in California.
Captain Sutter, a Swiss pioneer living near the site of the present city
of Sacramento--at Sutter's Fort, where Frémont stopped on his second
expedition--was having a water-power sawmill built up the river at some
distance from his home. One day one of the workmen, while walking along
the mill-race, discovered some bright yellow particles, the largest of
which were about the size of grains of wheat. On testing them, Captain
Sutter found that they were gold.
[Illustration: Sutter's Mill.]
He tried to keep the discovery a secret, but it was impossible to prevent
the news from spreading. "_Gold! Gold! Gold!_" seemed to ring through
the air. From all the neighboring country men started in a mad rush for
the gold-fields. Houses were left half built, fields half ploughed. "To
the diggings!" was the watchword. From the mountains to the coast, from
San Francisco to Los Angeles, settlements were abandoned. Even vessels
that came into the harbor of San Francisco were deserted by their crews,
sailors and captains alike being wild in their desire to dig for gold.
Within four months of the first discovery four thousand men were living in
the neighborhood of Sacramento. The sudden coming together of so many
people made it difficult to get supplies, and they rose in value. Tools of
many kinds sold for large prices. Pickaxes, crowbars, and spades cost from
ten dollars to fifty dollars apiece. Bowls, trays, dishes, and even
warming-pans were eagerly sought, because they could be used in washing
gold.
It was late in the year before people in the East learned of the
discovery, for news still travelled slowly. But when it arrived, men of
every class--farmers, mechanics, lawyers, doctors, and even
ministers--started West.
The journey might be made in three ways. One was by sailing-vessels around
Cape Horn. This route took from five to seven months. Another way was to
sail from some Eastern port to the Isthmus of Panama, and crossing this,
to take ship to San Francisco. The third route was overland, from what is
now St. Joseph, Missouri, and required three or four months. This could
not be taken until spring, and some who were unwilling to wait started at
once by the water-routes.
Men were so eager to go that often several joined together to buy an
outfit of oxen, mules, wagons, and provisions. They made the journey in
covered wagons called "prairie-schooners," while their goods followed in
peddlers' carts. It often happened that out on the plains they missed
their way, for there was no travelled road, and a compass was as necessary
as if they had been on the ocean.
[Illustration: Placer-Mining in the days of the California Gold Rush.]
Journeying thus by day, and camping by night, they suffered many hardships
while on the way. Disease laid hold of them. Four thousand died from
cholera during the first year, and many more for lack of suitable food. In
some cases they had to kill and eat their mules, and at times they lived
on rattlesnakes. The scattered bones of men and beasts marked the trail;
for in the frantic desire to reach the diggings the wayfarers would not
always stop to bury their dead.
When the gold region was reached, tents, wigwams, bark huts, and brush
arbors served as shelter. The men did their own cooking, washing, and
mending, and food soared to famine prices. A woman or a child was a rare
sight in all that eager throng, for men in their haste had left their
families behind.
It was a time of great excitement. Perhaps you have a grandparent who can
tell you something of those stirring days. The gold craze of '49 is a
never-to-be-forgotten event in our history. As the search for nuggets and
gold-dust became less fruitful, many of the men turned homeward, some
enriched and some--alas!--having lost all they possessed.
SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
1. What kind of boy was Houston? What kind of man? What did he do for
Texas?
2. Tell about David Crockett's heroism at the Alamo.
3. When reading about Frémont's explorations look up on the map every one
of them. What do you think of him?
4. Who was Kit Carson, and how did he help Frémont?
5. Locate on your map every acquisition of territory from the end of the
Revolution to 1848.
6. Imagine yourself going to California across the plains and mountains in
1849, and give an account of your experiences.