The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 24, July 1920 - April, 1921 Page: 20

The Southwestern Iislorical Quarterly

and in all probability it did not reach Van Hornme for at least six
months after his request for instructions. Much could take place
in that period of time; and as a matter of fact, much had happened
before the correspondence was ended.
The Renewal of Activities by Texas.-During the fall of 1849,
while these developments were in progress in New Mexico, Texas
had no official agent in the region. Baird was now in Missouri,
and from there was sending reports to the officials in Texas con-
cerning the results of his mission, together with such information
as he could secure upon the course of events after his departure
from New Mexico in July.69 Earlier information which had come
from him aroused considerable resentment in Texas, and in the
campaign of 1849 for the election of a governor, Wood was op-
posed for re-election by P. Hansborough Bell, who advocated action
by Texas. Bell was elected, and almost immediately he began to
receive applications for permission to raise companies of soldiers
for the purpose of occupying New Mexico.70
In his final annual message to the Texas legislature, on Novem-
ber 6, 1849, Governor Wood referred to the opposition which Baird
had received in New Mexico, but stated that no official report had
been received from him at that time, nor had he received a reply
for his letters to either Polk or Taylor.71 This situation, he told
the legislators, "imposes upon you the necessity of adopting ener-
getic and efficient measures to protect the rights of your State
and acquit herself of what is due to her honor and dignity."
Since a previous effort to legislate Texas into possession had ap-
parently failed, he felt that the question had now become one
"with which there should be no temporizing, for the sooner the
issue is made the sooner will the question be adjusted." lie there-
fore recommended that the governor be given ample power and
0"These reports were made in seven letters to Washington D. Miller,
Texan secretary of state, written at irregular intervals from September
21 to November 6, 1849, and are now in the Santa Fe Papers, Texas
State Library.
70Copies of these letters are in the Santa FP Papers. By the fall of
1850, Bell had received dozens of such letters, many of them from other
southern states. Most of them are checked as having been answered
October 18, 1850, by C. A. Harrison, private secretary to the governor.
7This would indicate that Bancroft, History of the North Mexican
States and Texas, II, 398, is in error in stating that Wood was noti-
fied by the authorities at Washington that any attempt at forcible occu-
pation of New Mexico would be considered as an intrusion.