The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 36, July 1932 - April, 1933 Page: 289
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Daniel Webster and Mexican Relations
Texas and Santa Fe. These agents, he stated, would be accom-
panied by a military escort for the purpose of protection against
the Indians and to ascertain the feasibility of opening a route
of communication between the two sections.
More than a year had elapsed, however, before the expedition
was ready to march. When finally organized it consisted of six
companies of volunteers under the military command of General
Hugh McLeod; several travellers or tourists; numerous traders
with their merchandise; and a commission composed of Colonel
W. G. Cooke, J. A. Navarro, and R. F. Brenham, with George
Vanness as its secretary. The commissioners were to have gen-
eral charge of the expedition; the military force was subject to
their orders. To them also was intrusted the task of organizing
the government at Santa Fe so that it would become a repre-
sentative part of Texas, providing that the inhabitants there
were willing. Otherwise, the commissioners were unauthorized
to use any force whatever to accomplish that objective. Indeed,
even if the small force of 270 soldiers should afford ample pro-
tection for the traders and commissioners against the Indians
along the way it could hardly have been considered adequate to
serve as an invading army.'
The classic authority for the history of the expedition from
the time it broke camp on Brushy Creek near Austin, June 21,
1841, is the two-volume work written afterwards by one of its
members, George W. Kendall of New Orleans, a citizen of the
United States and one of the editors of The Daily Picayune, who,
1W. G. Dryden who carried Lamar's letter of April 14, 1840, to Santa
Fe had written: ". . . every American, and more than two-thirds of
the Mexicans, and all of the Pueblo Indians are with us heart and soul.
Whenever they hear of your sending Troops there has been rejoicing.
And indeed I have talked many times with the Governor, and he says
he would be glad to see the day of your arrival in this country, as he
feels well assured no aid will be sent from below . . . and he him-
self will make no resistance." Dryden to Lamar, March 10, 1841, MSS.,
in Santa Fe Papers, Texas State Library.
Numerous letters and other documents bearing on the motives which
prompted the Santa Fe expedition may be found in The Papers of Mira-
beau Buonaparte Lamar, ed. by C. A. Gulick, Jr., vols. 1-4, and I-Iarriet
Smither, vols. 5-6 (6 vols., Austin, 1920-1927). See especially II, pp.
437-440; and III, pp. 159-183, 370-371, and 488-495. Brief secondary
statements may be noted in W. C. Binkley, The E pansionist Movement
in Texas, 1836-1850 (Berkeley, 1925), pp. 61-78; A. K. Christian, Mira-
beau Buonaparte Lamar (Austin, 1922), pp. 103-114; and T. M. Mar-
shall," Commercial Aspects of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition," in Bouth-
western Historical Quarterly, XX, pp. 242-260.289
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 36, July 1932 - April, 1933, periodical, 1933; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101093/m1/315/: accessed April 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.