The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999 Page: 11
559 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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1998 Understanding Lorenzo de Zavala 11
full of life and receiving reinforcements from the United States." He
recommended that Poinsett read his book for more details. Writing to
other friends, he explained that living in Texas would allow him to re-
main aloof from partisan Mexican politics and also give him opportu-
nity to restore his personal finances, depleted from his long public
service. The secretary of foreign relations, however, ordered Zavala to
return to Mexico and sent copies to appropriate Mexican officials in
Texas and at ports along the United States coast, ordering his arrest.4
By this time Santa Anna had ordered the reduction of state militias
and the confiscation of arms in order to destroy pockets of federal-
ism. The state of Zacatecas, the neighbor of Coahuila and the home
of Vice President G6mez Farias who was hiding there, refused. In
April 1835, President Santa Anna personally led the army north to de-
stroy resistance while G6mez Farias and his family fled to New Or-
leans. Fearing an invasion by Santa Anna, the Federalist governor of
Coahuila-Texas authorized the sale of large tracts of vacant Texas
land to prominent Anglo Texans who could furnish troops and arma-
ment in order to defend the state from the dictator. Santa Anna, how-
ever, returned to Mexico City in May convinced that he had defeated
federalism."
Zavala reached steamy New Orleans on July 3 where he met with
Mexican refugees including Mexia. They developed a plan to remove
Santa Anna from office. Zavala, fluent in English, would arouse resis-
tance to Santa Anna's repressive policies in Texas and also use his in-
fluence to spread the rebellion to the northern states along the Rio
Grande. Uprisings there would create a diversion to mask a Federalist
invasion led by Mexia through the port of Tampico. With volunteers
recruited in New Orleans, Mexia expected Federalist patriots to join
him and march against Mexico City. This would force Santa Anna to
resign in favor of Vice President G6mez Farias.6
Four days later Zavala boarded the schooner San Felipe for the mouth
of the Brazos River in Texas. Owned by merchant Thomas F. McKin-
ney, the vessel was armed and the captain instructed to resist seizure by
Mexican patrol boats. McKinney had lost a vessel to a Mexican coast
s4 Estep, "The Life of Lorenzo de Zavala," 335-342; Zavala toJ. R. Poinsett, May 9, 1835, Poin-
sett Papers.
11 Callcott, Santa Anna, 1lo-111, 115, 118-12o; Margaret Swett Henson, Samuel May Willsams:
Early Texas Entrepreneur (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1976), 69-72 (events in
Coahuila); C. Alan Hutchinson, "General Jose Antonio Mexia and His Texas Interests," South-
western Historical Quarterly, 32 (Oct., 1978), 140; C. A. Hutchinson, "Mexican Federalists in New
Orleans and the Texas Revolution," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, 39 (Jan., 1956), 3-
"6 Estep, "The Life of Lorenzo de Zavala," 340; Hutchinson, "Mexican Federalists," 1-47; C. A.
Hutchinson, "Valentin G6mez Farfas and the 'Secret Pact of New Orleans,"' Hispanic American
Revnew, 36 (Nov., 1956), 477-488.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999, periodical, 1999; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101219/m1/36/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.