The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 101, July 1997 - April, 1998 Page: 68
574 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
eventual location of the capital at Montgomery was at the same latitude
as Cahaba, although farther east.
It was in Texas that locating the capital had the most dramatic history.
In the decade of Texas independence, preceding the 1845 constitution-
al convention, the Republic's site of government had been more com-
monly peripatetic than seated. Beginning at Washington-on-the-Brazos
in March 1836, when an elected convention declared Texas's indepen-
dence, by the end of that month the new government had fled east to
Harrisburg to escape the Mexican Army advancing on them to halt their
bid for separation from Mexico." Leading the panic-stricken and soon-
to-be notorious Runaway Scrape, President David Burnet and his cabinet
paused in Harrisburg only until the Mexican president, Santa Anna, had
crossed the Brazos River and headed for their capital on April 12.
Leaving the town in flames behind them, the Texans ran south to New
Washington on Galveston Bay, just hours ahead of the enemy. But the
Mexicans were gaining on them, and on April 17 they embarked for
Galveston Island with only minutes to spare. Four days later, Sam
Houston won the war, sparing the government a choice between the
Gulf of Mexico and capture.*"
Now that the revolution was over, Texans could choose their seat of
government more calmly. Harrisburg had been destroyed during the
war. Washington-on-the-Brazos, where the convention hall windows were
shuttered with animal skins, consisted of nothing but "about a dozen
wretched cabins or shanties," set on a street with "[t]he stumps still
standing," according to Virginia land agent William Fairfax Gray. "A rare
place to hold a national convention in," sneered Gray, and predicted the
people would "have to leave it promptly to avoid starvation."46 As it hap-
pened, they left it to escape slaughter by Santa Anna's forces, but
Fairfax's main point was sound, in the opinion of the Texas govern-
ment. They seated themselves temporarily in Columbia while a new
town was built near Harrisburg.47
Named "Houston" in honor of the hero of the revolution, this capital
was so tiny that in April 1837, the boat carrying the first officials missed
it altogether and had to go back and search the shore more carefully for
signs of habitation." The politicians lived in tents and log cabins at first,
44 Marshall De Bruhl, Sword of San Jacinto: A Lafe of Sam Houston (New York: Random House,
1993), 18o-181, 193.
45 Ibid., 200-203, 20o8-213.
46 Ibid., 181; William C. Pool, A Historical Atlas of Texas, maps by Edward Triggs and Lance
Wren (Austin: Encino Press, 1975), 70.
47 T. R. Fehrenbach, Lone Star: A Hstory of Texas and the Texans (New York: MacMillan, 1968),
251.
41 De Bruhl, Sword of San Jacinto, 245-246.July
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 101, July 1997 - April, 1998, periodical, 1998; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117155/m1/96/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.