Memoranda and official correspondence relating to the Republic of Texas, its history and annexation. Including a brief autobiography of the author Page: 66 of 657
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62
MEMORANDA.
[1850.
and independent a position, that annexation might not be an
imperious necessity to her.
February 13th.-Excitement never was carried to so high a
pitch in Texas as it was in 1845, when it was founll that the
ponderous and hitherto hermetically sealed doors of tlle United
States were, in reality, opened wide to the measure of annexation.
The people had suffered so much and so long from MIexican
and Indian disturbances and depredations, and from the
misrule of former administrations, and were so anxious for rest
and security and for an escape, with honor and advantage, from
the long pressure of past adversity and war, that they ran perfectly
wild and frantic when the hope of a so-long-desired consummation
was presented. Besides thlis feeling' was another
which politicians seized upon to further excite the public mind,
and that was the one of direct intcrest, arising firom the failse assurance
that the lands held in immense quantities by citizens
would immediately become valuable, and that every man would
thereby be made suddely affluent. Demagogues indeed used
every art to further inflame and madden the p-)opular excitement,
which sound policy required should rather have been allayed
aind qcuieted. The consequence was, that to their heated
imaginations every act of mine appeared slow ; and the cry was
raised that I was opposed to the measure, anid using every
means, in conjunction with England and France, to defeat the
public will. I, of course, had a storm of the utmost fury and
intensity to encounter, and such as no other chief magistrate
of a nation ever experienced. The consequence was, that when
the doors of the Union were opened by me, the rush of the
people from the outside was so great and furious that I came
very near being run over an(i trampled to death by the excited
and impatient crowd, whom I had been the means of admitting.
But I managed to escape from it with only severe bruises, and
a few hearty maledictions from a part of those already inside,
for having let in these " outsiders " upon them.
In addition to the large party of landholders who contributedi
so materially to increase public excitement, it was still further
inflamnied by another party who took advantage of my peculiar
position towards the United States, France, England, and
IMexico, (which prevented me from declaring a. prefcrence for
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Jones, Anson. Memoranda and official correspondence relating to the Republic of Texas, its history and annexation. Including a brief autobiography of the author, book, January 1, 1859; New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2391/m1/66/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.