The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 261

THE SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
VOL. LIV JANUARY, 1951 No. 3
Steward A. Mil er * ad the Siedl
&peditiaf of 1843
H. BAILEY CARROLL
Otrr of the eddying tides of Texas history that produced
an Anglo-American infiltration, a Texan Declaration of
Independence against Mexico, the Alamo, San Jacinto,
the Texan Santa Fe Expedition, General Adrian Woll's raid on
San Antonio, and the Mier Expedition, the Snively Expedition
of 1843 is but a logical link in a long chain of circumstances
connected with the Westward movement and the clash of Anglo-
American Texans with Mexicans.
On December 19, 1836, the Congress of the infant Republic
of Texas passed an act defining the boundaries of the nation.'
The statute accepted the Adams-Ofiis Treaty line of i819 as the
eastern and northern boundary2 and claimed as the southern
*The diary upon which this account is based is the property of Miller's
daughter, Mrs. C. C. Comer of Carthage, Texas, through whose kindness this
study was made possible. All direct quotations from the manuscript are printed
in this article in italic type.
1H. P. N. Gammel (comp.), The Laws of Texas (io vols.; Austin, 1898), 1,
1193-1194.
2The Adams-Ofiis Treaty of 1819-1821 fixed the western boundary of the Louis-
iana Purchase (the boundary between Spanish possessions and the United States)
as beginning at the mouth of the Sabine River and extending along its south and
west bank to the 32nd parallel and thence directly north to the Rio Roxo or Red
River; "then following the course of the Rio Roxo westward to the degree of
longitude too west from London and 23 from Washington; then, crossing the said
Red River, and running thence by a line due north to the river Arkansas; thence
following the course of the southern bank of the Arkansas to its source, in latitude
42 north; and thence by that parallel of latitude to the South Sea. The whole
being as laid down in Melish's map of the United States."-William M. Malloy
(comp.), Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols, and Agreements
between the United States and other Powers, 1776-1909 (2 vols.; Washington,
g9io), II, 1653. The Mexican state of lebxas (Coahuila y Texas) inherited this
boundary, and after the accomplishment of Texan independence, Red River, the