The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956 Page: 414
587 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
commander-in-chief of the insurgents and from that time, until
his execution in 186o, he assumed the role which was to inspire
his admirers to refer to him as "the grey-eyed man of destiny."
During this decade, Cornelius Vanderbilt, having secured
from the Nicaraguan government a monopolistic concession to
exploit the transportation potentialities then awaiting develop-
ment across the isthmus to California, established the Accessory
Transit Company, which, as a combine of shipping, railroad, and
stage coach transportation, provided a practical route from New
York to California. The New York and San Francisco agents of
this system, Charles Morgan and Cornelius K. Garrison, wishing
to wrest control of the concession from Vanderbilt, entered into
a conspiratorial agreement with General Walker, which provided
that, in return for the general's transfer of the transit concession
from Vanderbilt to a new firm organized by Morgan and Garrison,
these shipping magnates were to furnish Walker the shipping
he needed to move potential filibuster armies from the Gulf
Coast states to Nicaragua.?
During July of 1856, Walker managed to improve his position
by winning an election which made him the president of Nica-
ragua. By that time, he had become a hero to a large portion of the
general population in the Southern states; his expeditions and
conquests were accepted by many as but a continuation of Amer-
ican expansion.8 As early as March, 1856, E. H. Cushing, the
influential editor and publisher of the Houston Telegraph, who
was an ardent supporter of General Walker as well as an advocate
of the reopening of the African slave trade, reported that Archi-
bald Wynns had left Galveston for an inspection trip to Nica-
ragua. This "clever, high-toned gentleman of solid information
and close observation," wrote Cushing, could be depended upon
to bring Texans an accurate report concerning opportunities in
"the Filibuster State."9 A week later, the editor reported that, as
a result of the opportunities beckoning in Nicaragua, men were
leaving the Gulf Coast for Nicaragua.1o These men travelled upon
the ships of the newly organized Garrison and Morgan line,
7Lynn to John F. Crompton, February 18, 1865, F.O.; New York Daily Tribune,
October to, 11, and 12, 1849.
ALynn to John F. Crompton, February 18, 1855, F.O.
oHouston Telegraph, March 1g, 1856.
lolbid., March 26, 1856.414
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956, periodical, 1956; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101162/m1/440/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.