The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973 Page: 144
539 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
also complained that in the previous two gubernatorial elections West
Texans had voted en bloc for their candidate, Bell, while East Texans
had foolishly split their votes among several men.'
By far the most absorbing issue had to do with internal improve-
ments. At mid-century the vast land of Texas had great economic po-
tential, but a network of rails was needed to turn dream into reality.
Though Texans in general agreed that the state must have railroads
and soon, they were divided over whether the roads should be built
by private companies or by the state, and whether most of the trade
of Texas should be routed eastward (toward St. Louis or New Or-
leans) along the proposed southern route for a transcontinental rail-
road or southward by roads connecting the interior of the state with
its Gulf ports. Sectional feeling at the time centered mainly on the
latter question."
East Texas newspaper editors tended to mistrust the west in the
matter of railroad development. The Henderson Flag of the Union,
commenting on the so-called "Galveston Plan" for a comprehensive
system of railroad development financed by public funds, complained
that its proponents spoke of east and west but laid down three routes
to the west of the Trinity and only a part of one to the east." The Mar-
shall Texas Republican labelled as "a high handed outrage" the action
of Harris County legislator B. F. Tankersly early in 1853 in prevent-
ing the enrollment of a charter for a projected Pacific railroad from
New Orleans through East Texas.'" The Nacogdoches Chronicle on
March 1 demanded Tankersly's expulsion from the House.
Eastern dissatisfaction became so acute that late in 1852 several news-
papers in that section called for a division of the state. A greater num-
ber, however, opposed such a move." One large consideration, noted
'Reprinted in the Clarksville Standard, March 12, 1853.
8Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey through Texas: Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern
Frontier (New York, 1857) , 416; Earl Wesley Fornell, The Galveston Era: The Texas
Crescent on the Eve of Secession (Austin, 1961), 158-163.
*Reprinted in the Galveston Weekly News, January 11, 1853. For details of the Galves-
ton Plan, see ibid., August 3, 1852.
0OMarshall Texas Republican, March 12, 1853.
"Ibid., November 6, 1852, noted the remarks calling for a division of Texas. The Re-
publican did not name any of the papers to which it referred, and the writer has not
been able to identify them. The Austin Texas State Gazette, October 3o, 1852, observed
that anonymous letters appearing in the Henderson Flag of the Union and the Rusk
Cherokee Sentinel (no dates given for either) had advocated division. The Nacogdoches
Chronicle, October 16, 1852; the Austin Texas State Gazette, October o30, 1852; and the San
Antonio Western Texan, November 25, 1852, were among the newspapers which opposed
partition.144
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973, periodical, 1973; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101202/m1/174/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.