The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976 Page: 59
528 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Notes and Documents
He also translated Antonio L6pez de Santa Anna's official report of the
battle of Buena Vista, which appeared in the New Orleans papers The
Picayune and the Daily Delta on April 9, 1847. The collection of Lorenzo
de Zavala papers that Zavala's granddaughter Adina gave the Texas State
Historical Association in 1952 includes a biographical sketch of Zavala by
Potter; this sketch probably formed the basis for Potter's description of
Zavala in an article for the Magazine of American History. Potter wrote
several articles for this review between 1878 and 1883, each one dealing
with a separate phase of Texas history from colonization to annexation.
They include many allusions to Hispanic culture, and they are notably
restrained as to the Mexicans' defects while, at times, very critical of
Anglo-American conduct. Potter devoted one of these essays to the ex-
periences of the Matamoros prisoners, believing that this episode showed
"the better, as well as the worse side of the Mexican character." And in
one of the articles he made a conscious effort to publicize the Mexican
contribution to Texas independence.12
On June 5, 1864, the New York Times published a letter to the editor
that Potter wrote on Mexican-United States relations. Titled "Morality
of the Present Monroe Doctrine and of Manifest Destiny from a Mexican
Point of View," the letter detailed his criticisms of United States policy
and his approval of Maximilian's monarchy. Finally, in his poem, "Hymn
of the Alamo," which first appeared in 1836, one finds a remarkably
humane attitude toward the Mexicans as enemies of Texas. It has none of
the rancor or defaming of Santa Anna and his troops to be found in many
of the twenty-six other poems that Alex Dienst collected from the year
1836. It reflects well on the Texans that Potter's poem won "a national
reputation" and was "beloved by Texans."l
In 1828 the twenty-six year old Potter was on his way, for the first time,
to the interior of Mexico to sell goods at the Monterrey and Saltillo fairs.
This trip is the subject of the following letter.14 Many references to bandits
a pastoral visit to Texas which was then part of his diocese. Carlos P6rez Maldonado,
"El obispado": Monumento histdrico de Monterrey (Monterrey, 1947), 155-163. The
poem, with Potter's translation, appears in Dixon, The Poets and Poetry of Texas, 235-
237. Apparently Potter considered the Bishop's poem important because of its early
date: "The earliest poem I know of," he writes, "which has Texas for its subject.... "
Dixon, The Poets and Poetry of Texas, 235. The ballad is in Potter's book of poems,
Reuben M. Potter, Papers (Archives, University of Texas, Austin), 84-88.
12Leach, "Reuben Marmaduke Potter," 62, 80o; R. M. Potter, "The Texas Revolution,"
577-603; R. M. Potter, "The Prisoners of Matamoros: a Reminiscence of the Revolu-
tion of Texas," Magazine of American History, III (May, 1879), 273 (quotation).
13Alex Dienst, "Contemporary Poetry of the Texan Revolution," Southwestern His-
torical Quarterly, XXI (October, 1917), 156, I68 (quotations).
14The manuscript is in the New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976, periodical, 1975/1976; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101203/m1/77/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.