The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 84, July 1980 - April, 1981 Page: 199
502 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Lamar's Texas Journal
land titles, repealed tariff exemptions, and established garrisons and
customshouses to enforce those regulations.5
In a series of clashes in 1832, Texans had forced the withdrawal of
Mexican troops from the garrisons. Emboldened by their success, Tex-
ans had subsequently held two conventions-completely illegal under
Mexican law--to discuss their "demands" on Mexico, which included
the resumption of Anglo-American colonization and the recognition of
Texas as a separate Mexican state. Stephen F. Austin, in Mexico to
represent the Texans' position to the Mexican government, had been
imprisoned."
By the summer of 1835, Texans had had several skirmishes with
Mexican soldiers sent again to open the customshouses; Austin was
still in jail in Mexico; Santa Anna, earlier a supporter of the federal
constitution of 1824, was now trying to suppress opposition to his cen-
tralist regime. Committees of safety and vigilance had sprung up in
several Texas municipalities, and the citizens, split into peace and war
factions, were beginning to hold conventions in an effort to reach con-
sensus on the course Texas should take. This is the atmosphere into
which Lamar was plunged as he entered Texas, and the context in
which his journal should be studied.7
Lamar, like other travelers, stopped overnight at private houses and
farms, and tarried longer in the settled areas of San Augustine, Nacog-
doches, Washington-on-the-Brazos, Coles' Settlement, San Felipe, Co-
lumbia, Brazoria, and Velasco. We know from his journal that he took
great interest in all the aspects of life in Texas which might concern a
prospective settler: Texas's early history, its politics, geography, cli-
mate, crops, land values, flora and fauna, and Indians. Exactly when
Lamar made the decision to settle in Texas we do not know. According
to his later testimony, however, during this period he made several ges-
tures (only sketchily recorded in his diary) indicating such intentions:
a declaration to an assembly in Washington that he intended to link
his destiny with that of Texas; the hiring of a surveyor to run off head-
CHerbert Gambrell, Anson Jones, The Last President of Texas (2nd ed.; Austin, 1964),
29-31.
6Ibid., 32-33; Henderson Yoakum, History of Texas from Its First Settlement in i685
to Its Annexation to the United States in I846 (2 vols.; New York, 1856), I, 302-303; Eu-
gene C. Barker, The Life of Stephen F. Austin, Founder of Texas, 1793-1836 (Nashville,
1925), 430-436.
7Gambrell, Anson Jones, 46-48; Yoakum, History of Texas, I, 338-343.199
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 84, July 1980 - April, 1981, periodical, 1980/1981; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101225/m1/235/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.