But a good many Americans had drifted across the
border into the fertile plains of Texas, and settled there. As time went
on, the stream of immigration increased, until there were in the country
enough American settlers to take a prominent part in the revolt of
Mexico against Spain in 1824. The revolt was successful, and the country
which had discovered the New World lost her last foothold there.
The settlers in Texas, coming as they did largely from the southern
states, were naturally slave-holders, but in 1829, Mexico abolished
slavery, an action which greatly enraged them. It is startling to
reflect that a country which we consider so inferior to ourselves should
have preceded us by over thirty years in this great step forward in
civilization. In other ways, the Mexican yoke was not a pleasant one to
the Texans, and within a few years, the whole country was in a state of
seething insurrection. President Jackson was eager to annex Texas, whose
value to the Union he fully recognized, and offered Mexico five million
dollars for the province, but the offer was refused. Such was the
condition of affairs when, in 1833, Sam Houston appeared upon the scene.
The story of the life of this extraordinary man reads like a fable. Born
in Virginia in 1793, he was taken to Tennessee at the age of thirteen,
and promptly began his career by running away from home and joining the
Cherokee Indians.
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