resign if he goes. Write him or Morehouse. I believe that 1,000 Americans at this time would give the federal party the ascendancy.[73] Lamar did not have the money for this purpose, and his policy was not to involve the government of Texas in the Federalist cause, although he had no objection to Texans volunteering as individuals for its support. About the time that Dunlap was sent to Washington, Colonel Barnard E. Bee, Lamar's Secretary of State, was replaced by James Webb, and was dispatched to Mexico to negotiate for the recognition of Texas independence and to conclude a treaty of peace, amity, commerce, navigation and limits.[74] While Bee prepared to go to Vera Cruz, the merits of the Texan policy of "watchful waiting," as it concerned the Federalist cause, were revealed by the sudden collapse of the Federalist forces in the late spring and summer of 1839. This collapse was brought on by the government's settling its score with the French in March, the lifting of the blockade of its ports, and the evacuation of San Juan de Úlloa by the French on April 7,[75] which thus released troops to suppress the 73. James Webb to Richard Dunlap, Department of State, City of Houston, March 13, 1839, in Garrison (ed.), Diplomatic Correspondence of Texas, 1907, I, 368-372; R. G. Dunlap to M. B. Lamar, New Orleans, April 4, 1839, in Lamar Papers, II, 513-515. 74. James Webb to Barnard E. Bee, Houston, Feb. 20, 1839, in Garrison, Diplomatic Correspondence of Texas, II, 433-434. For a discussion of these negotiations, see Schmitz, Texan Statecraft, pp. 88-89. 75. Upon leaving Mexican waters, Rear-Admiral Charles Baudin touched at Velasco on May 5, where he, E. Maissin, and Chaucart, his aides-de-camp, in company with General Thomas Jefferson Green and Lieutenant A. Clendennin proceeded overland to Houston, while his vessels continued on to Galveston. After several days of festivities at the Texan capital with President Lamar and Dr. Ashbel Smith, the Admiral proceeded by steamboat to Galveston to rejoin his fleet. E. Maissin, Notes et Documents et un apercu général sur l'état du Texas, avec un grand nombre de belles gravures, pp. 522-525; Galveston City to His Excellency, the Admiral Baudin, Commander-in-Chief of his Most Christian Majesty's Blockading Squadron off the Coast of Mexico: We, the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Galveston [etc., offering the freedom of the city "in consideration of your gallant deportment at the siege and capture of St. John de Úlloa," dated at end, May 14, 1839, and signed by John M. Allen, Mayor, eight Aldermen, including Gail Borden, Jr., and other officials] [At end:] Gladwin & Mims, Printers. [Galveston, 1839] The broadside should have been dated May 13, instead of May 14, as the festivities took place on the 13th. See Baudin to the Mayor and Aldermen of Galveston, May 13, 1839 (A. L. S., San Jacinto Museum of History), thanking the |