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Growth of War Spirit in the West

executive influence, and where are they. Gone and scattered for ever. Some are dead, others doomed to hopeless misery and to spend the remainder perhaps of a cheerless existence, in the mines of Mexico, the rest powerless, weak -- accursed and despised and wishing themselves with the others,

"and like the baseless fabric of a vision,"
have "Left not a wreck behind!" or rather
nothing but a wreck.[38]

Had the expedition been successful it might have encouraged Mexico to seek negotiations with Texas, but the ignominy of surrender on the soil of the enemy not only showed the Lamar policy at its worst but was to set in motion a series of developments that were to have far-reaching consequences for Texas, and "from the point of view of territorial activities in Texas," wrote Professor Binkley, "the four years from the failure of the Santa Fé expedition to annexation to the United States may be characterized as a prolonged effort to overcome the effects of that failure."[39]  As it was, the failure of the expedition not only affected adversely immigration and financial aid to Texas from Europe and elsewhere[40]  and impeded the carrying out of the colonization contracts, but it also lessened the prowess of the Texans in the minds of the Mexicans and stimulated a demand among the former for an invasion of Mexico to force a release of the prisoners. The British diplomatic agent in Texas informed his government that the principal result of the expedition was "something little short of the breaking up of the whole Western Country of Texas."[41]  The Santa Fé Expedition, therefore, served to keep alive the bitter animosities between the two countries -- Texas and Mexico -- which had been growing for more than a decade.

From Kenyon College in Ohio, Guy M. Bryan, nephew of Stephen F. Austin, advocated force to release the Texans held in Mexican dungeons. "Texas to the rescue!" he exclaimed.

Your brave countrymen fought for you, now you, if necessary, die [for them] . . . Are there no Deaf Smith's or Karnes's left to lead the daring and the brave into the enemies country to seize the wealthy and influential . . .


38. Anson Jones to Mrs. Mary Jones, Austin, Jan. 3, 1842, in Anson Jones Papers, ms.

39. Binkley, The Expansionist Movement in Texas, p. 96.

40. Ashbel Smith to Anson Jones, Legation of Texas, France, March 31, 1843, in Garrison (ed.), Diplomatic Correspondence of Texas, 1908, III, 1429.

41. Charles Elliot to Lord Aberdeen, Nov. 2, 1842, in Adams (ed.), British Diplomatic Correspondence Concerning the Republic of Texas, 1836-1846, p. 122.

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AFTER SAN JACINTO: The Texas-Mexican Frontier, 1836-1841
Joseph Milton Nance, 1963