Mexico became one of watchful waiting. On December 16, three days after entering office, he repudiated the Yucatán alliance and ordered Commodore E. W. Moore,[58] who had sailed from Galveston the very day that Lamar turned over the reins of government to Houston, to bring the navy home; and in May 1842, the vessels were ordered to New Orleans and Mobile to undergo repairs, preparatory to enforcing the blockade which had been proclaimed in March against Mexico and for the purpose of transporting troops in the forthcoming Texan invasion of Mexico [Ed: Somervell Expedition to the Río Grande in 1842]. A week after his inauguration at Austin, "that scene of tumult and vexation,"[59] Houston submitted on December 20 his first message to the Texas Congress. In it he outlined what he thought should be the attitude of Texas toward Mexico. Since his predecessor's overtures for an amicable adjustment of existing difficulties between Texas and Mexico had, as often as made, been rejected under circumstances which had not exempted the Texas government from humiliation,
58. Yucatán made peace and returned her allegiance to Mexico on December 28, 1841. George W. Hockley to Sam Houston, Dec. 22, 1841, in Army Papers (Texas), ms.; E. W. Moore, To the People of Texas: An Appeal in Vindication of His Conduct of the Navy, pp. 12-14, 21-31; Lamar Papers, IV, pt. 2, p. 32; Christian, "Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXIII (1919-1920), 156-162. 59. W. G. Hide to Isaac Van Zandt, Franklin [Texas], Oct. 27, 1841, in Isaac Van Zandt Papers, 1839-1843, ms. |