User:Aleutian06/Miller County Problems

The International Boundary between the Arkansas Territory of the United States and the Mexican state of Coahuila and Texas had been defined in the treaty of 1819 between the United States and Spain, but remained unsurveyed in 1827. Because the location of the border was uncertain, the ownership of a considerable area southwest of Red River was in question.

Arkansas Territory had, since 1820, exercised jurisdiction over the settlements immediately south of the river, holding them to be a part of Miller County. In 1827 the easternmost portion of the disputed area, approximating the present corner of Arkansas southwest of the river, was assigned by the territorial legislature to the new county of Lafayette. In 1828 Miller County north of the river was abolished and a new Miller County constituted south of the river in what is now northeastern Texas. Miller County, as defined by the Arkansas territorial legislature in 1831, comprised all the present northeastern Texas counties of Bowie, Red River, Lamar, Fannin, and Delta plus parts of eight counties south and west of these.

The greater part of the inhabitants in the border area were seemingly loyal to the United States, though many people claimed to be subjects of Mexico, or of the United States as interest or convenience dictated, and obstructed the execution of Arkansas laws "whenever they are brought to operate against themselves. " A considerable and sometimes unfriendly Indian population consisting of Pawness, Shawnees, Delawares, Kickapoos, Cherokees, Osages, and Comanches resided nearby.

Forty-four Pecan Point citizens petitioned Governor Izard on March 20, 1828, complaining that they were and had been for some time "annoyed by the Indians," particularly Shawnees, who were settling among them, "building their huts contiguous [sic] to our corn Cribs & fields, pilfering from houses and Corn-cribs [,] Killing Hogs, Driving their Stocks of Horses and Cattle among us," and cutting down timber. the petitioners claimed that the Indians were settling under the authority of Saucedo. They asked the governor to have the Indians removed; otherwise, they saw "no prospect but of being oblidged [sic] to abandon our homes and fields."

Two days later Major J. G. W. Pierson, commandant of the Miller County militia, requested permission from Izard to use the militia forcible to remove the Indians, and asserted that he had been promised support by the garrison of about forty regulars at Fort Towson. Izard sent Colonel Wharton Rector, adjutant general of the territorial militia, to investigate. Should the reports prove true, Rector was to admonish the Indians "to remove immediately, and should they disobey or resist your authority you will call out such a party of the Militia as you may consider adequate to compel obedience." He might if necessary call on the army at Fort Towson. Rector should also secure either "the original or a certified copy" of the Mexican document giving the Indians permission "to establish themselves at Pecan Point." The Gazette, approving the governor's action, held that the Indians had no claim whatsoever to land in the border area, and believed that Rector would have little trouble in removing them. Rector found the situation desperate in the Pecan Point country. Shawnees and Delawares were stealing and killing livestock, and threatening to drive the whited from the south side of Red River. In a meeting with the principal wares agreed, but the Shawnees refuse, declaring that they would resist any force sent against them. Unable to obtain troops from Fort Towson (22), Rector called on the Miller County militia under Major Pierson, and was furnished with sixty-three well armed men. In the vicinity of the Indian villages the militia was met by the principal Shawnee chief, who used for peace and promised that his people would leave the territory.

Though Rector's report to the governor did not mention the Mexican document authorizing the Indians to settle in the Pecan Point region, the commandant of Fort Towson subsequently asserted that Rector took it from them. That the Indians had possessed such a document can hardly be doubted for it is present in Spanish, in the National Archives, Office of Indian Affairs, Delware and Shawnee file.

Captain Russell B. Hyde, Cumming's successor at Fort Towson, informed Rector that he had barely enough men for garrison duty. Hyde's refusal to aid Rector was reported by Izard and Rector to the adjutant general of the army, who ordered Hyde to explain his action. Hyde replied that the Indians against whom Rector "had declared War" were not in the United States but "on the South Side of Red River in the Province of Texas at least 50 Miles above where the Spanish line will strike Red River," and that they had "a writing from the Governor of St. Antonie (sic) permitting them to stay until the line was run, & then their land was to be confirmed to them." Hyde to Adjutant General, November 17, 1828, Terr. Papers, XX, 784.

Even more alarming was a communication from Colonel Peter E. Bean of the Mexican army complaining of Rector's removal of the Shawnee and requesting to know "the cause why the Arkansas Territory extends beyond the limits designated by the Treaty [of 1819]." Pope forthwith sent Bean's letter, together with a copy of a land advertisement published by Milam, to Van Buren with the urgent request that the matter be laid before the President and that he be advised "at the earliest moment" what course to take. President Jackson decided to rely on Pope's prudence to avert "by conciliatory admonitions and expostulations," any collisions between the territorial authorities and the grantees under the Mexican government which night jeopardize friendly relations with Mexico. At the same time, however, Pope should continue exercising jurisdiction over the border area until the boundary problem could be settled, unless maintaining jurisdiction meant using force, in which case he must first consult the President.

To the Mexican minister in Washington, Jose Maria Tornel, Van Buren protested against Milam's actions. The United States wished Tornel to interpose his "good offices" to prevent the survey and sale of land in the border area where American jurisdiction had been "exclusively and peacefully exercised." Tornel agreed to ask General Teran "to order a suspension of all proceedings" in the border area until the Vice President of Mexico "shall have decided upon the subject, to the entire satisfaction of both Governments." The United States should in the meantime enjoin Pope "to abstain from all violent measures, whose result might be fatal." Van Buren then communicated this information to Pope.

Governor Pope reported to President Jackson on October 4 1830, that "20 or 30 of our people" had taken the oath of allegiance to Mexico, "& received certificates of right to land with the territory here fore [sic ] occupied by this government--" Colonel Bean, acting under Terans orders, was in the disputed area with a small force to establish a fort on Red River and to prevent adventures from entering Texas. As a precautionary measure Pope had ordered regimental musters of the territorial militia "& warned our citizens . . . against taking title or protection" from the Mexican government. Pope thought that the Mexicans were "pressing their claim beyond the line intended & contemplated by the negotiators of old Spain & the United States---" "The knowing ones here," he declared, "contend that the line will strike the Red River from the Sabine near . . . Pecan point above the mouth of little river---."

The Gazette stated on November 3 that Milam had commenced surveying the previous October 11 and that he intended to continue until stopped by force of arms. On November 1 Brigadier General George Hill, commandant of the first territorial militia brigade, reported to Pope that Curtiss Morriss, a citizen of Lost Prairie, where Milam's land office was located, had informed him that Milam's surveyor's were surveying the tracts granted to persons who had taken the oath, and that they had threatened to dispossess him because he had refused to do likewise and because his land lay within "the ones of the tracts of two persons who had taken the oath." Morris, said Hill, claimed the protection of the United States. In addition to Morriss about twenty-five or thirty others were in a similar predicament.

Pope immediately forwarded Hill's communication to Van Buren.

In a letter to the Gazette, dated September 13, 1830, and printed September 29, Charles Burkham stated that the citizens of Miller County believed they belonged to Mexico, and that they must take whatever action possible to protect their land. Jackson's annual message to Congress, prepared before Pope's letter reached Washington, spoke optimistically about the border problem. During the summer when there had been "reason to fear" that relations between the United States and Mexico would be disturbed, the cooperation of the Mexican minister had been asked for and "readily afforded." The President had given Pope instructions "by which it is hoped the quiet of that frontier" would be preserved, until a a final boundary settlement was made.

Although Mexico no longer gave Arkansas Territory and the United States cause for alarm by encouraging anomalous activities in the border area, many of the settlers continued to pay obedience to the Mexican government because the area would fall within the limits of Mexico when the boundary was finally run. Land transactions were sometimes recorded at Nacogdoches. During the Texas Revolution the Red River section was a source of soldiers for the Texas army and was represented in the consultation and in the council.

The inhabitants did not hesitate, however, to seek and accept the protection of the Arkansas militia and the troops at Forts Towson and Gibson when it was rumored in 1836 that the Mexicans were promoting an Indian attack against the border region. After Texas won her independence the Red River section participated in electing the national officials of the new republic. It soon became apparent that the Republic of Texas considered the area southwest of Red River a part of Texas. In December, 1836, an act of the Texas Congress created a land district embracing the sector between Red River and the Sulphur Fork. When Governor James S. Conway of the newly-formed state of Arkansas learned of this action, he reported it to Secretary of State John Forsyth, who protested to the Texas government. The outcome of the ensuing negotiations between the two nations was a treaty of 1838 providing for a joint commission to demarcate the boundary according to the Mexican treaty of 1828. When the survey was finally completed in 1841, Arkansas retained only the territory comprising Lafayette County southwest of Red River; the remainder of the disputed area fell to Texas.