Reflections From the Republic

Chair

Charles D. Grear, Ph.D.

Central Texas College

Presenter

Dale Weeks, Ph.D.

Blinn College

Sam Houston, The Tonkawas, and the Foundations of Texas Indian Policy

This paper looks at the relationship between the Tonkawa Indians of Central Texas and the fledgling government of the Republic. Houston’s Indian policy mirrored that of his mentor, Andrew Jackson. However, Houston maintained a deep respect for Indian culture that Jackson never had. Houston’s policy of treaty making with the Indigenous people of Texas was based on the system developing at the time in the United States. When Lamar assumed the presidency, that policy took a radical change. Lamar’s attack on the Cherokees of East Texas in the early summer of 1839 occurred as the last stragglers of the “Trail of Tears” were crossing into present-day Oklahoma. Few tribes in Texas were impacted by Lamar’s policies as much as the Tonkawas, who will be forced from Texas along their own version of the “Trail of Tears” a few years later.

Presenter

Kenneth Howell, Ph.D.

Blinn College

Providence’s Perfect Blank: Mirabeau B. Lamar and the Dream of a Texas Empire

Mirabeau B. Lamar, a native of Georgia, served as the second president of the Republic of Texas. Unlike his political rival, Sam Houston, Lamar opposed annexation to the United States. Instead, he envisioned Texas as the center of a vast empire stretching from the Sabine River and Gulf Coast westward to the Pacific Ocean and southward into Mexico and possibly beyond. While many Texans shared Lamar’s expansive ambitions, others viewed them with skepticism, creating political opposition that ultimately hindered his efforts. Lamar’s imperial vision shaped nearly every aspect of his presidency, influencing his policies regarding education, diplomacy, frontier defense, and economic development. This presentation examines Lamar’s political development prior to his arrival in Texas and explores how his southern upbringing and ideological convictions informed his vision for the future of the Republic.

Presenter

Charles Swanlund

Independent Historian

Anson Jones: Forgotten President of the Republic

When the subject of Texas presidents is broached, most Texans immediately conjure up images of Sam Houston, the “Hero of San Jacinto”. Among the more informed, the flamboyant and vainglorious Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, the “Poet President “of Texas may come to mind. There is rarely a thought given to Dr. Anson Jones, the last and least remembered president of the Republic. Anson Jones was both an extraordinary individual, but also a man who was, in many ways painfully ordinary. His particular circumstance provided him with a prime opportunity to enter the pantheon of collective memory, and his own human frailties conspired to relegate him to relative obscurity. This presentation will examine the life of Dr. Jones, and will attempt to bring new focus to his accomplishments, as well as his failures, in an effort to determine Jones’s rightful place in history.