THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RIP FORD
Part 5: Domestic and Foreign Intrigue
by Bob Heinonen
Texas was
courted internationally and it almost turned out to be a real affair.
“…the intention of England
and France to
interfere in the affairs of Texas
began to take shape. M. Saligny, the French minister to Texas,
inspired, if he did not write, a bill known as the “Franco-Texienne
Bill” providing for the settlement of a colony of Frenchmen on our western
frontier. The colonists would have
retained their own language, customs, and sympathies. The introduction of foreigners in the manner
proposed was fraught with some danger to a weak people occupying an immense
territory. They would have been
introduced under the auspices of the French government. In case of trouble they would have appealed
to France to
redress any real or imaginary wrong sustained from the action of the Texas
authorities. The pretext would have
afforded an opportunity to France
for intermeddling in our affairs. The
bill failed to pass the Texas Congress much to the disappointment of M. Saligny.”[i]
In 1844, Martin Van
Buren thought he had the Democrat Presidential nomination locked up to run
against the Whig candidate, Henry Clay.
But he didn’t pay attention to the mood of the U.S.
citizenry. The people of the U.S.
wanted to expand westward.
Van Buren, an anti-expansionist, was outmaneuvered by
pro-expansionists and a compromise candidate, James K. Polk of Tennessee,
was nominated as the Democrat candidate.
Polk ran as a pro-expansionist and became the 10th U.S.
President; joining him was Vice President George M. Dallas (for whom Dallas
County, but not the city of Dallas,
is named.)
Apparently Polk was pure politician --- and not a timid
one. “He made himself the spokesman of
American expansion by committing himself to obtaining, in addition to Texas,
both Oregon and the great
Southwest. Here again, he succeeded.”[ii] As an interesting side-note, after taking
office, Polk announced publicly that he would not seek a second term.
While Polk was running for U.S. President, John Salmon Ford
ran again for the Congress of the Republic as a staunch annexationist. Ford won handily. On June
16, 1845, an extra session of the Ninth Congress of the Republic
of Texas began at
Washington-on-the-Brazos. The next day,
Ford introduced a joint resolution accepting the proposal of the United States
Congress for annexation.
Before annexation could be voted on, a proposed treaty with Mexico
had to be acted upon. England
and France,
trying to stop the United States’
western expansion, had convinced Mexico
to offer Texas a treaty of
peace. Mexico
would recognize Texas
independence if Texas agreed not
to be annexed by any other country, and any disputes between Mexico
and Texas would be arbitrated by
(guess who!) England
and France.
Anson Jones, anticipating the decision of the Texas Congress
to be for annexation, had called an election for an Annexation Convention to
assemble on July 4, 1845. The election of representatives to the
Convention had taken place on June 4th, 13 days before the
annexation proposal was even presented to Congress and 17 days before the
Mexican-British-French treaty was officially voted down.
John Salmon Ford was not elected as a representative to the
Annexation Convention. However, because
of his intimate knowledge of the affairs of the day, he was asked by the Texas National Register newspaper in
Washington-on-the-Brazos to be their journalist at the Annexation Convention in
Austin. Ford had never been a journalist, but that
didn’t stop him from trying it. It was
at this convention that Ford met his soon-to-be second wife, Louisa
Swisher….and to start yet another career.
Next Month - Part 6:
Annexation - The Final Days
Bob Heinonen is the
founder of Texas Heroes and has been portraying Rip Ford
since 1993.