Annexation - The Final Days

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RIP FORD

Part 6: Annexation - The Final Days

by Bob Heinonen

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 accepting.

“General Thomas J. Rusk was elected president of the convention….The following are extracts from President Rusk’s address:

The object for which we have assembled, deeply interests the people of Texas. We have the hopes of our present population, as well as the millions who may come after us, in our hands; the eyes of the civilized world are upon us; we present this day a bright spectacle to all lovers of freedom and republican government. The history of the world may be searched in vain for a parallel to the present instance of two Governments amalgamating themselves into one, from a pure devotion to that great principle, that man, by enlightening his intellect, and cultivating those moral sentiments with which God has impressed him, is capable of self government.

The terms of annexation are alike honorable to the United States and to Texas, and as a Texian, acting for myself and my posterity, I would not, were it practicable without in the slightest degree endangering the great question involved, seek to alter the terms proposed to us by the Government of the United States. Texas, animated by the same spirit, and following the bright examples of the fathers of the American Revolution, has acquired at the cost of blood, her freedom and independence from those who would have enslaved her people. She now, with a unanimity unparalleled, enters that great confederacy to whose keeping the bright jewel of human liberty is confided, content to bear the burthens and share the benefits which republican government carries in her train.

President [Anson] Jones communicated to the convention all the papers he had laid before Congress at the extra session. They acted on the resolutions providing for the annexation of Texas to the United States on the first day of the session, and accepted them with one dissenting vote….”[i]

A Constitution for the State of Texas was then written and approved.

“The Constitution of 1845 speaks for itself. Its provisions indicate that it was the work of statesmen. The convention was impressed with the importance of educating the masses. They required the Legislature to appropriate on-tenth of the funds raised by taxation to establish and maintain a system of free schools, donated four leagues of land in each county for educational purposes, and provided for leasing lands granted to public schools. The delegates were chosen from among the pioneers who had aided to make Texas free and independent, and they kept in view the idea advanced in the Texas Declaration of Independence concerning the public domain and free schools.”[ii]

It was at this convention that Ford decided to start yet another career….and met his soon-to-be second wife. “While in Austin Ford also met and courted a young woman named Louisa Swisher who, though pale and fragile, seemed to have the kind of grace and inner beauty that John Salmon wanted most in a woman.”[iii]

As you may recall from previous articles, Ford was already a doctor, lawyer, Representative in the Congress of the Republic of Texas, deputy surveyor, thespian and playwright, and a volunteer Texas Ranger. Now he became a newspaper man. He had enjoyed his time reporting about the Annexation Convention for the Texas National Register so much that he and his friend Michael Cronican bought the newspaper and moved it to Austin where John and his new wife settled. And as usual, John was right in the thick of controversy.

“The appearance of a weekly sheet conducted by friends of General Houston was not palatable to many of the residents of the “City of the Hills” because of the recent “Archive War” which had engendered much bitter feeling. A proposition was made to throw the press and type into the Colorado River – it met with no encouragement [from Ford].”[iv]

Ford used his usual personal and political charms on the citizens of Austin and his press was not thrown in the river. His newspaper survived to report on the last day of the Republic of Texas.

Next Month - Part 7: The Republic Of Texas Is No More

Bob Heinonen is the founder of Texas Heroes and has been portraying Rip Ford since 1993.