frontiersman, bear hunter, and backwoods politician;
James Bowie, the dexterous wielder of the knife that to this day bears
his name; and Sam Houston, warrior and pioneer, rushed to the aid of
their countrymen in Texas. Unacquainted with the niceties of diplomacy,
impatient at the formalities of international law, they soon made it
known that in spite of Mexican sovereignty they would be their own
masters.

=The Independence of Texas Declared.=--Numbering only about one-fourth
of the population in Texas, they raised the standard of revolt in 1836
and summoned a convention. Following in the footsteps of their
ancestors, they issued a declaration of independence signed mainly by
Americans from the slave states. Anticipating that the government of
Mexico would not quietly accept their word of defiance as final, they
dispatched a force to repel "the invading army," as General Houston
called the troops advancing under the command of Santa Ana, the Mexican
president. A portion of the Texan soldiers took their stand in the
Alamo, an old Spanish mission in the cottonwood trees in the town of San
Antonio. Instead of obeying the order to blow up the mission and retire,
they held their ground until they were completely surrounded and cut off
from all help. Refusing to surrender, they fought to the bitter end, the
last man falling a victim to the sword. Vengeance was swift. Within
three months General Houston overwhelmed Santa Ana at the San Jacinto,
taking him prisoner of war and putting an end to all hopes for the
restoration of Mexican sovereignty over Texas.

The Lone Star Republic, with Houston at the head, then sought admission
to the United States. This seemed at first an easy matter. All that was
required to bring it about appeared to be a treaty annexing Texas to the
union. Moreover, President Jackson, at the height of his popularity, had
a warm regard for General Houston and, with his usual sympathy for rough
and ready ways of doing things, approved the transaction. Through an
American representative in Mexico, Jackson had long and anxiously
labored, by means none too nice, to wring from the Mexican republic the
cession of the coveted territory. When the Texans took matters into
their own hands, he was more than pleased; but he could not marshal the
approval of two-thirds of the Senators required for a treaty of
annexation. Cautious as well as impetuous, Jackson did not press the
issue; he went out of office in 1837 wit