stephen richard eng: tennessee wild west: the mystery voice of "americus"
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Clarion Call for Texas 1
"But the question presents itself: shall we contribute to establish a new republic inMexico? or shall we demand the incorporation of that country with the territoriesof the United States?"
"Americus," Nashville Clarion, April 28, 1812
"You have only to gird on your swords, & say the word, and another portion ofthe Western Hemisphere, containing a population of seven millions isemancipated."
letter from Natchitoches, Nashville Whig, June 8, 1813
The Gutierrez-Magee Mexican Revolution of 1812 had its cheerleaders in Tennessee,
especially Nashville. Repeatedly, some of the rebels sought assistance in Tennessee. As
usual, the state craved to hear some revolutionary gun blasts from Texas...so long as no
Tennessee politicians were officially implicated.
By 1811, Mexican patriots were plotting in secret...hatching a revolution to kick Spain
out of Texas. So they dispatched their would-be Texas-conqueror, Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara,
on a covert mission to the United States, to win support...on the same turf where Aaron Burr had
once danced and dined, and wooed and wined ("The Burrites dreamed still of the Halls of
Montezuma").
Tennessee was his first destination.
He set out on horseback, armed with a letter of introduction from John Sibley, a devious
U.S. Indian agent at Natchitoches. He carried another letter from Captain James Overton of the
garrison there--addressed to his uncle, General Thomas Overton, who lived outside Nashville.
In 1811 Natchitoches lay on the border of the Texas-Louisiana buffer zone known as the
"Neutral Ground." The Neutral Ground was established by General James Wilkinson in 1807, in
the midst of his Aaron Burr conspiracy slitherings. It became a festering, breeding place of
revolutionaries and bandits...and a haven for self-reliant, violent people, well into the Twentieth
Century (known as the "Big Thicket," where country singer George Jones was born).*
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*Natchitoches, Louisiana was the setting of the film Steel Magnolias (1989) withOlympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Darryl Hannah, Sally Field.
Gutierrez and his party were attacked by Royalists within the Neutral Ground. So
Gutierrez pressed on alone, with only a boy interpreter as his companion--moving north with one
change of horses for each, plus a pack mule.
On November 2, they crossed Colbert's Ferry on the Tennessee River. Gutierrez was
keeping a diary...which went unpublished in English till 1928. They stayed in an Indian's hut,
and other times slept on the ground under the trees. Once, they stayed in a peasant's house where
the woman ministered Gutierrez's headache with aromatic herbs.
They passed through the "very pretty village" of Frankle (Franklin, in Williamson
County)--then reached Neshfil (Nashville):
...a town of considerable importance. All its houses are of several stories. Thechurch is in the midst of the plaza; it is square in shape, with a second story of thesame form. The jail is next to the church; it is fork-shaped with a platform above.At a man's height is a pillory in which offenders are placed in sight of all thepeople.
In those days, malefactors were often lashed to a post and whipped on the Public Square--a good
deal for everyone, providing a vivid, deterrent spectacle, while saving the taxpayer jail expense,
yet permitting the offender to return to work as soon as possible. More serious crimes might
merit branding, and/or cropping of the ears. Horse thieves were hanged in public, since the
stealing of precious transportation on the dangerous frontier was deemed more heinous than
murder.
Gutierrez lodged at a tavern, probably the Nashville Inn or the City Hotel. He had a
falling-out with his interpreter, so proceeded on alone to the home of General Thomas Overton
at Hunter's Hill (Soldier's Rest) in the bend of the Cumberland River. (General Overton,
remember, had once hosted a ball in honor Aaron Burr!) Gutierrez left with letters of
introduction to his brother John Overton in Knoxville, and to General James Winchester.
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Gutierrez stayed at Winchester's home of Cragfont on the road to Knoxville. He
entertained his host's children by telling them the Spanish word for everything. In Knoxville,
Gutierrez, the Mexican revolutionary, was introduced to Governor
Willie (pronounced Wy-lie) Blount. Blount's half-brother, William, had been Tennessee's first
governor...and earlier, had been embroiled in his own, anti-Spanish scandal.*
Gutierrezs Tennessee contacts were certainly Western in their thinking. John Overton
and James Winchester--with fellow land speculator Andrew Jackson--established the town of
Memphis in 1819.
The people of Tennessee and Kentucky didn't want Gutierrez to leave, hoping he would
"make up a considerable army of volunteers, with which, under my command, we would invade
the provinces of Mexico and sweep before us all the oppressors of our liberty." Or so he told the
Mexican Congress in 1815. Meanwhile, he deemed it wiser to proceed to Washington, where
he met with Secretary of State James Monroe (who, back in 1803, had recommended grabbing
Spanish Texas). He even met President Madison.
Joining Gutierrez in Washington was Jose Alvarez de Toledo--another, future Nashville
tourist-revolutionary. Toledo was a former Spanish naval officer...but now an intriguer and chief
lobbyist for the rebels.
The following spring (1812), Nashville watched with glee as the rebels grouped to invade
Texas.
On April 28, "Americus" made his enigmatic debut in the Nashville Clarion. "Americus" was
the nom de plume of an unknown, zealous exponent of expansionism (where Manifest Destiny
"ran riot"). "Americus" predicted that Canada would soon "hover under the wings of the
American eagle"--that Florida would tumble into the American union as well. Furthermore:
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*The U.S. Senate had impeached him for violating neutrality, and conspiring with the British toexpel Spain. According to half-brother Willie, he had "forgotten" about the treaty with Spain, sowas not convicted. Jackson sided with him.
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...citizens of the West! a destiny still more splendid is reserved for you. Beholdthe empire of Mexico, a celestial region, whose valiant sons are now strugglingfor their liberties as we struggled for ours thirty 'years agoTerritory double theextent of the republic; where the merchant shall see commercial resourcesunrivaled in other countries; the farmer, a luxuriant soil and delicious climate,
where the financier shall be dazzled with gold and silver mines...the idea ofestablishing a new republic where Montezuma once reigned and where thesoldiers of Cortes carried their immortal arms, shall deliver itself up to anenthusiasm of glory...Besides, where is it written in the book of fate that theAmerican republic shall not stretch from the capes of the Chesapeake to Nooktasound [west coast of Vancouver Island]; from the Isthmus of Panama to Hudsonbay; Rome in her days of grandeur covered with her dominion the best portions ofEurope, Asia, and Africa: and shall the American eagle be forced to contract herwings and limit her empire to less than half of the new world?
Damned good question, for the year of 1812! After all, the British seemed to be united with
Spain, in what is now Texas. So...
Why expel the British from Quebec and Halifax if they are suffered quietly to re-establishthemselves in Santa Fe and La Vera Cruz? Why dispute with them for the frozenand naked regions of' Canada, and yet surrender to their possession the gold andsilver mines, the luxuriant plains and the heavenly climate of New Mexico? Thegovernment will be guilty of so much inattention. The fate of Mexico will occupythe first place in the eye of the administration.
Two days later (April 30), the Clarion printed some frothing jingoism from Niles' Weekly
Register of Baltimore:
...our western citizens can and will give such aid to the patriots of Mexico as may be able toexpel their tyrants.
It would be harvest of glory, and of profit too, to the hardy republicans beyond theAlleghenies, and its success would open a trade for themselves and their fellowcitizens of the Atlantic states far more lucrative than any heretofore employed bythe United States --A vast field for enterprise is opening on this new theatre...
to which the Clarion chimed in:
...an idea is beginning to prevail that something is in the wind. Public curiosity is gettingon tiptoe.
To establish a new republic in that delightful region; to give liberty to a nation enslavedby the satellites of England; to turn the commerce of a great empire, and the goldand silver of three hundred mines into the bosom of the United States, are vastand magnificent objects. No friend to his country can contemplate such brilliantadvantages without being smitten with their luster. Wealth, fame, the possessionof the most delicious climate are waiting to crown an expedition into that fine
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country--If the administration will give the signal, the valiant sons of the west,will soon display the republican standard on the plains of Mexico.
Indeed, what a noble incentive for patriotic, American expansionism...the glittering
prospect of three hundred gold (and silver) mines! Why, this impending War of 1812 had its
bright side--besides whacking the British one more time, the U.S. might get rid of Spain as
well...and start playing the role of conquistador in conquering Texas, the Southwest, and
Mexico. God bless America...especially if it could snatch Texas!*
Quite in this martial spirit, the Clarion began offering The Military Instructor at seventy-
five cents a copy (fifty cents, when purchased by the dozen). This drill manual of Baron von
Steuben's Prussian advice was probably the first book published with a Nashville imprint (a
military life's little instruction book--anticipating popular, handy books published
at Nashville, right to the present day).
And just who was the mystery columnist, "Americus"? Probably Thomas Hart Benton,
expansionist friend of Andrew Jackson (see Chapter ) . (Back in 1808, Benton had written
in a Nashville paper under the by-line of "Sir John Oldcastle.")
Filibuster enthusiast Henry Stuart Foote (who is buried in Nashville) reflected in 1841
that there were
thousands who stood ready to risk their lives and fortunes in the grand conflict againstSpanish dominion, in any form, and to any extent, warranted by a proper respectto the government and laws of their own country.
Eagerly the Tennesseans watched the Gutierrez-Magee revolt. Its supply depot was
Natchitoches, today the oldest town in Louisiana, but then the smuggling capital of the Neutral
Ground no-man's land. It was (and is) about 100 miles east of similarly-named Nacogdoches,
*Founded in 1811 by Hezekiah Niles, the Register ran till 1849.In 1814 Niles wrote that if "'Westward the course of empire takes its way,' we are not jealous.Where the strength of population is, there also should be the weight of political influence." Hepredicted the "new states" of Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and Indiana, would have a greaterrepresentation in Congress after 1830, than the "old states" of New England.
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gateway of virtually every Texas revolution. General. Wilkinson had designated the Neutral
Ground to keep both his Spanish and United States employers happy, or at least played-off.
It was bandit paradise--Wilkinson's protg (, Lieutenant Augustus Magee, had already
summarily dealt with some of its freebooters...burning their houses, tying them to trees for a
flogging, and shoving hot coals down their backs to extort confessions.
When Magee was denied a promotion, he quit and began recruiting republican patriots
from the sparkling talent pool in the Neutral Ground. Wilkinson nudged him on. John Sibley
wrote to the Secretary of War (July 14) that his soldiers could not be halted by "all the troops of
the U.S. in this quarter & militia." Alluding to propaganda in the Nashville Clarion, he crowed:
"The plan I think is deeply laid & Co-extensive with the Southern & Western States." Sibley,
like Shaler, worked for the U.S. government--while simultaneously trying to mount a "private"
invasion.
Then someone almost certainly from Tennessee wrote a letter to the Nashville Whig in
July (published September 23) asking that his friends in Tennessee "send all the arms you can
purchase," beckoning "all good people who wish well to the cause to come and join."
Augustus Magee crossed the Sabine River on August 8, with around 130 men, many of
them American adventurers seeking booty, incited by the merchants of Natchitoches. On August
12 they entered Nacogdoches, marching on Trinidad with about 700 men on September 13.
There was an "illegal enterprise" stirring in Tennessee, President Madison warned
Secretary of State Monroe in a letter of September 1. He also asked, wasn't Tennessee's
Governor Blount arming the citizens of Giles County to join the Mexican rebels? Blount--who
less than a year before had entertained Gutierrez--denied any such plot in Tennessee. "The
Western Country is all in motion and confusion," President Madison confessed to Monroe on
September 12.
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A few days earlier (September 5), a revolutionist in Natchitoches had told the Clarion
that they commanded around 500 men, "principally late citizens of the United States." Governor
Claiborne of Louisiana had just issued a proclamation warning citizens not to aid the rebels (he,
too, had entertained Gutierrez the year before). "This proclamation has not had the smallest
effect," chortled the letter-writer to the Clarion..."The people laugh at it while parties pass
through here avowing their object without any secrecy."
A Philadelphia paper described the rebels as a "motley collection of individuals...only fit
for some desperate enterprise." Gutierrez had promised his soldiers $40 a month, free land, and
all the contraband they could personally loot. The Nashville Whig as well as the Clarion assured
their readers that the rebels were well disciplined, "only" violating property of the "avowed
enemies of republican liberty." That October The National Intelligencer condemned the "illegal
and unauthorized expedition against Mexico." Governor Claiborne began fretting about "how far
the Executive Government of the U. States felt an interest in the Revolutionary Movement in
Texas" (having faced down Wilkinson during the Burr scare in New Orleans, he had good
reason). He issued a decree banning armed troops from the Neutral Ground--yet the nephew of
Tennesseans Thomas and John Overton, Captain James Overton, laughed at this in a letter to
Wilkinson: "...the business has never been a secret--the very atmosphere has been filled with
the plans of the expedition for months." Wilkinson's son Joseph was deeply involved in the
rebellion.
A New Orleans newspaper had advertised:
Cash!--for those who will fight for it!...There is a great deal of money at San Antonio,and the property of the Royalists collected there is immense.
The invaders were "mostly the sons of respectable settlers in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi,
and Louisiana." Fighting ensued--and in November, Magee was killed. On April 1 of 1813, San
Antonio was taken--on April 3 prisoners from the mission of the Alamo were executed
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a barbarous anticipation of Santa Anna's cruelty of 1836. Some of the Americans were so
sickened, they deserted. On April 4, Toledo arrived...before the year was out, he would be in
Nashville. With him would come Shaler and Henry Adams Bullard, a cousin of former Presiden
John Adams.
These three were dismayed by the Battle of Medina in August, when the rebels were
ambushed, crushed, and routed. Some of them began plotting against Gutierrez. But others
remained loyal, according to Neutral Ground historian Villasana Haggard:
The spirit of the filibusters was not completely crushed by the devastating defeatof Medina.-A large number of refugees met at Natchitoches on September 12
&13, and gave full powers to Toledo in case he should reorganize the expedition.Toledo moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was given promises of aid.
He arrived in October with Shaler and Bullard. Shaler
moved on, probably to Washington (he and Toledo kept in constant touch by mail, however).
Disheartened by their defeat at Medina, Toledo tried to enter the U.S. Army--but General
Andrew Jackson failed to answer his letter. Then, like Aaron Burr and Gutierrez before him, he
tried to impress Jackson's staunchest political ally, Judge John Overton. Overton had welcomed
Gutierrez at Knoxville; now he was back home at Traveler's Rest (south of Nashville off
Franklin Rd.). This historic site's tourist brochure says "Welcoming Visitors Since 1799," but
actually, Overton was not avid for guests. Usually they sought him out. (Sam Houston,
however, was one of his welcome, recurring guests.) During Toledo's uneasy stay, Overton was
sick and his wife upset. Toledo managed to lose his mule; his fellow rebel Captain Bullard
was also in town, and was sick, too.*
Toledo wrote Shaler from Nashville (November 6, 1813) that the rebels had executed
seventy-one of their prisoners. On December 6, Toledo wrote Shaler that a Colonel John Smith
*Recent Twelfth Night Christmas revelers at Travelers' Rest revived early nineteenth centuryfestivities (December 10-18, 1993), doubtless unaware of its faint, nostalgic connections withMexican revolutionaries.
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had shown up in Nashville, promising round 500 armed men. Next day, he added that another,
unnamed party stood ready to supply large quantities of powder and guns. One of Toledo's
correspondents wrote him at Nashville that Napoleon himself was considering coming to their
aid. A wild rumor, even for this scenario--but the source was their ally, Lacroix, whom they
feared would raise 200 men and perhaps come down the Ohio.
Toledo was starting to fear that the French might muscle in on his fragile, very precious
revolution.
By now, some die-hard refugees from the Battle of Medina had nominated Toledo to lead
one more invasion. One of his leaders, John Hamilton Robinson, arrived at Natchez with 150
muskets--and spoke of spending around $10,000 on the hypothetical 2000 recruits that Toledo
was hoping to raise in Tennessee.
The U.S. government was growing increasingly perturbed, making Toledo more and
more nervous. After all, supervising a revolution by mail, from Nashville, was pretty damned
difficult! So in January, Toledo and Smith left "Rock City." Toledo headed for Natchez. Here
the "Friends ofMexican Emancipation" were meeting. Celebrity conspirator Aaron Burr was
back in the country, and though the revolutionaries invited him to participate, the old super-
scamp elected to sit this one out.
Soon Robinson and Toledo were mounting their own competing--and completely
unsuccessful--invasions.
Meanwhile, the War of 1812 had been giving General Andrew Jackson the chance he
needed...to kick out the Spanish and the British from the Southeast, and smash open the door to
Texas.
From Florida he rousted the Spanish--an invasion coup that served as something of a
blueprint for later Texas incursions. Also of great seminal importance to the Tennessee-
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Texas filibuster movement was...the Battle of New Orleans.
Present was Gutierrez, as well as Peter Ellis Bean (and ex-Nashville doctor, James Long:
see Chapter ). Already the "City of Sin" was a popular resort with the flat boatmen of
Tennessee and Kentucky--so the chance to kill some British was an added treat. Local Ursuline
nuns prayed in an all-night vigil that Jackson, and his buccaneer ally Jean Lafite, would
be victorious. "The sisters asked for a miracle, and they got it," wrote a Catholic journalist in
1994. "Sisters, our country, the world, owes you a great deal," said Jackson: "Praise be to God
for this marvelous victory."
The battle was strategically unnecessary (the British had already surrendered), but it was
worth killing 2000 British to help stimulate the push toward Texas. After the battle quite a few
Old Southwest war veterans stayed on...falling prey to the filibuster fever epidemic. So much
for Britain...now it was Spain's turn for trouble! Replacing Turpin's coffee house as the filibuster
rendezvous was Maspero's Exchange on St. Louis Street (its entrance was at today's 440 Chartres
Street.). Maspero's was a ninety-foot-long, two-storey cafe. Down the first floor ran its full-
length bar; upstairs, Jean Lafite's pirates had discussed their buccaneer business, and there
General Jackson had met with his officers to map their strategy (probably with Lafitfe, whose
pirate skills Jackson patriotically enlisted).
Already, by 1816, Spanish envoy Luis de Onis--more or less chronically agitated in these
yearswas griping that some 2500 adventurers were flaunting an invasion from New Orleans
and the State Department denied it was composed of Tennesseans and Kentuckians. The same
fear surfaced in July of 1817--the governor of Texas received word from an agent in New
Orleans that 2500 Tennesseans and Kentuckians were conspiring with local Indians to invade
Texasl The ring-leaders were supposedly some Irish-Americans. False alarms, it turned out.
But harbingers of worse to come.
.
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