1836 Republic of Texas presidential election

Last updated

1836 Republic of Texas presidential election
Flag of the Republic of Texas (1836-1839).svg
September 5, 1836 1838  
  Thomas Flintoff - Sam Houston - Google Art Project.jpg Henry Smith TX.png Stephen f austin.jpg
Nominee Sam Houston Henry Smith Stephen F. Austin
Party Nonpartisan Nonpartisan Nonpartisan
Popular vote4,374743587
Percentage76.7%13.0%10.3%

Texas1836Presidential.png
Results by county [lower-alpha 1] [1] [2]

President before election

David G. Burnet (interim)
Nonpartisan

Elected President

Samuel Houston
Nonpartisan

The 1836 Republic of Texas presidential election was the first such election in the newly established Republic of Texas. Popular war hero Samuel Houston was elected in a decisive victory over Henry Smith and Stephen F. Austin. Houston was inaugurated on October 22, 1836, replacing interim president David G. Burnet.

Contents

Candidates

Campaign

Prior to Houston's entrance into the race, Stephen F. Austin considered himself to be the front-runner in the election to become the first president of Texas. His opponent in the race was Henry Smith, who had been governor of the Provisional Government and a delegate to the convention that declared the independence of the Republic of Texas. Others, however, had doubts about his qualifications. Austin was not widely known to most Texans, and his connections to land speculator Samuel May Williams had soiled his public reputation. When, eleven days before the election, Houston declared his candidacy, Austin's hopes of winning the presidency were sunk. [3]

Results

Houston won the election in a landslide, carrying 77% of the vote to Smith's 13% and Austin's 10%. Mirabeau Lamar was elected vice president by a majority of 2,699 votes.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republic of Texas</span> Historical republic

The Republic of Texas was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. It shared borders with Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, and the United States of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Houston</span> American general and statesman (1793–1863)

Samuel Houston was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two individuals to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He also served as the sixth governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas, the only individual to be elected governor of two different states in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen F. Austin</span> American empresario (1793–1836)

Stephen Fuller Austin was an American-born empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas, he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families and their slaves from the United States to the Tejas region of Mexico in 1825.

The Convention of 1836 was the meeting of elected delegates in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas in March 1836. The Texas Revolution had begun five months previously, and the interim government, known as the Consultation, had wavered over whether to declare independence from Mexico or pledge to uphold the repudiated Mexican Constitution of 1824. Unlike those of previous Texas councils, delegates to the Convention of 1836 were younger, more recent arrivals to Texas, and more adamant on the question of independence. As delegates prepared to convene, Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna led a large army into Texas to quell the revolt; the vanguard of this army arrived at San Antonio de Bexar on February 23.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David G. Burnet</span> Texian politician

David Gouverneur Burnet was an early politician within the Republic of Texas, serving as the interim president of Texas in 1836, the second vice president of the Republic of Texas (1839–1841), and the secretary of State (1846) for the new state of Texas after it was annexed to the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Jefferson Rusk</span> Texas military figure and politician (1803-1857)

Thomas Jefferson Rusk was an early political and military leader of the Republic of Texas, serving as its first Secretary of War as well as a general at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was later a US politician and served as a Senator from Texas from 1846 until his suicide. He served as the President pro tempore of the United States Senate in 1857.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">President of the Republic of Texas</span> Head of state and head of government

The president of the Republic of Texas was the head of state and head of government while Texas was an independent republic between 1836 and 1845. The president served as the commander-in-chief of the Texas Military Forces.

Independence is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 140 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Houston metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Runaway Scrape</span> Evacuations of Texian civilians during the Texas Revolution

The Runaway Scrape events took place mainly between September 1835 and April 1836 and were the evacuations by Texas residents fleeing the Mexican Army of Operations during the Texas Revolution, from the Battle of the Alamo through the decisive Battle of San Jacinto. The ad interim government of the new Republic of Texas and much of the civilian population fled eastward ahead of the Mexican forces. The conflict arose after Antonio López de Santa Anna abrogated the 1824 Constitution of Mexico and established martial law in Coahuila y Tejas. The Texians resisted and declared their independence. It was Sam Houston's responsibility, as the appointed commander-in-chief of the Provisional Army of Texas, to recruit and train a military force to defend the population against troops led by Santa Anna.

James Clinton Neill was a 19th-century American soldier and politician, most noted for his role in the Texas Revolution and the early defense of the Alamo. He was born in North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William H. Wharton</span> American politician (1802–1839)

William Harris Wharton was an American colonist, diplomat, senator and statesman in early Texas.

The Consultation, also known as the Texian Government, served as the provisional government of Mexican Texas from October 1835 to March 1836 during the Texas Revolution. Tensions rose in Texas during early 1835 as throughout Mexico federalists began to oppose the increasingly centralist policies of the government. In the summer, Texians elected delegates to a political convention to be held in Gonzales in mid-October. Weeks before the convention and war began, the Texian Militia took up arms against Mexican soldiers at the Battle of Gonzales. The convention was postponed until November 1 after many of the delegates joined the newly organized volunteer Texian Army to initiate a siege of the Mexican garrison at San Antonio de Bexar. On November 3, a quorum was reached in San Antonio. Within days, the delegates passed a resolution to define why Texians were fighting. They expressed allegiance to the deposed Constitution of 1824 and maintained their right to form the General Council. In the next weeks, the council authorized the creation of a new regular army to be commanded by Sam Houston. As Houston worked to establish an army independent from the existing volunteer army, the council repeatedly interfered in military matters.

Events from the year 1836 in the United States. Exceptionally, this page covers not only the history of the United States, but also that of the Republic of Texas in 1836.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Parmer</span>

Martin Parmer was an eccentric 19th-century American frontiersman, statesman, politician and soldier. On March 2, 1836, Martin Parmer seconded Sam Houston's motion to adopt the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico. Parmer signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and was Chairman of the Committee that drafted the Constitution of the Republic of Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Smith (Texas governor)</span>

Henry Smith was the first American-born Governor of the Mexican territory of Texas and briefly presided over the revolution there, serving during the Battle of Goliad and Battle of San Jacinto. He is one of 4 governors from Garrard County, Kentucky, a historically Whig and Republican county located in Kentucky's Bluegrass region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texian Army</span> Army that fought for the independence of what became the Republic of Texas

The Texian Army, also known as the Revolutionary Army and Army of the People, was the land warfare branch of the Texian armed forces during the Texas Revolution. It spontaneously formed from the Texian Militia in October 1835 following the Battle of Gonzales. Along with the Texian Navy, it helped the Republic of Texas win independence from the Centralist Republic of Mexico on May 14, 1836 at the Treaties of Velasco. Although the Texas Army was officially established by the Consultation of the Republic of Texas on November 13, 1835, it did not replace the Texian Army until after the Battle of San Jacinto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Branch T. Archer</span> Texian diplomat and politician

Branch Tanner Archer was a Texan who served as Commissioner to the United States and Speaker of the House of the Republic of Texas House of Representatives and Secretary of War of the Republic of Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel May Williams</span> Influential Texas patriot and businessman

Samuel May Williams was an American businessman, politician, and close associate of Stephen F. Austin, who was an Anglo-American colonizer of Mexican Texas. As a teenager, Williams started working in the family's mercantile business in Baltimore. He spent time in South America and New Orleans, fleeing the latter because of debts. He landed in Mexican Texas in 1822, having learned French and Spanish. Stephen F. Austin hired Williams for his colony in 1824. Williams first worked as a clerk, and later assumed the title of secretary to the ayuntamiento, a local government established for the colony by the Mexican state of Coahuila and Texas. He worked for Austin for about a decade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Creek Settlement</span>

The Lake Creek Settlement was a settlement in Stephen F. Austin's Second Colony, located in Mexican Texas, and later the Republic of Texas after it gained independence in 1836. The Lake Creek Settlement was located between the West Fork of the San Jacinto River (Texas) and the stream known as Lake Creek. It was the first Anglo-American settlement in what is today western Montgomery County, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Army of the Republic of Texas</span> Former branch of the Republic of Texas Military (1836–1844)

The Texas Army, officially the Army of the Republic of Texas, was the land warfare branch of the Texas Military Forces during the Republic of Texas. It descended from the Texian Army, which was established in October 1835 to fight for independence from Centralist Republic of Mexico in the Texas Revolution. The Texas Army was provisionally formed by the Consultation in November 1835; however, it did not replace the Texian Army until after the Battle of San Jacinto. The Texas Army, Texas Navy, and Texas Militia were officially established on September 5, 1836, in Article II of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas. The Texas Army and Texas Navy were merged with the United States Armed Forces on February 19, 1846, after the Republic of Texas became the 28th state of America.

References

  1. These results were found from records kept in the Texas State Archive building in Austin, Texas.
  2. According to the results from the Texas State Archives, an unknown man with the surname "Green" won Red River county by 1 vote, it is speculated that this is someone by the name of Silas J. Green based on the handwriting, but this can not be conclusively proven.
  3. During the first year of Texas Independence, vast swaths of land weren't claimed by any of her counties, leaving them without jurisdiction, these parts of Texas are represented by dark grey.
  4. During the first year of Texas Independence, vast swaths of land were claimed by multiple counties, making them disputed between two entities, these are represented by a light orange.
  1. Texas State Archives. Texas Secretary of State Records Relating to Passports Issued by the Department of State, Republic of Texas: An Inventory of Secretary of State Records Relating to Passports Issued by the Department of State, Republic of Texas at the Texas State Archives,1836-1845, 1855, 1858, undated. TSLAC Control No: TX001614
  2. Tiller, Jim & Nancy (January 1, 2020). "The Chief Justice Counties, late summer of 1837". TexasGLO.gov. Texas General Land Office. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
  3. TSHA | Republic of Texas