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Detail
from Republic of Texas currency
(1838 $50 serial)
Prints
and Photographs Collection,
Texas State Library and Archives Commission. #1989/84-15.
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At this time,
Moore also began to feud with his second-in-command, Commander
John G. Tod, who managed the naval station at Galveston.
Tod prided himself on the job he had done in supervising
the construction and outfitting of the Texas ships built
in Baltimore. When Moore began to point out shortcomings,
such as weak anchor chains, rotten masts, awkward rigging,
and other evidence of shoddy workmanship, he made an enemy
of Tod.
Moore managed to persuade
President Lamar to lay up only the steamship Zavala,
and allow him to keep the rest of the Navy busy with a
survey of the Texas coast. During his visit with Lamar,
Moore also secured more than $100,000 in promissory notes
and government bonds to use to pay his sailors. Since
Texas had no money, the bonds were worth nothing more
than an IOU, and as soon as Moore was back in Galveston
he received a letter asking him to return the notes. Moore
declined, replying that he had already used them to persuade
the sailors to sign on for more duty. The work done by
the Texas Navy that spring resulted in the first accurate
navigation charts of the Gulf of Mexico. As a result,
shipping losses plummeted, and insurance rates for ships
going to Texas dropped, a boost to the Texas economy.
In the meantime, President
Mirabeau B. Lamar and his secretary of state, Samuel A.
Roberts, had become disillusioned with the prospects for
peace with Santa Anna's government. Mexico had rebuffed
Texas and British negotiators and was contracting to buy
two steam warships, the Montezuma and the Guadaloupe.
At the same time as Lamar was launching the ill-fated
Santa Fe expedition (see Texas
Treasures for more), he entered secret negotiations
with Colonel Martin F. Pereza of Yucatán to form
an alliance against Mexico. As long as Yucatán
remained in rebellion, Mexico would be tied up there and
unable to mount a fresh invasion of Texas.
In September 1841, Lamar
and Pereza struck a deal, announced at a great ball at
the Capitol in Austin. Yucatán would pay Texas
$8000 a month for the services of three ships to defend
its coast against Mexican raiding, and the two upstart
republics would split the proceeds from any prizes seized.
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The
Yucatán Rebellion
General Santa Anna had retired from
public life for a short time after his defeat at San Jacinto,
but reemerged in 1838 to defend Mexico against a French
invasion. He lost a leg in a battle at Veracruz. After
the war was settled, Santa Anna consolidated his hold
on the army and used it to once again make himself president
of Mexico.
Several Mexican states were deeply
resentful of the dictatorial methods of the central government.
In May 1838, an insurrection began in Yucatán,
and in 1840 the local assembly approved a declaration
of independence for the state. Santa Anna's representative,
Andrés Quintana Roo, negotiated a treaty to keep
Yucatán in the Mexican union, but Santa Anna soon
violated the treaty. In response, the Yucatecan governor
ordered all Mexican flags hauled down and replaced with
the flag of the new Republic of Yucatán. The assembly
drafted a new constitution based on the Mexican Constitution
of 1824, which had also been a rallying point for the
Texas revolution.
The Yucatecans formed an alliance
with Texas to fight against the Mexican naval blockade
of Yucatán's ports, though the blockade still had
a severe impact on Yucatán's economy. In 1843,
Yucatecans defeated the Mexican army when it tried to
reimpose central rule. They took this opportunity to negotiate
a return to the Mexican union, under the conditions that
they could retain their own self-rule and constitution.
Once again, Santa Anna violated
the agreement, and Yucatán declared its independence
again in 1846, remaining neutral during the U.S.-Mexican
War.
In 1847, the Mayan Indian people
launched a major uprising against Hispanic rule in Yucatán.
The so-called Caste War succeeded in driving all Hispanic
Yucatecans off the peninsula except for a couple of walled
compounds. The Yucatecans appealed for international help
in putting down the uprising. Eventually, Mexico came
to the rescue, and Yucatán once again became part
of Mexico in 1848. The Mayan uprising continued in earnest
for more than 50 years, with skirmishes into the 1930s.
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Commodore
Moore was placed in command of the operation, with orders
to capture Mexican towns and compel ransom payments; to
force the inhabitants to make the payments, he was authorized
to destroy public works and seize public property. But
for the operation to come off at all, he had to work fast.
Sam Houston had just been elected to another term as president,
and Lamar and Moore feared he would countermand the deal
as soon as he took office. On December 13, 1841, the very
day that Houston was being sworn in as president, the
Austin, San Antonio, and San Bernard
sailed for Sisal, Yucatán. Houston issued an order
recalling the ships two days later, but it was too late.
For the moment, the navy was gone and beyond the president's
reach. But Moore was well aware that his mission was flying
in the face of Houston's disapproval. He wrote bitterly
to his friend, General Albert Sidney Johnston, that he
expected to be recalled and subjected to vicious political
attacks.
Commodore Moore reports
on his Yucatán
cruise, December 1841
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Report on the "deplorable"
condition of the navy, and the "discontent"
of the officers, January 1842
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George Fisher reports
to President Houston on the doings in Yucatán,
Mexican politics, and the involvement of the navy,
April 1842
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When Moore got to Yucatán,
he found the Yucatecans deep in negotiations with Mexico
to end the rebellion. Moore recognized the possible peace
as a tremendous threat to Texas and persuaded the Yucatecans
to keep to their bargain with the Texas navy until they
could make sure that Mexico and Santa Anna were sincere
about wanting peace. He sent the San Antonio
back to Texas with a full report on the situation for
President Houston. He included a plea for the steamship
Zavala to be repaired and sent south to shore
up Texan control of the coast. The steamer was never sent.
Texas had only a very small navy yard, and no one who
knew how to work with the temperamental steam technology.
Yucatán offered to pay for the repairs, but Houston
refused. Instead, the Zavala was allowed to rot
so badly that it was later deliberately run aground and
wrecked in Galveston Bay rather than pay the cost of repairs.
Houston would not even agree to sell the engines from
the wrecked ship to raise money for the rest of the fleet.
Moore captured several Mexican
ships, then received word of several disasters that to
him confirmed that a more active course was needed. The
news of the appalling mistreatment of the Santa Fe prisoners
came at the same time as the Mexicans launched the first
land assault on Texas since the Revolution, recapturing
San Antonio. Moore didn't know it yet, but President Houston
had issued him orders to blockade the Mexican coast, retroactively
approving of his actions. Moore continued to wreak havoc
on Mexican shipping near Veracruz until April 1842, when
he ran low on money and provisions, and the men's terms
of enlistment were running out.
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