The Treaty of Austin
The mood in Texas President Anson Jones' residence was grim. After several minutes of silence Secretary of the Treasury John Greene spoke up. “We are running out of money, we have massive debts, and the United States won't help us. If we can't get a deal with someone we're going to default.” Anson Jones turned to Secretary of State Ashbel Smith. “Are the British still willing to host talks with the Mexicans?” Smith nodded. “Go to the British Consul and tell him we have a deal.” Jones put his hands on his temples and rubbed them. If they got lucky, he thought, the Texian people wouldn't kill them and maybe Texas get both out of debt and gain independence.
Clay's victory spelled the end of Texas annexation. President Tyler had been conducting secret negotiations with the Texian government but many in Congress saw Clay's victory as a sign that the American people didn't want Texas. At any rate there was no way that they would be able to get a treaty through Congress before Clay came into office. For the government of Texas this was a nightmare. Years of war and financial mismanagement had left Texas with massive debts. To compound its problems Texas could not get peace with Mexico and without any American intervention the only way that Texas could gain peace was through Britain. However, the British refused to help Texas gain independence unless it banned slavery.
The situation came to a head on March 28th, 1845 when Ashbel Smith met with the British Consul to begin to negotiate peace (a Mexican diplomat arrived by late May). Despite the fact that Smith was given explicit orders not to agree to ban slavery rumors began circulating that the real purpose of the mission was to surrender slavery in exchange for independence; the theory being that the Texian government wanted to see slavery ended so that after independence they could break the power of the rich planters and pave the way for “Whig like” industrialization programs. On July 3rd Smith presented Congress with the treaty and things reached a breaking point. The proposed Treaty of Austin would give Texas its independence with borders fixed at the Rio Grande boundary up to the border with the state of Chihuahua, and Texas had to drop its claim to Nuevo Mexico. Unfortunately the British would only agree to make a deal if the government of Texas agreed to ban settlers from bringing their slaves across the border and put quotas on the number of slaves that could be imported. After Smith read the treaty out to Congress word quickly spread across the state. A wealthy planted named Leonard Allen was so outraged that he purchased a printing press and began to print pamphlets denouncing the treaty as “A British plot to end slavery and prostrate Texas to the Empire” and Ashbel Smith as “A Negro lover and a British pawn.” On July 15th, the day the vote for the treaty was scheduled, a crowd of protestors gathered outside the Capitol Building. Things got more and more out of hand until one of the protestors walked up to the militia who were guarding the building and shot one of them. The militia fired back and in the confusion several protestors pulled out their guns and began shooting. After 5 minutes the militia retreated into the building to regroup, leaving 5 dead militia, 10 dead protestors, and an unknown number of wounded.
Citizens flocked towards the Capitol Building to join the protests. The mob surged towards the doors and windows of the Capitol when the militia inside flung open the doors and began to fire. Men fell left and right, their blood seeping down the steps. Even after 3 volleys were fired the mob was still coming and shooting. After the militia again retreated they received the news that the building was surrounded and decided to surrender. Even though the militia came up with their hands up angry protestors opened fire on them. Most of the militia were cut down before they could even get to their guns, and the resulting shootout killed all of the rest. Although Congress had fled when the shooting started the mob went on a rampage, smashed everything they could, and set the place on fire. Another part of the mob reached the President's house, found it abandoned, and burned it to the ground. For the next 2 days fire burned through the Texian capital as rioters attacked government buildings and lynched those who were thought to support the treaty. After 2 days the Texian Army arrived and fired several cannons into the city as a warning. All but the most die hard radicals laid down their arms. To placate the citizens martial law was not declared and only those who were involved in the murder of private citizens were arrested. The rioting left most of Austin in ruins, with around 800 people killed. 25 people were tried for various lynchings and 15 were found guilty and executed. Leonard Allen was later tried for various charges including inciting the riots, but was only convicted of defamation against Ashbel Smith and sentenced to a short prison term. The rioters did get their wish: the treaty was rejected and the Texian government was forced to continue the negotiations.