stephen richard eng: tennessee wild west: the mystery voice of "americus"

8/4/2019 Stephen Richard Eng: Tennessee Wild West: The Mystery Voice of "Americus"

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TWW The Mystery Voice of Americus Raises the

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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TWW The Mystery Voice of Americus Raises

The Clarion Call for Texas 2

*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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stephen richard eng: tennessee wild west: the mystery voice of "americus"

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