if requested, we ought to give the seceders military assistance ; and what would be the effect of the acquisition of Texas upon the planting interest T' " The South," said the Mobile Advertiser at this time, "wish to have Texas admitted into the Union for two reasons ; first, to equalize the South with the North ; and secondly, as a convenient and safe place calculated from its peculiarly good soil and salubrious climate, for a slave population'^ The same year, Mr. Samuel Houston of Tennessee, disclosed to a friend (Robert Mayo, M.D.), who communicated the intelligence to the President, that he was organizing an expedition with recruits from the United States, for the purpose of wresting Texas from Mexico ; and soon after it was announced in a Louisiana paper, that Houston had gone to Texas, the editor adding, " we may expect shortly to hear of his raising his flag."
One mode of effecting a revolution was to enlist the pe- cuniary interests of as many American citizens as possible in the independence of Texas. Vast grants of land had been made by the State Legislature to a few individuals.
These grants were of course worthless till sold out in par- cels. Many of the patentees resided in the United States, and joint-stock companies were formed for the sale of these lands. Three of the most notorious of these com- panies, viz. : *' The Galveston Bay and Texas Company," "The Arkansas and Texas Company," and "The Rio Grande Company," were estabhshed in New York. Care was taken to enlist prominent politicians in these compa- nies ; and great efforts were made to distribute the scrip ^ or certificates of partial purchases, as widely as possible.
This scrip was of little value while Texas continued under 2 the government of Mexico, but in case of independence followed by annexation might prove a fortune to the holder. In this manner, a powerful pecuniary interest was excited in the free States in behalf of Texas. The plans of the conspirators in Texas were aided in 1832, by the withdrawal of the