FIRST President of the Republic of Texas' Homestead -- David G. Burnet Park, Baytown TX
N 29° 46.885 W 095° 03.059
15R E 301733 N 3296328
The historic homesite of David G. Burnet, the first President of the Republic of Texas, is now one of Harris County's newest community parks.
Waymark Code: WMG335
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/06/2013
Views: 11
The homestead of David G. Burnet, lawyer, adventurer, empresario, politician, and first President of the Republic of Texas, is now part of a community park, ensuring that the interesting life and complex legacy of David G. Burnet will be shared with thousands of visitors and their families every year.
A bitter enemy of Texas hero Sam Houston after the war, Burnet nevertheless was an important figure in early Texas Republic politics. A brilliant politician, he was also a deeply polarizing public figure (not always a winning combination when you need votes).
David G. Burnet, speculator, lawyer, and politician, was born into a politically prominent family on 14 Apr 1788, in Newark, New Jersey.
Orphaned at an early age, Burnet lived with his brothers in Cincinnati, where he studied law. Bored with that, on 2 Feb 1806 Burnet sailed on a Xavier Miranda's ultimately failed filibustering expedition to Venezuela. By 1806 Burnet was back in New York trying to make a living.
About 1817 Burnet emigrated to Natchitoches, Louisiana to open a trading business with the local Comanche Indians. After failing to make a fortune at that, he returned to Ohio, where he again studied law.
In May 1826 Burnet left Ohio again, still searching for adventure and fortune. Burnet travelled to Saltillo Mexico, to petition the Mexican government for an empresario grant. He persuaded the Mexican goverment to approve a grant for him to settle 300 families around Nacogdoches in December 1826. Burnet would get 23,000 acres of land in Coahuila and Texas for every 100 families he brought to Texas.
Burnet returned to Ohio in 1828, seeking colonists for his grant. With few takers, he eventually sold his grant to the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company for an undisclosed sum of money and certificates for four leagues of land.
Burnet used the money to buy a steam sawmill, and moved it and his new wife Hannah to Texas. They arrived in Galveston on 4 Apr 1833. Burnet bought over 300 acres on the San Jacinto River, where he built a simple four-room home called Oakland near his mill.
Soon Burnet's speaking abilities and legal training led his neighbors to send him as their delegate to the convention at San Felipe in 1833. He helped draft the plea to sever Texas from Coahuila, which was granted by the Mexican Government. Burnet returned home, but with a political presence.
Although he hated the dictatorship that Mexico had become, and chafed at life under it, nevertheless Burnet was against independence for Texas. By 1835 this was a position directly at odds with his neighbors, who declined to send him to be a delegate to the Convention of 1836 that would declare Texas' independence from Mexico.
Nevertheless, Burnet attended the Convention in an unofficial capacity: as a lawyer representing a condemned client, seeking clemency from the newly-formed Republic of Texas. On 10 Mar 1835 he won clemency for his client.
Part of politics is being in the right place at the right time, and this was certianly true of David Burnet. At the same time Burnet was working for clemency for his client, the delegates were hopelessly deadlocked over who would be named ad interim President of the Republic. Eventually, they turned to Burnet as a consensus compromise choice. He was elected the first interim President of the Republic of Texas by only seven votes.
Burnet served as interim President of the Republic of Texas for 8 months, during which time Texas went from a hotbed of insurrectionist revolution to a republic.
Barely a month into Burnet's Presidency, the Texian Army under General Sam Houston defeated a vastly superior Mexican Army under Mexican dictator Santa Anna at San Jacinto, ironically only a few miles from Burnet's homestead. Santa Anna was captured the day after the battle wearing a Mexican Army private's uniform, hiding in weeds near a bayou. He was brought to Gen. Sam Houston, who was still on the San Jacinto battlefield, and identified by his former Army subordinates. Santa Anna formally surrendered to Gen. Houston under a live oak tree. Shortly thereafter, Santa Anna was taken to see Pres. Burnet, where they began treaty negotiations.
After the Treaty of Velasco was negotiated to end the war, most Texans expected that Santa Anna would be publicly executed for war crimes he committed during the fighting -- the brutal murders of all the Texian defenders at the Alamo and the massacre of Col. Fannin's troops he ordered at Goliad, especially.
Pres. Burnet had a different plan. Instead of executing his defeated enemy, he negotiated a secret treaty with Santa Anna that spared the general's life in exchange for official recognition of Texas Independence by Mexico. That decision outraged Sam Houston, the army, the vice president, many cabinet members, and the public. It was David Burnet's Gerald Ford moment.
Burnet left office bitter, friendless, and unable to return home. Nevertheless, in 1838 he ran for vice president of Texas, and, based on the strong popularity of Presidential candidate Mirabeau B. Lamar, road Lamar's coattails straight into office.
in 1841 Burnet decided to run for President. He was opposed for office by Sam Houston, hero of san Jacinto. In one of the nastiest political campaigns in history, Burnet was decisively defeated.
Burnet was against annexation to the United States in 1845, again showing how out-of-step he always seemed to be with public opinion.
Burnet died alone and in poverty in Galveston on 5 Dec 1870. His wife and son had predeceased him by many years.
Burnet was buried by a few friends in the Episcopal Cemetery in Galveston, his adopted hometown. Burnet's remains did not rest in peace, however, as they were moved twice before finally finding a permanent home in Galveston's historic Lakeview Cemetery. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas erected a monument at his gravesite in 1894.
The town of Burnet (in Burnet County Texas) is named in his honor, as are numerous schools in Texas, and now this park.
FIRST - Classification Variable: Person or Group
Date of FIRST: 03/16/1836
More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]
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