Promised Land: Solms, Castro, and Sam Houston’s Colonization Contracts (review)

In Promised Land, Jefferson Morgenthaler focuses on the years 1842 through 1845 and shows how several European governments became keenly interested in the new land grant laws of Texas. These governments hoped that the fledgling republic would develop into a counterweight to the United States, whose growing economic hegemony in the Western Hemisphere threatened their interests. The land grants offered the possibility for leveraging influence in North America. Faced with insolvency, threatened by reinvasion from Mexico, and harassed by thousands of warlike Indians, Sam Houston hoped the European recipients of land grants could help to quickly populate vacant lands.

The book focuses on the activities of Carl, Prince of Solms-Braunfels, and Henri Castro and examines their connections to the governments of England, Germany, and France. Prince Solms-Braunfels was related to Queen Victoria. The prince was fluent in English and had access to the Royal Family and the British government. He considered that, in respect to Texas, the interests of Germany coincided fully with those of England.

The French had their eye on the supposed wealth of the silver mines that were thought to be in (present-day) New Mexico. Certain individuals in the French government schemed to wrest control of Texas for the primary purpose of extracting wealth from these mythical mines. Henri Castro, a cultivated and humane man, had to maneuver through these intrigues: he needed the support of the French government, but he did not want their fantastic schemes to co-opt his own agenda and program, which included personal profit.

The so-called “Pig War,” that absurd and hilarious incident, which was allowed to escalate into an international row between Texas and France, intersects with the Castro story in a fascinating way. Morgenthaler also points out how Prince Solms, Castro, and others competed with each other for the best lands. This is an interesting and important revelation, which, to my knowledge, Morgenthaler is the first to uncover.

Much has been written about the eccentric and quixotic Prince Solms- Braunfels. Morgenthaler makes a valuable contribution with use of his translated writings and blends these with the diplomatic correspondence, especially of the British Foreign Office. Nonetheless, the German part of the story is the weakest. Morgenthaler makes much of the obscure German writer J. Valentin Hecke and his tenuous connection with the Prussian government, while ignoring the fact that this same government, on the advice of the world-renowned explorer and naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt, turned down official requests for subsidies from the Adelsverein. The chief deficiency, however, is that he allows his narrative to create the misleading illusion in the mind of the reader that the larger agenda of the Adelsverein can be fully equated with the prince and his eccentricities.

Despite these distractions, this is an important and valuable study. Morgenthaler has reevaluated existing studies in light of the extensive diplomatic correspondence of the period, both English and French; the result, a fascinating story and a new appreciation for the Republic of Texas’s place in the intricate web of international politics. We also gain a new appreciation for the lure of the “Promised Land,” which motivated many thousands of Europeans to make the decision to sever ties with the Old World for the promise of the New. Their story in the aggregate is bound up with much disillusion, tragedy, and heartbreak, but, ultimately, many thousands successfully made the transition to new home and community, fulfilling the promise and enriching the state immensely.