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• 7 • FAMILY,COMMUNITY,AND SECESSION,1858–61 T he Texas to which Walter Lane returned in 1858 was far different than the one that he traveled to in 1836. After independence, and later, statehood, immigrants rushed in from the United States and Europe and inflated its population from an estimated fifty thousand in 1836 to over six hundred thousand by 1860. The European-American settlement expanded from the squatter communities of East Texas, Austin’s colonies of the lower Brazos and Colorado rivers, and from the Tejano communities of San Antonio and Goliad. They moved into the Cross Timbers, beyond the Brazos, and into the fringes of the Comanchería. By 1860, more than one hundred counties provided local government to Texans.1 The past twenty years also transformed Lane. No longer the wild-eyed adventurer, the major was now a battle-tested veteran of the Texas Revolution and the U.S.-Mexican War. He had traversed the breadth of the continent, sought gold in the Sierra Nevada and the Sonoran desert, and crossed the jungle isthmus of Panama. If Lane exhibited a degree of maturation when he turned down Henry Crabb’s commission in Arizona, he further demonstrated his growth as an adult after his arrival in Marshall, as evidenced by the respect of his peers. Although his attitude toward women endured, Lane would accept a compromise with domesticity. His family and new-found community ties would compel him to identify with the plight of the South and draw him into the political debate over slavery. Lane’s reputation as a soldier translated easily into respect in civilian life. Many politicians used military careers to attain greater visibility. Although Major Lane exhibited other motivations for joining expeditions, he had accumulated a considerable amount of prestige. His military service often impressed civilian men, such as Jasper Hixson, with whom Lane traveled to Family, Community, and Secession 97 California. He declared that “there never was a man trod shoeleather braver and cooler in danger than Walter P. Lane.” Other men acknowledged the qualities of a warrior and of an expeditionary commander, as qualities suited for the political arena. While awaiting developments in El Paso in 1856, Virgil Ward learned that the United States planned to establish a new territory in the Gadsden Purchase. He commented to his father, “I know of no man better fitted for the position of Governor of this Territory than Walter P. Lane.”2 When he arrived in Marshall, Lane first experienced the benefits that he could reap from his martial reputation. As the events of 1860 and 1861 unfolded, however, the citizens of Harrison County needed his expertise as a soldier more than any political position he might fill. Lane’s attitude toward women and marriage also endured the twenty years since he first came to Texas. Lane was not a misogynist. He did leave a few clues that indicated that he acknowledged and admired women. Testifying to this appreciation, Lane described Antonia García, whose husband he executed, as “a beautiful woman,” and later conceded that Jennie Blount of San Augustine was “a beautiful young lady.” While in Mexico, in command of a group of young rowdies, he sympathized with their plight. “I had been once young myself, and still had a taste for the fine arts.” In his memoirs, Lane recorded occasions when he received the kindness of women and provided ample space for the exploits of his more amorous friends.3 Although Major Lane may or may not have fallen in love when he was younger, in his later days and probably by the time he arrived in Marshall in 1858, he possessed very strong feelings against the institution of marriage. Lane left few records of his life before the 1860s, and obtaining an accurate measure of his attitude toward marriage at that time remains problematic. In his autobiography, Lane recalled his encounter with Antonia García when he came to arrest her husband. When she claimed that he was not home, Lane commented, “[A]s I had been atrociously lied to by white women, I did not give much credence to the assertions of the Mexican sister.”4 The statement might have been a more accurate reflection of his sentiment in 1887. If it reflected his disposition in 1847, however, it might have suggested that Lane had a relationship or a fondness for a woman who did not return the affection . He might have courted a girl during his residence at San...

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