Republic of Texas 1828 – Passport regulation

The 1828 passport regulation from the Republic of Texas holds significant historical importance for several reasons. It provides insight into the early administrative practices of Texas, the regulation of immigration and movement, and the broader context of geopolitical dynamics in the region at the time. This summary will delve into the key aspects of the regulation and its implications.

Historical Context

In 1828, Texas was not yet an independent republic; it was part of Mexico following the Mexican War of Independence from Spain in 1821. During this period, Texas was experiencing increasing immigration, particularly from the United States. The Mexican government sought to control and regulate this influx of settlers to maintain order and sovereignty over the region. This context sets the stage for understanding why such a passport regulation was deemed necessary.

The Regulation’s Key Provisions

The passport regulation of 1828 laid out specific requirements for individuals wishing to enter or leave Texas. These included:

1. Issuance of Passports: The regulation mandated that passports be issued to travelers, which served as official documentation of their identity and purpose of travel. This helped authorities monitor and control the movement of people across the region’s borders.
2. Authority and Administration: The regulation designated specific authorities responsible for issuing passports, ensuring a standardized process. This included local government officials and military commanders, highlighting the regulation’s importance in both civil and military contexts.
3. Documentation and Records: Travelers were required to provide detailed information, including their name, place of origin, destination, and purpose of travel. This information was recorded, creating a valuable archive for tracking population movements and demographics.

Implications for Immigration and Settlement

The regulation played a crucial role in managing the growing number of settlers moving into Texas. By requiring passports, the Mexican government aimed to:

1. Control Unauthorized Immigration: The regulation served as a tool to prevent unauthorized or undocumented immigration, ensuring that settlers complied with legal and administrative requirements. This was particularly important given the tensions between Mexican authorities and Anglo-American settlers.
2. Maintain Public Order: With detailed records of travelers, authorities could more effectively monitor and respond to any potential threats to public order. This was crucial in a region experiencing rapid demographic changes and the accompanying social and political challenges.
3. Enhance Security: By controlling who could enter or leave Texas, the regulation helped enhance security in a frontier region prone to conflicts, including those with Native American tribes and tensions with neighboring territories.

Broader Geopolitical Dynamics

The 1828 passport regulation also reflects the broader geopolitical dynamics of the time. Texas was a frontier region with strategic importance, lying between the United States and Mexico. The regulation can be seen as part of Mexico’s efforts to assert control over its northern territories and counter the influence of the United States, which was expanding westward.

Legacy and Historical Significance

The passport regulation of 1828 is a valuable historical document that sheds light on the governance and administrative practices of the time. It highlights the challenges faced by authorities in managing immigration and maintaining order in a rapidly changing and often turbulent region. Moreover, it underscores the significance of documentation and regulation in shaping the development of Texas, which would later become an independent republic and eventually a state within the United States.

In conclusion, the 1828 passport regulation from the Republic of Texas is important for understanding the historical context of immigration control, administrative practices, and geopolitical dynamics in the region. It provides a window into the early efforts to manage population movements and maintain order in a frontier territory, offering valuable insights into the history of Texas and its evolution.

The Details

The applicant was required to carry passport papers at all times, and notify authorities of the location of their residence.

This circular produced by noted printer Samuel Bangs, provides prospective visitors/settlers with important information about their movements in and around the state. It reads in part:“… Aliens…must present [passport] to the civil authority of the place wherever they intend remaining more than 8 days; and when they change their residence to any other place, in neglect of the performance of this duty, they are subject to the penalty of 20 dollars, or imprisonment for ten days.”

To become a citizen, foreign settlers were required to appear before municipal authorities and swear to “abide by and obey the general Constitution, and that of the State; to observe the religion as stipulated by the former; and in a book (the register of foreigners) which shall be kept for that purpose, his name and those of the members of his family, if he has any, shall be set down; noting the country from whence he comes, whether married or single, his employment; and he’s having taken the requisite oath, shall be considered thenceforward, and not before that time, a fellow-citizen.” An important Bangs document – very rare and desirable. Brown half-calf case with gilt lettering. Silked at two edges, else fine. From the collection of Darrel Brown. Reference: Streeter 733, only 2 copies. Eberstadt 162:51, this being the Eberstadt copy.

BANGS, SAMUEL (ca. 1798–1854). Samuel Bangs, pioneer printer and publisher, son of Samuel and Hannah (Grice) Bangs, was born about 1798, probably in Boston, Massachusetts. During the five years preceding September 1816, when he sailed from Baltimore as a printer for Francisco Xavier Mina‘s expedition, he served as a printer’s apprentice in the shop of Thomas G. Bangs, a printer and distant relative. En route to Mexico the expedition stopped on Galveston Island, where, on February 22, 1817, Bangs and John J. McLaren issued a Manifesto for Mina, using a portable press brought from England.

The proclamation was similar to one Mina had earlier issued in Pennsylvania. On the back of this first documented Texas imprint were the names of the young printers, Juan J. McLaren and S. Bangs. No original copy survives, but a reprint is in Carlos María Bustamante’s Cuadro histórico de la revolución de la America Mexicana (1843–46). On April 12, 1817, Bangs was at the mouth of the Rio Grande, where the two probably printed another proclamation, which Mina addressed to his compañero de armas. If it was printed in the area that later became Texas territorial waters, it is the second documented Texas imprint. No original copy has survived. It, too, was reprinted in Cuadro histórico. Two copies of a contemporary printing by Mina’s press at Soto la Marina have survived.

Louis M. Aury left Mina, his men, and the printing press at Soto la Marina in mid-April. Having established his press on the mainland of Mexico, Bangs published a patriotic song composed by Joaquín Infante, the auditor of the expedition, in honor of the successful debarkation. On April 25, 1817, the Río Bravo proclamation was printed again under the title Boletín I de la División Austiliar de la República Mexicana. Two copies of the Boletín have survived, one in the National Museum of Mexico and the other in the Thomas W. Streeter Collection, Yale University.

At Soto la Marina, Mina’s force disintegrated and scattered. McLaren vanished forever. Shortly after landing, Bangs printed a broadside entitled Canción Patriótica–que al desembarcar general Mina y sus tropas en la Barra de Santander compuso Joaquín Infanta auditor de la división. A copy is in the Streeter Collection. The Royalists captured Bangs and his press and spared his life only because he knew how to operate the press. He printed for the Royalists at Monterrey until the successes of the Mexican War of Independence freed him and he began printing for the new government.

Bangs soon returned to his home in New England, married Suzanne Payne, and, not finding satisfactory employment in the United States, returned to Mexico and established himself in Tamaulipas as a government printer in Ciudad Victoria. There in the summer of 1827 he collected and printed the Colección de Leyes y Decretos de la Primera Legislatura Constitucional del Estada Libre de Tamaulipas. Bangs and Suzanne had two sons. She died at Victoria in the yellow fever epidemic of 1837. In 1838, after the success of the Texas Revolution, Bangs visited the United States, taking his two sons to be placed in school.

He inspected printing presses in Baltimore and New York and worked on others in Cincinnati and Mobile. He then established himself at Galveston, where he acquired a printing press and published a succession of newspapers–the Galveston News and others. The Galveston Commercial Intelligencer was attributed to him but was really published by Moseley Baker. The successor to the San Luis Advocate appeared from Bangs’s press on October 11, 1842, as the Galveston Texas Times, with Ferdinand Pinchard continuing as editor. Bangs rented his press to others to print the Galveston Independent Chronicle, the Daily Globe and Galveston Commercial Chronicle (see GALVESTON DAILY GLOBE), and the Texas State Paper. By 1839 Bangs had married Caroline H. French, sister of Robert H. and George H. French, who at times were his associates in the printing business.

With the coming of the Mexican War, Bangs followed Gen. Zachary Taylor‘s troops to Corpus Christi in the summer of 1845 and with George W. Fletcher, a local physician, began printing the Corpus Christi Gazette on January 1, 1846. He also did job printing for both the army and civilians. When Taylor moved to the Rio Grande, Fletcher and Bangs dissolved their partnership, and Bangs planned to publish a new paper, the Rio Grande Herald, at Matamoros in partnership with Gideon K. Lewis, but instead, on June 24, 1846, began publication of the Reveille in both English and Spanish, the Spanish section being entitled La Diana de Matamoros. Lewis and Bangs soon stopped publishing La Diana and rented their press to a Mexican who printed El Liberal, a Spanish-language newspaper that strongly defended the Mexican side of the war, thus causing General Taylor to order the Reveille‘s office closed and the printers jailed.

Lewis departed quickly and left Bangs to explain that he had had no part in the editorial policy of El Liberal, but had merely rented his press to its publisher. He convinced the authorities of his innocence and obtained permission to resume publication of the Reveille, but never did so. Instead, he joined his competitors in the publication of the American Flag, sold his printing materials and press to them, and worked as a printer at their office until February 17, 1847, when lacking paper the Flag was temporarily suspended.

Bangs moved to Point Isabel to operate a hotel and to establish a newspaper. He soon returned to Galveston, liquidated his business, and shipped his household effects and printing office to Point Isabel, but all was lost in a wreck at sea. For a while, he and his wife operated a hotel at Point Isabel, and in the summer of 1848 he made his last attempt to establish a paper there, to be entitled the Texas Ranger. It never appeared, owing to Indian depredations, the gold rush to California, and controversy over plans to form a new government to be called the Sierra Madre in northern Mexico–a revival of the old Republic of the Rio Grande.

In 1849, Indians captured the stage between Point Isabel and Brownsville and took Bangs, a passenger, prisoner. Bangs and a companion escaped in a state of nudity. Shortly thereafter, Bangs abandoned his venture in Texas and Mexico and moved to Kentucky, where he worked for the Georgetown Herald. He died of typhoid fever on May 31, 1854, in Georgetown, Kentucky.

 

 

Tom Topol | Passport History Expert & Author.
Featured in media incl. CNN, BBC, Newsweek. Awarded by the U.S. Department of State.
"Want to go deeper? My book Let Pass or Die covers the full 400-year history"

👉 Ask Me Anything |  🏛️ View the Recognition List | 📚 Rare offers from my personal collection