Stephen f austin biography summary template

Early years Memorial to Stephen F. Austin in his birthplace Stephen F. Austin was born on November 3,in the mining region of southwestern Virginia. Inhis family moved west to the lead-mining region of present-day Potosi, Missouri. His great-great-grandfather, Anthony Austin b. The immigrant ancestors, Richard Austin and his wife Esther, were original settlers of Suffield, Massachusettswhich became Connecticut in When Austin was eleven years old, his family sent him back East to be educated, first at the preparatory school of Bacon Academy in Colchester, Connecticut.

He studied at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentuckyfrom which he graduated in There, he was "influential in obtaining a charter for the struggling Bank of St. After purchasing the property, he learned the area was being considered as the location for the new territorial capital, which could make his land worth a great deal more. Austin declared his candidacy for Congress two weeks before the first Arkansas territorial elections in His late entrance meant his name did not appear on the ballot in two of the five counties, but he still placed second in the field of six candidates.

Later, he was appointed as a First Circuit Court judge. But Austin's claim to land in the area was contested, and the courts ruled against him.

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The Territorial Assembly reorganized the government and abolished Austin's judgeship. He reached New Orleans in November He met and stayed with Joseph H. Hawkinsa New Orleans lawyer and former Kentucky congressman, and made arrangements to study law with him. Move to Texas Sam Houston and Stephen Austin depicted on the Texas Centennial Issue postage stamp of During Austin's time in Arkansas, his father traveled to Spanish Texas and received an empresarial grant that would allow him to bring American families to Texas.

Although Austin was reluctant to carry on his father's Texas venture, he was persuaded to do so by a letter from his mother, written two days before Moses's death. He was at Natchitoches, Louisianain when he learned of his father's death. His faults I now say, and always have, were not of the heart. While in transit, they learned Mexico had declared its independence from Spain, and Texas had become a Mexican province rather than a Spanish territory.

Austin, and the two developed a lasting association. Navarro, proficient in Spanish and Mexican law, assisted Austin in obtaining his empresario contracts. Austin advertised the Texas opportunity in New Orleans, announcing that land was available along the Brazos and Colorado rivers. Farmers could get acres 72 ha and ranchers 4, acres 1, ha.

In Decemberthe first U. Empresario Portrait of Austin, Austin's plan for an American colony was thrown into turmoil by Mexico's gaining independence from Spain in His government intended to use a general immigration law to regulate new settlement in Mexico. Austin traveled to Mexico Citywhere he persuaded the junta instituyente to approve the grant to his father and the law signed by the Mexican Emperor on January 3, The old imperial law offered heads of families a league and a labor of land, 4, acres 1, haand other inducements.

It also provided for the employment of agents, called empresariosto promote immigration. Austin Teachers College after Stephen F. Austin, the father of Texas. Init received university status and changed its name to Stephen F. Austin State University. Austin was thus absent from Texas for twenty-eight months. Upon his return, he learned that an unofficial call had been issued for a convention, or consultation, to meet in October.

Probably he could have quashed this call, but in a notable speech at Brazoria on September 8 he gave it his sanction, and election of delegates proceeded. The Consultation organized on November 3. In the stephen f austin biography summary template, during September and early October, Austin had been in effect civil head of Anglo-American Texas, as chairman of a central committee at San Felipe.

War began at Gonzales on October 1. Austin was elected to command the volunteers gathered there and led them against the Mexican army at San Antonio. In November the provisional government elected him to serve, with William H. Wharton and Branch T. Archer, as commissioner to the United States. The business of the commissioners was to solicit loans and volunteers, arrange credits for munitions and equipment, fit out warships, and do whatever they could to commit the government of the United States to recognition and eventual annexation if Texas should declare independence.

They were fairly successful in accomplishing this program, except in the effort to obtain assurances from President Andrew Jackson and Congress. Austin was convinced, however, that Congress would have voted for recognition in May, after the battle of San Jacinto, if the acting president, David G. Burnet, had cooperated with the commissioners by sending them official reports of conditions in Texas.

Somewhat hesitantly, Austin consented to offer himself for the presidency after his return to Texas. He was defeated in the election of Septemberbut accepted the office of secretary of state from the successful candidate. He died in service on December 27,at the untimely age of forty-three. Original gravesite of Stepen F. He began the Anglo-American colonization of Texas under conditions more difficult in some respects than those that confronted founders of the English colonies on the Atlantic coast.

He saw the wilderness transformed into a relatively advanced and populous state, and fundamentally it was his unremitting labor, perseverance, foresight, and tactful management that brought that miracle to pass. Contemporaries who disagreed with his cautious policy of conciliating Mexican officials accused him of weakness and instability, but criticism did not cause him to abandon it.

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Casually discussing this subject in a letter of April 9,to his secretary, he wrote, "Some men in the world hold the doctrine that it is degrading and corrupt to use policy in anything There is no degradation in prudence and a well tempered and well timed moderation. Passage of that law and continued political turmoil in Mexico certainly shook his confidence, but prudence forbade abandonment of the policy of outward patience and conciliation before Texas seemed strong enough to demand reforms and back the demand by force.

Premature action might be fatal, or so he thought. He would have prevented the conventions of and if he could have had his way, but, since he could not, he went along and tried to moderate their demands. The same considerations caused him to oppose the Texas Declaration of Independence by the provisional government inwhile there was hope of winning the support of the liberal party in Mexico.

In short, his methods varied with circumstances, but from the abiding aim to promote and safeguard the welfare of Texas he never wavered. As he wrote in July"The prosperity of Texas has been the object of my labors, the idol of my existence-it has assumed the character of a religion, for the guidance of my thoughts and actions, for fifteen years.

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Barker, ed. Eugene C. Barker, The Life of Stephen F. Austin Nashville: Cokesbury Press, ; rpt. In he journeyed to Mexico City to represent the Texan desire for separate statehood. He was arrested on charges of sedition and imprisoned, but never tried. At the outbreak of the fighting, he became commander in chief of the Texan military forces, but in November he was sent to the United States to seek assistance and, later, recognition of independence.

At the end of the Texas revolution, he reluctantly ran for president of the new republic against the hero of the war, Samuel Houston. Defeated, Austin accepted the position of secretary of state in the Houston administration. He died on Dec. His quiet, effective leadership during the years is recognized in numerous ways in Texas; the capital city, a county, and a college are named in his honor.

His statue in the national capitol was placed there by grateful citizens of the Lone Star State.