Thread: Governor Oscar Branch Colquitt sent Rangers to border

Governor Oscar Branch Colquitt sent Rangers to border
Times staff report
Posted: 11/20/2010 12:00:00 AM MST


Rick Perry is not the first Texas governor to regard Mexico as a potential powder keg and Washington as an obstacle to border security.

Ninety-seven years ago, as the Mexican Revolution raged, Texas Gov. Oscar Branch Colquitt said this: "In the event Mexicans start any trouble, we will protect our citizens and not wait for Washington to act."

His quotation ran on the front page of The Washington Post on Nov. 17, 1913.

It would not be the first or last time that Colquitt, a Democrat, said he would violate a federal neutrality order regarding Mexico.

Colquitt twice sent Texas Rangers to the border, his stance and his strong words making him a national figure. He said he had an obligation to protect Texans from "those who would murder and pillage."

U.S. soldiers eventually replaced the Rangers, as President Woodrow Wilson himself ordered invasions of Mexico.

Aware that Germany was providing arms to then-Mexican President Victoriano Huerta, Wilson sent the Navy to seize the Mexican port of Vera Cruz in 1914.

Two years later, Wilson authorized about 10,500 soldiers to hunt down Mexican rebel Pancho Villa after Villa's men attacked the town of Columbus, N.M.

Wilson called off the pursuit of Villa in February 1917. His focus by then was on Europe. At Wilson's urging, Congress that April authorized the United States to enter World War I.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_16663439

Ahhhh.... The good old days.