Memorial would honor Republic of Texas diplomacy in Washington

WASHINGTON — While the brief, colorful history of the Republic of Texas is well known, giving bragging rights to the state that was a country, less known is its diplomatic corps, which established missions in foreign capitals, including Washington.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, is trying to change that. He is leading a congressional effort to recognize Texas’ outsider standing in Washington from its declaration of independence from Mexico on March 2, 1836, to being granted statehood Dec. 29, 1845, with a Texas Legation Memorial.

Texas sent legations — diplomatic missions a step down from ambassadors — to London, Paris and Washington. It was a delicate dance for the Texas diplomats, because the new republic had cotton, which all three powers coveted, but it also permitted slavery, which was controversial in all three countries.

Some very distinguished Texans were emissaries of the new republic, including the “Father of Texas,” Stephen F. Austin, and politician Isaac Van Zandt.

Austin was among the first contingent of commissioners to Washington who sought U.S. recognition of the new republic, which came in 1837, as well as funds to assure its independence. Van Zandt was Texas’ chargé d’affaires to the U.S. from 1842 to 1845 and worked for the republic’s annexation.

It was a heady time for a struggling nation.

“They really needed U.S. support,” said Kenneth Stevens, an emeritus professor of history at Texas Christian University who is writing a book on the Texas republic’s diplomatic history. “The legation was important because they wanted to get support and raise money” to protect the new nation from invasion by Mexico and others.

Historical markers have been erected in London at Pickering Place and in Paris at Place Vendôme to commemorate the Texas legations in those cities. No such monument exists in Washington, but the records of the Texas legation came home to the Texas State Archives in 2006 and are on loan to Texas Christian University.

“I live in East Austin, and only a few blocks from my house is the historic French Legation that reminds us of a time when the nation of France maintained formal diplomatic relations with the nation of the Republic of Texas,” Doggett told lawmakers this month at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands.

Doggett’s bill, the Republic of Texas Legation Memorial Act, has bipartisan support and would authorize the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to create and raise funds for a memorial. The hearing was a first step in a process that must include a review by a federal commission whose approval is needed for memorials in Washington.

“It would ensure a commemoration here in our nation’s capital,” Doggett said.

Unlike Paris and London, where plaques mark the site of the legation, in Washington there was not a single building or home that served as the Texas outpost. Instead, researchers have identified a series of boardinghouses that were used by the Texas diplomats, most of whom traveled to Washington and served for about a year at a time.

A volunteer researcher with Texas ancestry, Kitty Hoeck, has done the spadework on locating the sites of the boardinghouses. Hoeck, a retired preschool teacher from Virginia, is the historian of the Elisabet Ney Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, representing the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland.

“I have identified eight boardinghouses so far,” Hoeck told the Statesman. The memorial itself and its location will be determined during the process of getting federal approval, but Hoeck hopes it will be a plaque and there be access to an app that explains the Texas republic’s role in the U.S.

“I would like one (a plaque) so when tourists and visitors from Texas as well as other parts of the country and abroad come to Washington they can get more of the history of Texas,” she said.

Caroline Raney, president general of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, said: “We need to remember our historic places. The longer we go, the more they will disappear. This will draw attention to the time when Texas was a republic.”

Staff writer Michael Barnes contributed to this report.