TEXAS.
This State forms the southwestern portion of the United States. The first settlement in Texas was made on Matagorda bay, under the French led by La Salle, in 1685. It passed into the possession of the Spanish in the year 1690.
After the independence of Mexico, in 1822, Texas remained a Mexican province until the revolution of 1836, when it gained its independence. It continued an independent republic, modeled on the United States, until 1845, when, the Texan Congress having accepted the conditions imposed by the Congress of the United States, it became the 29th State in the Union. It has an area of 237,504 square miles, equal to 152,002,560 acres. The population in 1870 was 797,500, which entitles her to six members of Congress.
This State embraces every variety of surface; mountain, plain, hill, and desert waste lie within its limits. The climate is free from the extremes of both the temperate and torrid zones, producing, in the north, many of the products of the temperate, and in the south many of those of the torrid zone. The variation in the temperature from the season of winter to that of summer is quite small, giving the State as equable a climate as any in the world. While it shares the genial climate of the “sunny South” it is free from all the deadly swamp exhalations of the lower Mississippi States. The soil, on the whole, is as fertile as any in the world. It furnishes the very best natural pasture all the year round. Cotton in large quantities—Indian corn, wheat, rye, oats and other small grains—tobacco, indigo and rice, are the staple products. The grape, mulberry and the vanilla, are indigenous and abundant. Cayenne pepper is grown in vast quantities. Fruit is no less various and abundant than its other products. The peach, nectarine, fig, plum, quince and a great variety of berries flourish here. Oranges, lemons, limes and melons, grow well. Live stock of all varieties and in vast numbers fatten on the plains, and are shipped in all directions to supply every demand.
Texas abounds in minerals. Rich silver mines are already worked successfully at San Saba. Gold in small quantities has been found west of the Colorado river. Coal is abundant. Iron is found in many parts of the State. There are also salt lakes and salt springs, copper, alum, lime, agates, chalcedony, jasper and a white and red sandstone.
Texas lies in the fifth judicial circuit, and makes two judicial districts, the eastern and the western. There are three collection districts in the State. The respective ports of entry for these districts are Galveston, La Salle, and Brazos Santiago. To these are attached nine ports of delivery.
The capital is Austin. The Legislature is composed of a Senate, elected for four years, and a House of Representatives, elected for two years. The sessions of the Legislature are biennial and are held in December. The Governor is elected for four years.