THE TEXAS RANGERS IN A TURBULENT ERA by WESLEY HALL LOONEY, B.A. A THESIS IN HISTORY Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Approved Accepted May, 1971 No.2-' ACKNOWLEDGMENTS X wish to express my appreciation to Dr. James V. Reese, the Chairman of my committee, for his valuable criticism, patience, and encouragement, I am very grate­ ful to Dr. David M. Vigness for serving on the committee and for his helpful suggestions. I would also like to thank the staff of the Archives in Austin, Texas for their valuable aid in locating obscure government documents. X:L TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii I. ANALYZING THE BACKGROUND 1 II. ACTIVITIES OF THE TEXAS RANGERS, 1917-1919 21 III. INVESTIGATION OF THE RANGERS 4 3 IV. CONCLUSION 75 BIBLIOGRAPHY 79 111 CHAPTER I ANALYZING THE BACKGROUND Relations between Texas and Mexico have always depended in large degree upon whether order or chaos reigned below the Rio Grande. The 1910-1920 decade was one of violent action and reaction along the Mexican border and within Mexico proper. President Porfirio Diaz had ruled the Republic of Mexico since 1884. In the twenty-seven years of his iron-handed regime, Mexico had enjoyed peace and stability. The stable Diaz government had fostered a calm along the Texas-Mexico border. In Mexico natural re­ sources had been developed, internal improvements had been made, national solvency and firm foreign credits had been achieved, and prosperity hitherto unknown had appeared. Yet, there had been a monstrous governmental fault within this outward betterment. The Diaz prosperity was slanted. It reached only the rich and the powerful. The working population grew poorer while a small class of property holders grew richer. A chasm between the few rich and the many poor grew too wide for any despotism to bridge. Henry B. Parkes, A History of Mexico (Boston Houghton Mifflin Company, 1950), pp. 311-20. ) In 1910 stable conditions in Mexico came to an end in the form of revolution. The initial revolt was spear­ headed by Francisco Madero, who pressed for the restoration of constitutional liberties ruthlessly denied under Diaz. This revolt, known as the Plan de San Luis, was initiated on October 5, 1910. The outcome was successful, as Diaz was finally forced to resign on May 25, 1911. Two days later he slipped quietly away to exile in Paris. The revolt against suppression by the dictator Diaz ushered in a period of uneasiness and unrest in Mexico. In October Madero called for national elections and assumed the presidency almost without opposition. However, counter­ revolutions were soon launched against the new President by Pascual Orozo, a former follower; Felix Diaz, a nephew of the old dictator; and Bernardo Reyes, a former cabinet 2 member under Diaz. All three were unsuccessful at this time in their bids to overthrow Madero. This brief peace was short-lived, as fiery students at the Chapultepec Military Academy rioted and liberated the imprisoned Diaz and Reyes. With the support of this group, plus other factions, Madero was ousted. Madero and his vice- president were murdered "while attempting to escape." Victoriano Huerta was proclaimed President on February 19, 1912. However, undercurrents of dissatisfaction 2 Charles C. Cumberland, Mexican i^evolution: Genesis Under Madero (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1952), pp. 117-29. with his conservative regime were brewing, as it was soon obvious that the new leader resembled the despised Diaz. His support by the army, the clergy, the moneyed class, and the foreign interests indicated to the people a return 3 to the hated Diaz policies. As a result, Venustiano Carranza, supported by those in the northern provinces, led a counterrevolution with the Plan of Guadalupe as a guideline on March 26, 1913 In the South the insurgents, led by Emiliano Zapata/ rose in the same kind of violent revolt. Huerta, failing to gain the much needed recognition of the United States, was 4 forced out of office in mid-July, 1914. Carranza held uneasy control, as his power was soon challenged by his chief lieutenant--the notorious Pancho Villa. Carranza's main forces held control over the border areas south of a line running through Del Rio while Pancho Villa reigned above that point. There seemed to be a lack of central control and leadership in both opposing camps. Revolutionary conditions which prevailed in Mexico from 1910 to 19 20 had a tendency to overrun the border and to produce in southern Texas conditions similar to those •^Ibid. 4 Samuel Flagg Bemis, American Foreign Polic\' and Diplomacy (New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1959), pp. 320-44. in Mexico, j In the fall of 1914, there were many distur­ bances along the border. The weak Carranza government did little to contain the lawless and revolutionary elements, and raids in the Lower Valley of the Rio Grande increased. Appeals for federal troops by Texas authorities were in vain, for the unrest was regarded by federal authorities as being strictly local in nature. But, as the disturbances increased. General Frederick Funston, commanding the Southern Department, became convinced that the view held by Governor James E. Ferguson of Texas was correct—the 5 trouble was more than local. The revolution, in all its phases, was essentially a national movement, a surging of the masses seeking equality and recognition. As such, it affected Mexicans in Texas as well as those in Mexico, and encouraged them to assert their rights and to demand respect. In the Lower Rio Grande Valley, the Mexican-Americans, long targets of pre­ judice and contempt by Americans, formed fertile soil for the revolutionary promises and ideas. The Mexicans along the border, encouraged by the promises and ideas of the revolutions, became restless. A strong anti-American feeling of long standing, nourished by the nationalistic 5 Charles C. Cumberland, "Border Raids in the Lower Rio Grande Valley," The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, LVII, No. 3 (January, 1954),' pp. 293-95. 5 tendencies of the revolution, added to the discontent. To compound the already explosive situation, in August of 1914 the world faced the advent of World War I. Of course, as Germany noticed immediately, American sympa­ thies were aligned with the Allies. Therefore, Mexican antipathy for the United States and irredentist hopes for the Lower Rio Grande Valley were measured. Germany saw in Mexico a possible base for espionage, and even diver­ sionary activity, against the United States. Further, the use of ports along the Mexican coast would strengthen the German war machinery. Foreseeing eventualities, the Germans lost no time in setting up a spy ring in Mexico. In addition to usual espionage activities, its agents were also instrumental in 7 fanning hatred between the Mexicans and the Americans. In 1915 the discovery of a sinister plot by Mexican revolutionaries to seize the vast Southwestern region of the United States startled residents in the Lower Valley of the Richard Marcum, "Fort Brown, Texas: The History of a Border Post," Cunpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Texas Technological College, 1964), p. 282. 7 U.S., Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Re­ lations, Investigation of Mexican Affairs, S. Doc. 285, 66th Cong., 2d Sess., Serial Nos. 7665-7666, pp. 1223-25. This government document contains the hearings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Mexican affairs; most of the more than 250 witnesses who appeared and most of the members of the committee were biased against Mexico and desired to bring about intervention by the United States. Hereafter referred to as Investigation of Mexican Affairs. Tom Lea, The King Ranch, II (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1957) , pp. 581-83. Rio Grande. As much of the episode centered on the border town of San Diego, Texas, the conspiracy quickly was labeled the "Plan of San Diego." It had a pipedream weird- p ness that bulged old border men's eyes: We, who in turn sign our names, assembled in the revolutionary plot of San Diego, Texas, solemnly promise each other, on our word of honor, that we will fulfill, and cause to be fulfilled and complied with, all the clauses and provisions stipulated in this document, and execute the orders and the wishes emanating from the provisional directorate of this movement and recognize as military chief of the same Mr. Agustin S. Garza, guaranteeing with our lives the faithful accomplishment of what is here agreed upon. 1. On the 20th day of February, 1915, at 2 o'clock in the morning, we will rise in arms against the Government and the country of the United States of North America, one as all and all as one, proclaiming the liberty of the in­ dividuals of the black race and its independence of Yankee tyranny which has held us in iniquituous slavery since the remote times; and at the same time and in the same manner we will proclaim the independence and segregation of the States bordering on the Mexican Nation. Which are: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Upper California, of which States the Republic of Mexico was robbed in a most perfidious manner by North American imperialism. 2. In order to render the foregoing clause effective, the necessary army corps will be formed under the immediate command of military leaders named by the Supreme Revolutionary Congress of San Diego, Tex., which shall have full power to designate a supreme chief, who shall be at the head of said army. The banner which shall guide us in this enterprise shall be red, with a white diagonal fringe, and bearing the following in­ scription: "Equality and independence," and none of the subordinate leaders or subalterns shall use any other flag (except only the white flag for signals).