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Rebellion 1850-1851     
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The Eagle Pass, or Life on the Border
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Detail from the frontispiece of "The Eagle Pass or, Life on the Border," by Cora Montgomery (aka Jane Cazneau). Dorothy Sloan Books, from the Library of Ben E. Pingenot Auction Catalogue.
 
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Border Etiquette slide tickerslide ticker

While ethnic relations on the border were tense, there were occasions for congeniality. Coacoochee paid friendly visits to the family of Cora Montgomery on the Texas side of the border, with John Horse in tow as his interpreter. Montgomery* documented two memorable encounters in Eagle Pass, or, Life on the Border, published in 1852. Coacoochee clearly impressed her. She described him as an Indian “of loftier mould,” lavishing praise on his ordered appearance, pragmatic values, and ability to understand white power. Noting that he “kept his hunting camp as near our settlement as he could,” she felt that “his predilections were evidently with the Americans,” whom he desired to serve. Montgomery was confident that the U.S. should employ the chief: “Wild Cat, with a regiment of dragoons and a company or two of mounted Texan riflemen, would sweep this region clean in a year, and leave it as dainty and secure as the Capitol grounds.”

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Sources: Montgomery 73-77, 143-147. ©
*Cora Montgomery was the pen name of Jane McManus Storms Cazneau. As a staff writer for the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, Cazneau wrote editorials with the publication’s influential pro-expansion editor, Louis L. Sullivan, known as the man who coined the phrase, “Manifest Destiny,” in his editorials. In her book Mistress of Manifest Destiny, Linda Hudson makes a case on speculative grounds that Montgomery coined the phrase.
Part 4, Freedom: Outline  l Images
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 Trail Narrative
 + Prologue
 + Background: 1693-1812
 + Early Years: 1812-1832
 + War: 1832-1838
 + Exile: 1838-1850
 - Freedom: 1850-1882
+ Cost of Freedom
spacer spacer Arrival
Second Exodus
Comanches
Border Etiquette
Filibusters
Duval's Desserts
Indian Killers
End of an Era
+ Liberty Foretold
+ Liberty Found
 + Legacy & Conclusion