Budget Problems

When Lamar was in office, multiple events took place resulting in a poor economy.

Homestead Law

red backs

Indian Policy

To try to solve the problems that were caused by the Homestead law, the government printed new money called red backs. The red backs value dropped at an astounding rate and were worthless within 3 years.

Budget Problems

Introduction

Lamar's Indian Policy

Oposite of Houston, Lamar thought the Indians

should be pushed out of Texas. This resulted

in a rise in military spending and deepened the debt that already was fairly large in Texas.

When Texas first became an independent nation, being free of Mexican rule, There were many difficulties, one bieng the economy. Texas ran into a lot of debt and could not keep up, resulting in the debt to grow and grow. Along with debt there was issues in keeping money to save.

By Haley Macha

Balanced Budget.

After Lamar's term, the economy of Texas was very poor. Houston was reelected and decided to take care of the lack of money. He printed paper money to replace redbacks, cut half of the Texas Army and Texas Rangers, and cut government jobs and salaries. These cutbacks resulted in a drastic decrease in the spending of Texas from $4.8 million to a little more than 500,000 although the debt Texas withheld only grew and was $12 million by 1845. Houston tried to keep the value of the money the government printed at a high value, but had a difficult time in doing so.

Land Policy under Houston

Although Texas was deep into debt, They were quite rich with land with over 200 million acres. In order to gain settlers, they used land as a bribe. Each person, based on their placement in certain categories, recieved land.

Heads of the families living in Texas (Excluding Indians)

recieved 4,606 acres.

Single men of the age 17 recieved 1,476

Additional land was engendered to veterans of the Texas Revolution.

Houston

Multiple things happened resulting in economic complications during Houstons 2 terms in office, and some that helped the economy.

First Term:

US panic of 1837

Land Policy

Second Term:

Balanced Budget

Causes:

There were multiple causes

for economic complications

resulting from both Houston

and Lamar's time in office.

Lamar's Homestead Law

The US panic of 1837

Red Backs

Lamar passed a law known as the "Homestead Law" In January of 1839. This law stated that a family's home and 50 acres of land could not be siezed because of debt. This worsened the already terrible economic problems Texas had. The debt of the public increased and the value of money fell.

The Us panic of 1837 was a down moment for the economy of Texas that later led to an economic depression. Sam Houston was in office as the first president of the republic of Texas. Due to the panic, businesses slowed down and the value of money dropped. On top of that, Texas already had a $1.25 million dollar debt. Goods were scarce, so they haad to import needed materials resulting in money draining from the republic.

Mirabeau B. Lamar