This first edition of the T. and E.H. Ensign 1/ Map of the United States From the Latest Authorities.1846 with its large inset Map of Texas is a map of ambition. First, the political ambition on December 29, 1845 of the United States Congress to extend the nation coast to coast starting with a vote that day of a majority of both chambers of Congress to annex Texas as the 28th State. Congress knew opening this path required taking substantial Mexico territory all the way to the Pacific Coast. Second, the political ambition expressed on that same day by the former Republic of Texas (1836-1845) to reorganize and as a newly organized state adopt its new state Constitution of 1845 2/on December 29, 1845 in order to satisfy terms for annexation by the United States. The boundaries of the State of Texas upon annexation on that December day lay unresolved, however, and remained unresolved even after the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War and set Cessions by Mexico of 55% of its territory, thus expanding America's borders to the Pacific Coast. Texas was part of the Mexican Cessions. It was not until the hard fought U.S. Senate's Compromise of 1850 3/ that Texas as a state and its territory with new borders was fully recognized as the 28th state. Thus maps of the United States that include a map of Texas and dated 1845 through 1850 show a variety of boundary configurations for Texas. 4/ This Ensign Map of Texas of 1846 is no exception.5/ Navigation of the Red River at Texas' northern border was very limited due to historic logjams and thus few definitive land surveys there were done.6/
Our map is the scarce first edition of the Ensigns 1846 Map of the United States From the Latest Authorities. that shows and labels the boundaries of the counties of each original and admitted state of the United States. A few county grids are drawn in the open territory labeled "Iowa" that is otherwise labeled with many Indian tribe names.7/ County borders are also drawn and labeled on the inset Map of Texas. and on the partial view of Texas on the primary map. In Iowa, there is a free form rectangular shape that mimics a U.S. Land Office survey grid block, but instead it is an asserted U.S. claim labeled "Ceded by the Sioux 1830 NEUTRAL GROUND ceded by the Sacs & Foxes 1830."
The calendar that the Ensigns kept for copyrighting their map title and publishing the first edition of Map of the United States From to the Latest Authorities in 1846 was no doubt tight. They copyrighted the map title on December 11, 1845 8/. Newspapers would have reported front page stories about the anticipated annexation of Texas in December, and by December 29, 1845 the newspapers would have headlined the act of Congress now testing America's international boundary with Mexico. To timely get their map to market, the Ensigns relied on mapping done by others. There is no attribution for map authors except the polite "Latest Authorities" who knew who they were. Publication in the first quarter of 1846 is thus possible, explaining why neither Iowa (admitted December 28, 1846) nor Texas have admission dates on their small, easy to miss graphic shields tucked into the inside each corner of the lower border. Curiously, Iowa and Texas each has 1840 population figures noted on their respective shields. 9/
The dynamic artistry of the 1846 Ensigns map is unique, however, and is remarkable in the body of Ensigns maps. The map's cartouche presents an early form of the great eagle of the United States, olive branch and arrows in his talons and perched on top of the Earth as a globe. The globe is lightly outlined with North America and an outline of the United States. Whorls of black smoke encircle the globe. Scenes of industry on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States generate the manmade smoke of industry. Wheels of large, leafy scrollwork spin in alternating directions and support twenty-seven colored shields, each one naming a state, its date of admission, land area and 1840 population. In each bottom corner of the map's graphic frame is a pair of cornucopias gushing colorful fruits and vegetables including corn, grapes and melons. At the top center of this graphic frame is a red, white and blue shield and four American flags on staffs, with scrollwork dipping into the map field. As noted above, small shields-in-waiting, almost hidden within scrollwork in each lower inside corner, bear the names "Iowa" and "Texas."
The whorls of black smoke surrounding the globe are dark energy indeed. The westward march of the United States and staccato patterns of the U.S. Land Office in the Mid-West stop cold at the uncolored area labeled "Iowa." The colored individual tribal territories within the big outlined and labeled "Indian Territory" are the only evidence of Native American presence on this giant continent. Much of this labeled territory is within the orbit of Missionary Stations, U.S. Military forts and missions. The number of Native American tribes and the density of their territory in this one small designated area implies the genocide by the U.S. Government that occurred earlier in the East and South and Mid-West that had all prior to the founding of the United States been inhabited Native American territory.
The languages used on this 1846 map express the region's history. In the area labeled "Iowa" English and Native American names frequently identify the same item of landscape. The map names the "Mankato or Blue Earth River". Tribal names include the Mini Sota, theTchan Sansan or R á Jacques, a legacy of French settlement. There is Wapekutay Country, and tribal country labeled Sioux, Dakotas, Omahas, Chippewas, Ottowas, Potawatomies, Sacs & Foxes and hundreds of others. There is a "tribe" named "Half Breeds" in Indian Territory.
This 1846 Map of the United States From the Latest Authorities is forward looking. The cartouche places the great American Eagle atop a globe inscribed with America's transcontinental opportunity. This scene is placed meaningfully just above the Map of Texas. No historic persons or founding events of the United States are pictured on this Ensigns map. All eyes are focused on geography. The country is poised for its metamorphosis. On this critically timed Ensigns map, the imagery not drawn within the maps' border is known to the contemporary 1846 viewer, the Pacific Coast geography. That is the subject of this map: the transcontinental map that cannot yet be drawn, detailing those claimants whom the United States is poised to conquer and eliminate to achieve its ultimate global claim.
Notes:
1. Timothy Ensign, (1795-1859), Edward Hooker Ensign (1818-1871) doing business as T. and E.H. Ensign (1844-1848)
2. The state Constitution of 1845
3. The Compromise of 1850 consists of a legislative package: the Fugitive Slave Act, new Texas borders and newly organized State of California, Territory of New Mexico, and Territory of Utah. This 1850 legislative Compromise functioned as a closed political loop to maintain slave-holding states' ability to maintain slavery and slave owner's claims to repossess individuals who crossed into free states.
4. Texas boundary configurations in maps typically are in three stages: Republic of Texas at its fullest (1836) with a northern "stovepipe" that reached up into what was then the Oregon Territory; Texas with a shortened "top" that stops at latitude 36°30', the boundary of the Missouri Compromise; and Texas in 1850 with a reduced area reflecting the creation of Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma and adjustment of related boundaries. For an excellent time line with maps of Texas borders prior to and at annexation (a complex topic at a 7th grade level) please see: Mapping Texas History | The Alamo
5. See Map of Texas from the most recent authorities, C.S. Williams in Mitchell's New Universal Atlas, 1847. Williams' map is in two parts, the inset map titled Texas North of Red River. The area north of the Red River is a short chimney lacking in the Ensigns 1846 Map of Texas and does not reach far west enough to include El Paso. Elements of the Map of Texas of course resemble the core form of the early Republic of Texas, but greater territory is shown and the Texas county names are contemporary to 1846. For some reason, the Ensigns 1846 Map of Texas fails to include the territory north of the Red River.
6. Navigation, and thus survey work along the Red River, a physical element of Texas' northern border was nearly impossible from 1806 until the 1840's, and still difficult after 1850 due to hundreds of years of log jams in the Red River. One theory is that these log jams were annually caused by upriver flooding after the Red River changes its course and connected with the Mississippi. The Great Red River Raft. The Emory Map of Texas and the Countries Adjacent, 1844 provided one of the first definite surveys of this region and it was used by the U.S. State Department.
7. Iowa was admitted as a state in December, 28, 1846.
8. Copyright entry no. 380, Southern District of New York, December 11, 1845, T. & E.H. Ensign, Map of the United States From the Latest Authorities. Image 386 of [Copyright ledgers.] The map title is copyrighted. New York Southern District, | Library of Congress
December 31, 1845 was a busy day for filing map copyrights: J. Calvin Smith's Map of the United States of America, Richard Hunt's A New Guide to Texas, J. Calvin Smith's A New map for Travellers, E. & G.W. Blunt's The New American Practical Navigator.
9. The Texas Historical Society web essay estimates the 1847 Texas population of 102,961, not including its estimated enslaved persons population of 38,753. Other sources estimate that Texas increased from 1836 by 7,000 people per year. What is known is that enslaved persons were a high percentage of the population and of the population growth in Texas in the 1840's.