[2] By March 1836, Bell was a member of the Texian Army under Sam Houston and was present at the Battle of San Jacinto.

[2] Given command of the Corpus Christi district, he protected the primary trade route between Texas and Mexico from outlaws.

Neighbors found that the inhabitants of the new counties were hostile to Texas interests and that residents of Santa Fe had written their own constitution.

After Neighbors's report became public in June 1850, Governor Bell, aged 40, called a special session of the legislature to deal with these developments.

The session was held in August, and Bell's plans were to send the Texas Militia to seize control of Santa Fe from the United States government.

Highlights of his second term were payment of Texas's public debt and resolution of land-claim disputes between empresarios and their colonists.

[1] Having grown wealthy and living "in lordly style" from his ownership of over 500 slaves,[8] he was "impoverished" when the Union freed them after the Civil War.