Native Americans have lived in Texas for thousands of years, but it did not become part of a country in the modern sense until Spanish explorers arrived in 1519. ... It became its own country, called the Republic of Texas, from 1836 until it agreed to join the United States in 1845.
The fearful trip is all about the journey of America during the Civil War. Whitman used this phrase as a figure of speech to express their experience during the war. The poem was dedicated to Abraham Lincoln after his death.
