In one of the Digitrad version of "The Streets of Laredo", the fifth stanza reads:

"My friends and relations, they live in the Nation,
They know not where their boy has gone,
He first came to Texas and hired to a ranchman
Oh, I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong."

(Line three, incidentally, should begin, "I first came to Texas ...")

(clicky)

I'd always assumed that this version of Laredo was set in Texas, before 1845 when Texas became part of the United States, and that pre-1845, Texans referred to the then US as The Nation.

But I think I may have got this horrendously wrong.

Anyone help?

Particularly with two specific questions:

How did Texans refer to the US before 1845?

Where does the phrase "live in the Nation" come from?

Robin