Dear friends of liberty,
Texas was born one hundred seventy-seven years ago today.
It was not an easy birth. The Texians, encompassing both the Mexicans
with deep roots in the land and the Anglo-American settlers invited to
colonize the vast country, had worked hard to sustain their ties with
Mexico. They sent emissaries and petitions -- they begged for
recognition of their rights -- and the majority among them counseled
peace among themselves, even to the utmost extremity. But when it became
clear that the tyrant in Mexico City, General Antonio López de Santa
Anna, was intent upon destroying Mexican federalism and replacing it
with a quasi-military dictatorship, they knew that the time had come to
fight.
So they fought. And in the epic fall of 1835, they swept away the
instruments of power and oppression, expelling the Mexican garrisons,
seizing the fortifications and armories, and restoring, for a brief
moment, the liberties they had expected to enjoy when invited to build
their homes and seek their fortunes in Texas. What began with a bold
invitation to "Come and Take It" in Gonzales ended the year with San
Antonio de Bexar in Texian hands, and an army forming to take the
revolution southward to Matamoros -- and perhaps beyond.
But this fight for liberty was not yet a fight for independence. Over
the Presidio at Goliad, the Texians flew a flag with the red-white-green
of Mexico, and the year "1824" emblazoned upon it -- the year of the
federalist Mexican constitution that Santa Anna overthrew. Like the
American revolutionaries of 1775, the Texians of 1835 fought to restore
their rights, not to secede -- and like their predecessors, they would
soon find themselves forced into a cause more grand and consequential
than any they had envisioned.
The arrival of Santa Anna's army changed everything. The despot had
first set foot in Texas nearly a quarter-century before, where as a
Spanish officer he helped crush a filibustering expedition at the 1813
Battle of Medina. The brutal suppression of that early revolt taught the
tyrant his method: lay waste, terrorize, and kill all who resisted.
This was the technique he brought to Texas when he crossed the Rio
Grande with his solders on February 16th, 1836. One week later he laid
siege to the Alamo, and sent a grim message to its defenders: surrender
or die.
William Barret Travis answered with a cannon shot: "Victory or Death."
As the doomed garrison at the Alamo held against repeated assaults,
bombardments, and harassments, the Mexican armies fanned out across
Texas. The Texians, having won everything in 1835, now lost everything
in 1836. They lost at San Patricio. They lost at Agua Dulce. And as
February ground on into March, it was increasingly apparent that they
would lose at the Alamo too -- and after that, who knew what fate held
in store? The Mexicans commanded thousands -- and the Texians commanded
hundreds. The flame of liberty in Texas flickered badly.
This was the dark scenario that confronted the Texians gathered at
Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 1st, 1836, sent to the Convention to
decide what to do. Would their revolution falter? Would Texas surrender?
Would they attempt to negotiate? Would the cause of the Lone Star be
extinguished in the face of superior force?
The men assembled at the little cabin in the little town on the Brazos
River took stock of the situation, and did the only common-sense thing
left:
They declared independence.
On March 2nd, 1836, with nothing standing between them and the power of
Santa Anna but a desperate garrison and a prayer, the word went out to
the world:
"We, therefore, the delegates with plenary powers of the
people of Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid
world for the necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and
declare, that our political connection with the Mexican nation has
forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free,
Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the
rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations;
and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly and
confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of
the destinies of nations."
Texas, a nation in full, was born. But it was not yet won.
The same day, Texas lost at Agua Dulce.
Four days later, Texas lost at the Alamo.
Seventeen days later, Texas lost at Coleto.
Nineteen days later, Texas lost at Copano.
Twenty-five days later, Texans were massacred at Goliad.
But exactly fifty days later, on April 21st, 1836, Texas won at San Jacinto. And that won it all.
Today, 177 years later, we honor the men and women who stood and fought
against impossible odds in the harrowing passage of spring 1836. Their
spirit, born in the American heritage and made real in the Texas
experience, remains our example today. They did not waver and they did
not cease in their defense of liberty -- and we, who walk in the paths
they blazed, can do no less.
Liberty and independence, no matter the odds. That is who they were. And because of them … it is who we are.
In liberty -- and in Texas --
Brooke Rollins
President & CEO
TEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION
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