185 years ago today, delegates to the Convention of 1836 signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, proclaiming, ”Our Political Connection with the Mexican Nation has Forever Ended.” The first flag of Texas is pictured above.
Photo of the original Texas Independence Hall where Texas Declared Independence from Mexico at Washington-on-the-Brazos. Photo from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
March 2, 1836, one hundred eighty five years ago today, fifty nine men, only four of whom had been born in Mexican Tejas, gathered at the city of Washington, Texas, (current population 226) known informally as Washington-On-The-Brazos, to distinguish it from Washington-On-The-Potomac.
They declared Texas a Republic, drafting a Declaration of Independence, drawing heavily on the American example, they laid out a series of complaints against the government of Mexico. They also specified rights, including the right to bear arms, which God gives all free men at birth and which the Mexican government usurped.
The 1824 constitution of Mexico had guaranteed a broad group of rights to immigrants, partially to induce Americans into the sparsely populated territory of Texas. Texas lands at that time, extended north to what is now the modern state of Colorado.
Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, usurped these rights becoming an absolute dictator ruling Mexico with great cruelty, protected by the large Army he commanded.
As Texas’ Declaration of Independence was being signed, that large Mexican Army surrounded a former Catholic mission known as the Alamo with its 186 defenders, located in Bexar County. Four days later after a thirteen day siege and three assaults, the Mexican Army killed the defenders, leaving only a half dozen women, children and one Black slave alive to tell the world what happened there.
Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna bragged he had won a great victory at the Alamo, where his dead and wounded were over 1,500 men. The Mexican General Martin Perfecto de Cos, a brother-in-law of Santa Anna, replied “El Presidente, we cannot afford another such victory.”
I understand Texas Independence Day is not such a big deal here in South Carolina. In this era of political correctness, it is not even a legal state holiday in Texas any more.
Still. . . one of those 182 defenders of the Alamo, killed on March 6th 1836 was some distant kin of mine. Walk through the small, mostly unkempt, Baptist cemetery in the little town of Eudora, Arkansas and only four surnames comprise over 1/3 of all the graves.
They are ALLEN’s, including my Daddy and most of his family; HOLT’s which was my grandmother Allen’s maiden name; HALEY, my great-grandmother’s maiden name; and BOWIE my great-great-grandmother’s name.
You have probably heard of the exploits of her nephew, Jim Bowie, who died at the Alamo, leaving no direct descendants.
It has been said, only about three percent in each generation is willing to die in defense of our God given rights. Whether it is a blessing, or a curse, I carry their blood in my veins. With every decade that passes, I am closer to spending eternity with those men. I do not intend to have to tell them we lost this Republic on my watch. . .
Dean Allen is a decorated Vietnam veteran, author of the book Rattlesnake Revolution, active in the leadership of political, civic, fraternal, and veterans, and a regular contributor to The Standard.
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