USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 12
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With the army thus disposed, the provisional government added its sanction to the plan of taking the aggressive against Mexico. An excuse for this was found in the declaration of the consultation that Texas was making war in behalf of the constitution and offered support and assis- tance to other members of the federation. In this war Texas was in- volved in affairs outside of her own border. Instead of strengthening the outposts and placing the frontier in a state of defense, the troops were drawn off for the hazardous enterprise across the Rio Grande.
The general council passed a resolution, over Governor Smith's veto, authorizing Colonel Fannin to collect an auxiliary force and lead an expedition for the capture of Matamoras. It was argued that the pos- session of this city would give Texas a key position in the war against Mexico, and that its reduction would be followed by a general revolt among the northern Mexican states against Santa Anna. The futility of this plan was afterwards clearly shown. Earlier in the campaign the attack might have succeeded, and was indeed advised by Austin and
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others, but the fall of Bexar and the humiliation of Cos' army caused the Mexican people, both centralists and republicans, to be united tem- porarily in their hostility to Texas, and before the council passed its resolution Matamoras had been fortified and strongly garrisoned by Mexican troops.
This action of the general council gave an independent authority to Colonel Fannin, in disregard of the law making General Houston commander-in-chief of the entire Texas army. As a result, while volun- teers were gathering under Fannin for the foreign expedition, General Houston was left powerless to concentrate the army effectively against the advancing forces of Santa Anna. Despite his protests the general coun- cil ordered men withdrawn from the posts to join the Matamoras expedi- tion, and by vesting command in other leaders practically superseded Houston as head of the army.
This diversion of the army to Matamoras was the principal cause of the quarrel between Governor Smith and the council. Until after the fall of Bexar, the provisional government was conducted with a fair degree of harmony, and gave such aid as was in its power to the volun- teer force in the field. Beyond this, it is impossible to credit this govern- ing body with a record of wisdom or efficiency. Any account short of a detailed history would fail to characterize properly this remarkable assemblage. Except for its active contribution to the lamentable events of 1836, already alluded to, little need be said of the provisional govern- ment. The resolution for the prosecution of the Matamoras expedition was adopted by the council January 7th. Two days later the governor replied with a hot and intemperate message denouncing this plan and criticising the character and methods pursued by the council. January IIth, the council answered with equal vehemence and declared the gover- nor deposed and the lieutenant governor his legal successor. After the 18th of January the council was without a quorum for the transaction of business, and thus continued until the provisional government was succeeded by the convention on March Ist.
Thus, with the governor and the council at cross purposes, with a powerless commander in chief, citizens in a state of lethargy, and with the military diverted to bootless filibuster, Texas lay dull and stupefied, requiring the fearful sting of the Alamo massacre to rouse her into a writhing : tony of action.
CHAPTER XIX
ALAMO AND GOLIAD
When the ordinary American speaks of the revolution, he usually means the war in which the freedom of the American colonies from Great Britain was won. But not so with the old-time Texan, who, indeed, takes due pride in the war waged by his colonial forefathers, but his revolution was the memorable struggle in which the yoke of Mexican domination was removed and Texas became a free and sovereign nation.
The Texas revolution proper opens with two tragedies. In a broad sense, the Texas revolution may be said to include all the events which have been described in the two or three chapters preceding, and there is a sequence in these events by which one leads to another up to the declaration of independence and the final campaign. But, from another point of view, there was, during the formation of the storm cloud and before it broke, a change of spirit in Texas. Hitherto the fight had been made, nominally at least, for the constitution of 1824. But with the opening of the year 1836, and some weeks before the actual declara- tion of independence, it became evident that all temporizing with Mexico was useless and that Texas must either be defended and made independ- ent or must be abandoned entirely to Santa Anna.
In Mexico, too, a different spirit animated the government. The defeat of Cos at Bexar, the uncompromising attitude of Texans towards Mexican political methods and institutions, the readiness with which the people of the United States supported the rebellion of their fellow coun- trymen, all conspired to change the Texas colonists into most dangerous enemies of the Mexican government. It was no longer a question of controlling the Texans-they had to be practically exterminated and the border permanently closed against all American immigration and influ- ence. Such was the substance of Santa Anna's determination when he set out on his campaign early in 1836, and looking at the situation from his standpoint it seems that he had adopted the only practical course to
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prevent the ultimate alienation of Texas from Mexico. The barbaric cruelties to which he resorted in his campaign of conquest were repugnant to all methods of civilized warfare in the nineteenth century, but the con- quest of Texas was clearly a necessary part of his program to establish and preserve a centralized empire.
In command of the garrison at San Antonio at the beginning of 1836 was Colonel Neill. His force had been reduced, and many neces- sary supplies taken, by Doctor Grant, the citizen of Coahuila who had been so prominent in arousing interest in the campaign across the Rio Grande. There were hardly enough soldiers to guard the town. It was known that Cos and his defeated troops had joined another force under General Sesma, south of the Rio Grande, and that a general advance into Texas would occur early in the year. Appeals went to Houston for reinforcements, but that general's hands were tied by the actions of the provisional government. It is notable that among the Texans themselves was little eagerness to enlist. This was due to several causes, their false sense of security and contempt of the enemy, and also probably their distrust of the movements against Matamoras. About the middle of January, Houston sent instructions to Neill to destroy the fortifications and retire with the artillery. But there were no means of transporting the cannon, so the commander chose to remain, though with hardly eighty men in the garrison. Governor Smith later sent Colonel Travis with an additional force, and on the departure of Neill, Travis assumed com- mand, having not more than one hundred and fifty men under him.
February 23d Santa Anna arrived at the head of his army and the same day entered the town. Travis withdrew his men across the river and took his final stand in the old Alamo mission, on the walls of which he hoisted the tri-colored Mexican flag, "with two stars designated to represent Coahuila and Texas." Thus Travis and his men fought for the constitution of 1824, though the declaration of independence had been signed four days before the flag fell from the walls.
The place known as the Alamo contained the usual buildings of a mission. The building familiarly called the Alamo is the old mission church, and was only one feature of the group of buildings and enclosures which composed the Alamo mission. To the north of the church was the walled convent yard, on the west side of which was situated the convent itself, a long and narrow, two-storied building, divided by par- titions into rooms which were used for barracks. To the west of the
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convent, and also extending some distance north and south, was the square or plaza of the mission, rectangular in shape and enclosed with walls of masonry several feet thick. From the southeast corner of this square ran a diagonal stockade to connect with the church.
This was the scene of the Alamo siege. It was invested by the army of Santa Anna on February 23, and for a week was bombarded without effect, the Texans using their limited supply of ammunition only when the enemy came in range. On March I thirty-two men under Captain J. W. Smith made their way through the enemy's lines into the fort. Thus, there were, according to the best estimates, one hundred and eighty-three men to hold this fortress, against five thousand Mexicans. Among the heroes destined to shed their life-blood in this place were the well-known names of Travis, who had been throughout one of the most eager and consistent advocates of Texas independence; Col. James Bowie, a veteran of many frontier battles; Davy Crockett, pioneer statesman, hunter and soldier; and J. B. Bonham, of South Carolina, besides many others of not less dauntless courage.
At the beginning of the siege, Travis sent a letter to his fellow citizens which shows the spirit that animated the patriots. The letter, written February 24. was addressd to "the people of Texas and all Americans in the world," and was as follows:
Fellow Citizens and Compatriots-I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for twenty-four hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforce- ments daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country. Victory or Death.
For a week the siege went on, each day the position of the garrison becoming more critical. Three days before the end Travis sent to the president of the convention, then meeting in Washington, the last official report of the siege. Since the 25th, he said, the enemy had continued the bombardment from their battery on the opposite side of the river in
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the town. They had also encircled the Alamo with entrenched encamp- ments, at the La Villeta on the south, at the powder-house on the south- east, at the ditch on the northeast, and at the old mill on the north. Yet up to that time not a man of the garrison had been killed. "The power of Santa Anna is to be met here, or in the colonies; we had better meet them here, than to suffer a war of desolation to rage in the settle- ments. A blood-red banner waves from the church in Bexar, and in the camp above us, in token that the war is one of vengeance against rebels. . Their threats have had no influence on me, or my men, but to make all fight with desperation, and that high-souled courage which characterizes the patriot, who is willing to die in defense of his country's liberty and his own honor."
After the ineffectual bombardment Santa Anna called a council of war and determined to carry the walls by general assault. Sunday, March 6th, was the fateful day of the fall of the Alamo. Twenty-five hundred Mexicans were arranged in four columns on all sides of the fort, and at daybreak hurled their strength against the walls so weakly manned as to numbers. But the calm courage of the Texans, their unerring marksmanship, and the hail of lead from their cannon, twice brought the assailants' lines to halt and repulse. Then came the final charge. The columns were deployed to the north wall of the square and to the stockade on the south, and, driven on by their officers, the Mex- icans crowded up under the walls below the cannon, rushed through the breaches or climbed over by ladders, and brought the conflict into a melee of hand-to-hand struggle. Travis was shot down while working a cannon, Crockett fell near the stockade, and Bowie, too ill to rise from his bed, was found and bayonetted, but not till he had dispatched several of the enemy with his pistols. From the plaza and stockade the heroes retired to the convent, where in final desperation they held each room until overpowered by the superior forces, and the fight to death went on in close quarters, where man touched man, clubbed with his musket, and slashed right and left with his knife, dying with the ferocity of the cornered wild beast. The church was the last point taken, and within an hour after the first assault the Alamo tragedy was over and its defenders had breathed their last. The few who did not fall fighting were butchered in cold blood by the ruthless order of Santa Anna, and of all who had been in the beleaguered fort but six lives (three women and three children) were spared, including the wife of Lieutenant Dick-
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inson and her infant daughter. She was supplied with a horse and allowed to depart, bearing a proclamation from Santa Anna and the tale of the Alamo massacre to the colonists. Upon the heaped-up bodies of the Texans was piled brush and wood, and on this funeral pyre was soon consumed all that was mortal of the Texas patriots. But their spirit and the memory of their sacrifice were destined to survive all time and awake a vengeance from which was born the Texas republic.
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In the meantime, across the country in the vicinity of Goliad, were being enacted other scenes of blood and treachery, so that henceforth the name of Goliad was spoken with only less inspiration to patriotism and retaliation than the Alamo. General Houston had succeeded in per- suading most of the citizen volunteers not to participate in the Mata- moras expedition. After the volunteers left, the force contained mainly the soldiers from the United States and the revolutionary Mexicans, and when news came that Matamoras was being strongly reinforced by Santa Anna the principal object of the undertaking was given up entirely. Two of the leaders, however, continued with a small force on toward the Rio Grande, but at San Patricio they separated, and shortly afterward each detachment fell prey to Mexican vengeance and hardly a man escaped the slaughter which characterized the Mexican policy throughout this war.
Colonel Fannin, after the failure of the expedition, marched to Goliad and took up his position there, where he built his Fort Defiance. He had altogether something over four hundred men, and his force was now recognized as a part of the general Texas army under General Houston. The latter deemed it wise for Fannin to abandon Goliad and sent orders for him to retire to Victoria. But Fannin had sent a detach- ment under Captain King to protect the Refugio mission, and later reinforced him with additional troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Ward. General Urrea, with the eastern division of the invading army, had arrived in the vicinity of the Irish settlements on the Nueces. Colonel Ward made his first stand in the old Refugio mission, on March 14th, but being short of ammunition and unable to defend the position, he retreated to Victoria, where on the 21st he surrendered to the enemy as prisoners of war. Captain King, having left Refugio with a small party to reconnoitre, found his return cut off and then attempted to join Fannin at Goliad, but was surrounded and forced to surrender. A few
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hours later he and his followers were shot and their bodies left by the roadside.
Fannin had delayed his retreat from Goliad that King and Ward might rejoin him or that he might learn something of their fate. His delay was fatal, and before he began the movement from Goliad the enemy had come up. He proceeded so leisurely to the north that he was overtaken and completely surrounded in the afternoon of the same day, when near the Coleto river. He had to draw his men up in a depression on the prairie, forming them into a hollow square. The enemy made three assaults during the day, and each time were repulsed by the terrific artillery and rifle fire of the Texans, who were plentifully supplied with guns and ammunition. Notwithstanding the heavy slaughter of the Mexicans, they were in such force that the Texans had no show of escape, and besides were without water to relieve the wounded or swathe out their cannon. It seemed best, therefore, on the following morning, to treat for surrender, and a capitulation was arranged on the understanding that the Texans were to be treated as prisoners of war.
The doomed men were brought back to Goliad, and a few days later Ward's men were also added to the band. On the evening of the 26th it is said the prisoners were in good spirits, certain of their early release. Several were playing on their flutes the strains of "Home, Sweet Home." The following day was Palm Sunday. Early in the morning the captives were formed into three columns, and with a line of guards on each side were marched from the town in different direc- tions. They had gone but a short distance when the guards suddenly stepped into single line, and with the muzzles of their guns almost touch- ing the Texans, fired point-blank one withering volley after another until the dreadful execution was complete. Over three hundred were thus massacred, twenty-seven managing to escape in the confusion.
The responsibility for this deed has been fixed upon Santa Anna, and his officers claimed to have been shocked by its ruthlessness. The one excuse that could be offered was that the prisoners were mostly inhabitants of the United States and by strict construction filibusters, who by a decree issued in 1835 were to be treated as pirates and shown no mercy. However, the affair on the whole was in keeping with the barbaric character of Mexican warfare. In the light of such atrocities, both the previous and subsequent forbearance and freedom from the spirit of mean revenge in the Texans is one of the remarkable and praiseworthy qualities of their character as a people.
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But the men of the Alamo and Goliad were not to have died in vain. The indignation kindled by their death more than any other cause gave principle and unity to the Texas revolution. Against such an implacable despot as these acts proved Santa Anna to be, unconquerable resistance was henceforth the only hope, and war under such circumstances became the highest and noblest duty of men born to liberty and political equality.
CHAPTER XX
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION AND DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
In Washington on the Brazos, in a half-finished building hastily con- structed for a convention hall, was assembled on March 1, 1836, the con- vention of delegates from the various municipalities, superseding the provisional government which had been the source of so much discord and detriment to the country. The delegates had been apportioned as far as possible on a basis of population, and thus this convention was more nearly representative than the former consultation. Though there had been spirited rivalry in some of the municipalities in the election of delegates, in which the war and peace factions had contended, the prog- ress of events since the election on February Ist had brought about an almost unanimous agreement among the delegates when they assembled that Texas must declare for absolute independence of Mexico. Early in December of the previous year a resolution for independence had been adopted by many of the Brazoria citizens. A number of Goliad citizens had adopted on December 20th what is known as the "Goliad declaration of independence," though it was considered premature at the time. In January, Austin had written from New Orleans that imme- diate declaration of independence was necessary.
Accordingly, immediately after the organization of the convention, a committee of five was appointed to draft a declaration of principles. On the following day, George C. Childress, as chairman, reported "The unanimous declaration of Independence made by the delegates of the people of Texas, in general convention at the town of Washington, on the 2d of March, 1836," which was adopted and signed by fifty-eight delegates. The declaration recited the duplicity and broken pledges of the Mexican government ; its failure to maintain constitutional liberty and a republican form of government; the despotic changes made by Santa Anna, the establishment of military rule, the dissolution of the
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state government, the delays of the law, the denial of religious freedom, and the general ineptitude and weakness of the Mexican system.
"These, and other grievances, were patiently borne by the people of Texas, until they reached that point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. We then took up arms in defense of the national constitution. We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance : our appeal has been made in vain; though months have elapsed, no sympathetic voice has yet been heard from the interior. We are, therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion, that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of their liberty, and the substitution therefor of a military government ; that they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self-government.
"The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation.
"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 supreme Arbiter of the destinies of nations."
This done, the next action was to provide for the immediate necessi- ties of the infant nation. The most important of these was to repel Santa Anna's invasion, and on the 4th General Houston was appointed com- mander in chief of the armies, both volunteer and regular, with entire authority over their operations. Male citizens between seventeen and fifty were made subject to military duty, and generous land grants were offered for service in the army. On the 15th General Houston's report of the fall of the Alamo was read in the convention, and the announce- ment urged the convention to a quick completion of its work.
The constitutional committee had reported on March 9th. On the 16th an "executive ordinance" was passed, establishing a "government, ad interim, for the protection of Texas," which was to have all the powers granted under the constitution except legislative and judicial, and was to administer the affairs of the nation until the provisions of the consti- tution could be put into execution. The personnel of this government was to consist of a president, vice president, secretaries for the depart- ments of state, war, navy and treasury, and an attorney general. These officers were appointed before the adjournment of the convention, David G. Burnet being chosen first "President of the Republic of Texas," and
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Lorenzo de Zavala vice president. Also, the government was authorized to borrow a million dollars and pledge the faith and credit of the republic for its payment.
On the 17th the constitution was formally adopted and signed, and the convention then adjourned sine die. This constitution of the Repub- lic of Texas was modeled after the constitution of the United States, with its provisions, of course, conforming to the requirements of a single sovereign state. By statute the common law was to be made applicable to cases not covered by constitutional or legislative enactment. There were the three usual departments of government. A system of education was to he established as soon as feasible. All connection between the civil government and religion was guarded against by making priests and ministers of the gospel ineligible to congress or the presi- dency. The distribution of lands, which had been subject of extensive frauds, was regulated, and the extensive land grants made by the Coa- huila-Texas legislature in 1834 and 1835 were annulled. Each head of a family was to have a league and a labor, and a single man over seven- teen years of age a third of a league. As to slaves, congress had no power to manumit them, nor could a slaveowner free them without consent of congress; free negroes could not reside in the state without congres- sional consent. The foreign slave importation was declared piracy, and . slaves could be introduced only from the United States.
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