USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 1 > Part 42
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" I was then lashed upon a horse and taken to the ground where the fight first commenced, where I saw most of our men lying dead. I was then taken to San Patricio and there confined to a small hut for seven or eight days, during which time I knew nothing of the fate of Col. Johnson's com- mand. *
* I was taken out to be shot, but was spared through the interposition of a priest and a Mexican lady named Alvarez.1 After having been kept in San Patricio seven or
1 We shall hear more of this angelic lady, whose memory should be sacred in every Texian heart and whose name should be perpetuated in a Texas county before it is too late.
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eight days, I was taken out of my place of confinement to be sent to Matamoros, when I was surprised to see five or six of Col. Johnson's command brought out at the same time, for the same purpose * and then learned that they were the only men of that party who had not been killed, excepting Johnson himself, Daniel J. Toler, John H. Love and James M. Miller 1 who escaped."
One of the prisoners referred to by Mr. Brown was Samuel W. McKneely; he gives no other name. Mr. Brown sup- poses he reached Matamoros about the first of March, but he is mistaken. The proof is conclusive that he was captured on the second of that month, and, therefore, probably reached Matamoros about the 14th. He and McKneely, after a cruel confinement until December, made their escape and reached Texas. Their adventures were deeply interesting, but the account thereof is too long for insertion here.
The reader has now been given a full and connected account of the Johnson and Grant expeditions. Over the errors of Dr. Grant the inantle of charity will be thrown by all who appreciate and admire courage and chivalry. These he dis- played in the storming of Bexar and in the hour of death, as attested by his only surviving comrade. But he, more than any other man, having been long a resident of Mexico and, it is reasonable to suppose, well informed as to public sentiment in that country, was responsible for the semi-mutinous move- ments which led to his own destruction and the utterly useless sacrifice of so many precious lives.2
The order of events cannot be strictly followed. An approximation thereto only can be attained. We must bear in mind that on the first day of February the people elected
1 Miller, however, was murdered with Fannin's men, March 27th.
2 There were 97 men with Johnson and Grant, including the Frenchman. Of these 85 were killed -Johnson and four others escaped -five were captured under Johnson and one under Grant. These with the lucky Frenchman, make 97. The latter was only a wayfarer.
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delegates to that body which represented their will by declar- ing independence on the second of March; that, in the mean- time, the power of Gen. Houston for good had been paralyzed by the usurpations of a minority of the council ; that Governor Smith was sorely crippled and his wise and patriotic efforts toward organization and preparation to meet the impending storm, were impeded at every step by the outcries and active slanders of those who still prated about the constitution of 1824 and aid from the Federal party in Mexico. Would that the veil of oblivion could be thrown over that dark and dismal day. But it cannot without leaving a stain upon the names of the purest and grandest patriots Texas ever had.
The noble Travis, in command at San Antonio, increased his force to one hundred and fifty men and prepared by every means in his power to defend the place to the last. Governor Smith kept couriers in the saddle dispatching them to the coast, Nacogdoches, San Augustine and elsewhere, with mes- sages urging the people to action. Houston (and Forbes under his instructions ) proceeded to treat with the powerful Cherokees and their allies and secure their neutrality - a matter of life and death importance at that hour. Our agents in the United States were accomplishing much and only Lieu- tenant-Governor James W. Robinson, styled " Acting Gov- ernor " (the head of the hangers-on of the council) and a coterie of disorganizing factionists, interposed an obstacle to the united and harmonious action of the country in favor of all means necessary to meet and overthrow the advancing hosts of Mexico.
On the 20th of February, Governor Smith, in anticipation of the assembling of the convention at that place on the first of March, removed the government to Washington, so as to meet, report to, and be in hourly communication with the newly elected representatives of the people.
Col. John A. Wharton, Adjutant-General, who had been dispatched to New Orleans by Gen. Houston, leaving Velasco
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December 27th, with the United States Commissioners, re- turned about the last of January, with several vessels freighted with supplies, under convoy of the war schooner Liberty, and, after reporting to Governor Smith when off the mouth of the Brazos, proceeded to Matagorda Bay.
On the night of February 26th came the first announce- ment of the siege of the Alamo, in the following dispatch from Travis. The original of this document, in the bold chirography of the immortal patriot, has been the property of this writer for more than forty years and for many years has been framed for its preservation.
" COMMANDANCY OF BEXAR, " Feb. 23, 3 o'clock, p. m. 1836. " To Andrew Ponton, Judge, and the Citizens of Gonzales :
" The enemy in large force is in sight. We want men and provisions. Send them to us. We have 150 men and are determined to defend the Alamo to the last. Give us assistance.
W. B. TRAVIS, Lieut .- Col. Commanding.
" P. S. Send an express to San Felipe with the news night and day. TRAVIS."
Immediately on receipt of the dispatch Governor Smith had it printed in handbill with the following :
" APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS.
" FELLOW CITIZENS AND COUNTRYMEN: The foregoing official communication from Col. Travis, now in command at Bexar, needs no comment. The garrison, composed of only 150 Americans, engaged in a deadly conflict with 1,000 of the mercenary troops of the Dictator, who are daily receiving re-inforcements, should be a sufficient call upon you without
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saying more. However secure, however fortunate, our garri- son may be, they have not the provisions nor the ammunition to stand more than a thirty days' siege at farthest.
" I call upon you as an officer, I implore you as a man, to fly to the aid of your besieged countrymen and not permit them to be massacred by a mercenary foe. I slight none ! The call is upon ALL who are able to bear arms, to rally with- out one moment's delay, or in fifteen days the heart of Texas will be the seat of war. This is not imaginary. The enemy from 6,000 to 8,000 strong are on our border and rapidly moving by forced marches for the colonies. The campaign has commenced. We must promptly meet the enemy or all will be lost. Do you possess honor? Suffer it not to be insulted or tarnished! Do you possess patriotism? Evince it by your bold, prompt and manly action ! If you possess even humanity, you will rally without a moment's delay to the aid of your besieged countrymen !
" HENRY SMITH, Governor." " February 27, 1836."
On the 29th, General Sam Houston and John Forbes, commissioners to the Cherokee and associate tribes of Indians, reported as follows:
" WASHINGTON, February 29, 1836.
" To His Excellency, Henry Smith, Governor of Texas:
" SIR: In accordance with a commission issued by your Excellency dated the 28th day of December, 1835, the under- signed commissioners, in the absence of John Cameron, Esquire, one of the commissioners named in the above men- tioned instrument, most respectfully report :
" That after sufficient notice being given to the different tribes named in the commission, a treaty was held at the house of John , one of the tribe of Cherokee Indians.
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" The commissioners would also suggest to your Excellency that titles should be granted to such actual settlers as are now within the designated boundaries, and that they should re- ceive a fair remuneration for their improvements and the expenses attendant upon the exchange, in lands or other equivalent.
" It will also be remembered by your Excellency that the surrender by the government of the lands to which the Indians may have had any claims is nearly equivalent to that portion now allotted to them, and most respectfully suggest that they should be especially appropriated for the use of the govern ment.
" They also respectfully call your attention to the following remarks, viz. :
" The state of excitement in which the Indians were first found by your commissioners rendered it impossible to com- mence a negotiation with them on the day set apart for it. On the day succeeding, the treaty was opened. Some difficulty then occurred relative to the exchange of lands, which the commissioners proposed making for those now occupied by them, which was promptly rejected. The boundaries were those established as designated in the treaty alone, and that such measures should be adopted by your Excellency for their security as may be deemed necessary. *
" The commissioners used every exertion to retain that portion of the territory for the use of the government, but an adherence to this would have had but one effect, viz. : that of defeating the treaty altogether. Under these circumstances the arrangement was made as now reported in the accompany- ing treaty. They would also suggest the importance of the salt works to the government and the necessity that they should be kept for its use.
" The commissioners also endeavored to enlist the chiefs of the different tribes in the cause of the people of Texas, and suggested an enrollment of a force from them to act against
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our common enemy. In reply to which they informed us that the subject had not before been suggested to them. But a general council should be held in the course of the present month, when their determination will be made known.
" The expenses attendant upon the treaty are comparatively light. A statement of which will be furnished to your Ex- cellency. All of which is most respectfully submitted.
SAM HOUSTON, JOHN FORBES."
CHAPTER XLVIII.
Declaration of Independence - The Convention organized - The Names of its Members - Governor Smith vindicated by the Representatives of the people.
The convention assembled and promptly organized at Wash- ington on the 1st day of March, 1836, by electing Richard Ellis, of Red River, president, and H. S. Kimble, secretary, this being the first time that Red River was represented in the councils of the country.
On the 2d of March the Declaration of Independence was unanimously adopted and enrolled and signed on the 3d :
UNANIMOUS
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,
BY THE
DELEGATES OF THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS,
IN GENERAL CONVENTION,
AT THE TOWN OF WASHINGTON,
ON THE SECOND DAY OF MARCH, 1836.
WHEN a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty, and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted; and, so far from being a guarantee for their inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression : when the Fed- eral Republican Constitution of their country, which they have (554)
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sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted Federative Republic, composed of Sovereign States, to a consolidated Central Military despotism, in which every interest is disre- garded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the ever ready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants: when, long after the spirit of the constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the constitution discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to force a new government upon them at the point of the bayonet : when, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abduction on the part of the government, anarchy prevails and civil society is dissolved into its original elements ; in such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable right of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves and a sacred obligation to their posterity to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their welfare and happiness.
Nations, as well as individuals, are amenable for their acts to the public opinion of mankind. A statement of a part of our grievances is therefore submitted to an impartial world, in justification of the hazardous but unavoidable step now taken, of severing our political connection with the Mexican people, and assuming an independent attitude among the nations of the earth.
The Mexican Government, by its colonization laws, invited and induced the Anglo-American population of Texas to col-
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
onize its wilderness under the pledged faith of a written constitution, that they should continue to enjoy that constitu- tional liberty and republican government to which they had been habituated in the land of their birth, the United States of America.
In this expectation they have been cruelly disappointed, inasmuch as the Mexican nation has acquiesced in the late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who, having overturned the constitution of his country, now offers, as the cruel alternative, either to abandon our homes, acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny, the combined despotism of the sword and the priesthood.
It hath sacrificed our welfare to the State of Coahuila, by which our interests have been continually depressed through a jealous and partial course of legislation, carried on at a far distant seat of government, by a hostile majority in an unknown tongue, and this too, notwithstanding we have petitioned in the humblest terms for the establishment of a separate state government, and have, in accordance with the provisions of the national constitution, presented to the general congress a republican constitution, which was, without a just cause, contemptuously rejected.
It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a long time, one of our citizens, for no other cause but a zealous endeavour to procure the acceptance of our constitution and the establish- ment of a state government.
It has failed and refused to secure, on a firm basis, the right of trial by jury, that palladium of civil liberty and only safe guarantee for the life, liberty, and property of the citizen.
It has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources (the public domain ), and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to
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expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self-government.
It has suffered the military commandants, stationed among us, to exercise arbitrary acts of oppression and tyranny, thus trampling upon the most sacred rights of the citizen, and rendering the military superior to the civil power.
It has dissolved, by force of arms, the state congress of Coahuila and Texas, and obliged our representatives to fly for their lives from the seat of government, thus depriv- ing us of the fundamental political right of representation.
It has demanded the surrender of a number of our citizens, and ordered military detachments to seize and carry them into the interior for trial, in contempt of the civil authorities, and in defiance of the laws and the constitution.
It has made piratical attacks upon our commerce by com- missioning foreign desperadoes, and authorizing them to seize our vessels and convey the property of our citizens to far distant parts for confiscation.
It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a National Religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God.
It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defence - the rightful property of freemen - and formidable only to tyrannical governments.
It has invaded our country both by sea and by land, with the intent to lay waste our territory, and drive us from our homes ; and has now a large mercenary army advancing, to carry on against us a war of extermination.
It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenceless frontiers.
It has been during the whole time of our connection with it, the contemptible sport and victim of successive
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt, and tyrannical government.
These, and other grievances, were patiently borne by the people of Texas, until they reached that point at which for- bearance ceases to be a virtue. We then took up arms in defence 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 response 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 INDE- PENDENT 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.
RICHARD ELLIS, President.
George C. Childress, Sterling C. Robertson, of Viesca.
Chas. B. Stewart,
Thomas Barnett,
Austin.
Bailey Hardeman,
Matagorda.
J. W. Bunton,
Thos. J. Gazley,
R. M. Coleman,
Mina.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Jas. Collinsworth, Edwin Waller, Asa Brigham, J. S. D. Byrom, Brazoria.
Francisco Ruiz, Jose Antonio Navarro,
Jesse B. Badgett, Bexar.
William D. Lacy, William Menefee, Colorado.
James Gaines, W. Clark, Jr., Sabine.
John Fisher, Matt. Caldwell, Gonzales.
William Motley, Goliad.
Lorenzo de Zavala, Harrisburg.
Edward Conrad,
Steph. H. Everitt, Refugio. George W. Smyth, John Turner, Jasper. San Patricio.
Claiborne West, William B. Scates, Jefferson.
M. B. Menard, A. B. Hardin, Liberty.
Elijah Stapp, Jackson.
Robert Potter, Thomas J. Rusk,
Ch. S. Taylor, John S. Roberts,
Nacogdoches.
Robert Hamilton, Collin Mckinney,
Albert H. Latimer,
Red River.
Martin Parmer, · E. O. Legrand, Steph. W. Blount, San Augustin.
Syd. O. Pennington, W. Car'l Crawford, Shelby.
James Power,
Sam. Houston, David Thomas,
B. Briggs Goodrich, G. W. Barnett, James G. Swisher, Jesse Grimes,1
Washington.
1 The above fifty-two were present and signed. The following appeared later and signed: Saml. Rhoads Fisher, Matagorda; Saml. A. Maverick, Bexar; John White Bower, Goliad; James B. Woods, Andrew Briscoe, John W. Moore, Harrisburg; total, 58.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Governor Smith, the Lieutenant-Governor and remnant of the council had previously arrived. Governor Smith promptly submitted to the convention the following report:
" To the President and Members of the Convention of the People of Texas :
" GENTLEMEN : Called to the gubernatorial chair by your suffrages at the last convention, I deem it a duty to lay before your honorable body a view, or outline, of what has transpired since your last meeting, respecting the progress and adminis- tration of the government placed under my charge, as created and contemplated by the Organic Law.
" The council, which was created to co-operate with me as the devisors of ways and means, having complied with all the duties assigned to them, by the third article of the Organic Law, was adjourned on the 9th of January last, until the 1st of the present month.
" The agents appointed by your body, to the United States, to contract a loan and perform the duties of agents generally, have been dispatched and are now actively employed in the discharge of their functions, in conformity with their instruc- tions; and, while at the city of New Orleans, contracted a loan under certain stipulations, which, together with their correspondence on that subject, are herewith submitted for your information. *
‹‹ * Gen. Sam Houston, Col. John Forbes and Dr. Cameron were commissioned on the part of this government to treat with the Cherokee Indians and their associate bands, in conformity with the declaration of the convention in
The following members were prevented from reaching the convention in time : James Kerr, of Jackson; John J. Linn, of Victoria.
The only survivor of these sixty members of the convention at this time (1892), is the Rev. Wm. Carroll Crawford of Alvarado, Johnson County, Texas, whose kinsman, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, was the last survivor of the signers of the Declaration of American Independence, July 4, 1776.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
November last, who have performed their labors as far as cir- cumstances would permit, which is also submitted to the con- sideration of your body. Our naval preparations are in a state of forwardness. The schooners of war, Liberty and Invincible, have been placed under the command of efficient officers and are now on duty, and the schooners of war, Inde- pendence and Brutus, are daily expected on our coast from New Orleans, which will fill out our navy as contemplated by law. Our agents have also made arrangements for a steam- boat, which may soon be expected, calculated to run between New Orleans and our seaports, and operate as circumstances shall direct. Arrangements have been made by law for the organization of the militia; but, with very few exceptions, returns have not been made as was contemplated, so that the plan resorted to seems to have proved ineffectual.
" The military department has been but partially organ- ized, and for want of means, in a pecuniary point of view, the recruiting service has not progressed to any great extent, nor can it be expected, until that embarrassment can be removed.
" Our volunteer army of the frontier has been kept under continual excitement and thrown into confusion owing to the improvident acts of the General Council by their infringements upon the prerogative of the commander-in-chief, by passing resolutions, ordinances, and making appointments, etc., which, in their practical effect, were calculated, in an eminent degree, to thwart everything like systematic organization in that department. *
" The offices of auditor and controller of public accounts, have some time since been created and filled, but what amount of claims have been passed against the government, I am not advised, as no report has yet been made to my office; but of one thing I am certain, that many claims have been passed for which the government, in justice, should not be bound or chargeable. The General Council has tenaciously held on to a controlling power over these offices, and forced accounts
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
through them contrary to justice and good faith, and for which evil, I have never yet been able to find a remedy ; and if such a state of things shall be continued long, the public debt will soon be increased to an amount beyond all reason- able conception.
" With a fervent and anxious desire that your deliberations may be fraught with that unity of feeling and harmony of action, so desirable and necessary to quiet and settle the dis- turbed and distracted interests of the country, and that your final conclusions may answer the full expectations of the people at home and abroad,
" I subscribe myself with sentiments of the highest regard and consideration,
" Your obedient servant,
" HENRY SMITH, Governor." " March 1, 1836."
On the second, Governor Smith sent forth this appeal to the country :
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