The Essential American by Jackie Gingrich Cushman

Author:Jackie Gingrich Cushman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Published: 2010-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

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“Remember the Alamo!”

CAPTAIN MOSLEY BAKER’ S SPEECH AT SAN JACINTO

(1836)

TO UNDERSTAND THE INDEPENDENT NATURE OF MOST TEXANS TODAY, it helps to understand the history of Texas and its path to statehood. Unlike other territories, it was not purchased, settled, and admitted to statehood. Instead, Texans fought for their freedom several times before deciding to join the United States. Texas was part of Mexico when it won its independence from Spain in 1821. Mexico adopted a constitution in 1824 that included guarantees of certain liberties, though not freedom of religion, and restrictions on the federal government.

In 1822, in an effort to increase population and economic activity, Mexico offered to sell foreigners land in the Texas territory for ten cents an acre. Groups of families emigrated from the United States to Mexican Texas during this period.

Less than a decade later, there were many more Americans than Mexicans in the Texas territory. The Mexican government became concerned that the American population might have an overwhelming influence on the territory. In 1830, Mexico banned immigration from America.

In 1833, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna took control of the Mexican government. He began to strip away the liberties of the people, centralizing control. Santa Anna basically supplanted the 1824 constitution with the Siete Leyes, a much more dictatorial body of laws, in December 1835. Many of the people in Texas were unhappy that their liberties were being taken away. Above all, they were people who loved freedom and liberty.

This led to the Consultation in San Felipe, Texas, in November 1835, where fifty-five people from thirteen municipalities throughout Texas came together to determine how to proceed, even though fighting had already begun on October 2, 1835, at the Battle of Gonzales. They did not want to declare independence at that time, but wanted to put the Mexican government and the rest of the world on notice that they would not allow a Mexican despot to strip away their liberties and dictate how they lived their lives. They communicated to the Mexican government that either the 1824 constitution had to be restored or Texans would fight for their independence.

At this same time, General Sam Houston was named the commander of the Texas troops. As the friction between the Mexican Government and the Texas people intensified, men from the United States and its territories traveled to Texas to help it fight for independence.

Houston ordered Captain Jim Bowie to remove the artillery from the Alamo, a garrison near San Antonio, and destroy the structure. But Bowie could not move the artillery due to lack of draft animals, and instead decided to defend the Alamo. At the same time—on March 2, 1836—the war aim changed from restoring the 1824 constitution, when Texas officially declared its independence.

After laying siege for thirteen days, Santa Anna’s men stormed the Alamo on March 6, 1836. Not content to win, the Mexican soldiers killed every Texas soldier in the Alamo in less than two hours, sparing only women, children, and slaves. The Texan death toll was 180 to 200 men; the Mexican casualties numbered approximately 600.

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