The Alamo Delegate: The Odyssey of Jesse B. Badgett by Albert Lytle Partee

Author:Albert Lytle Partee
Format: epub

9

THE ALAMO DELEGATE

In the absence of a writ of election from the Provisional Government, Lieutenant Colonel Neill announced that he and other officers of the garrison would sign a petition directed to the Convention for two delegates from the Alamo to be seated. He would hold an election on the date selected by the Consultation for authorized elections, February 1, and he would nominate Jesse B. Badgett and Dr. Samuel Augustus Maverick as candidates.

The men respected Neill and took his intended nominations under thoughtful consideration. Jesse was never much for politicking, but he made an extra effort to listen to the soldiers. Volunteers from the Siege and capture of San Antonio complained about not getting paid as promised. Many of them groused about the lack of proper food and equipment, blaming their plight on Grant, Johnson, and the Council. They all supported Governor Smith, the matters advanced in the Resolves, and independence for Texas.

Dr. Pollard argued that a newly-independent Texas should forbid slavery. While there were some who seemed moved by his words, as Jesse predicted, the abolitionist was very much in the minority. A few men engaged him with philosophical questions like those he had argued in the debating society, ranging from freedom of religion to whether there should be debtors’ prisons.

While the work went ahead on the fortifications, the election gave the men a common focus that proved to be an antidote to fear, hunger, privation, illness, and injury. All of them were animated by the thought of winning a war for independence from the dictator, Santa Anna, and looked forward to living on their bounty land in Texas after the war.

On the date appointed, the soldiers gathered in the courtyard of the Alamo. Each soldier could vote for two different men. The votes were not cast in secret but were counted by election judges who recorded the name of each voter and the names of the men for whom he voted. Jesse and Maverick were nominated by Lieutenant Colonel Neill. John H. Hayes and Lieutenant Bonham were nominated by JH Nash.

Despite their situation, the men were buoyant as they gathered to vote. Food had been growing scarcer and rations smaller. Most of the men were clad in what they could make do with threadbare linen shirts and pants stiff from many days of hard work without laundry. Tension had made some men short-tempered and brusque; nevertheless, the dignity granted by suffrage had given them a sense of voice and control in their destinies, and they were eager for the proceedings.

Jesse had smoothed back his dark hair and unkempt beard in an attempt to appear more presentable for the formal proceedings of an election. As he looked around, he found that nearly every man returned his look directly into his eyes. Some men regarded him openly with a small, serious smile. He took this to mean that Neill’s assessment of how the election would go was correct. Jesse cast a single vote for Dr. Maverick, who, in turn, voted only for Jesse.

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