[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 25 (Thursday, March 2, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E273-E274]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TEXAS INDEPENDENCE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. GENE GREEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 2, 2006

  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today marks Texas Independence 
Day. 170 years ago today, the Texas Declaration of Independence was 
ratified by the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos.
  Just as American patriots declared their independence from the 
tyrannical British Empire's military domination and established the 
first true democracy in the modern age, Texas declared its independence 
from Mexico to restore their political rights.
  After July 4th, 1776, democracy became a common goal for all people 
of the New World, but one that we would have to fight for.
  Texas declared its independence after many peaceful years as a part 
of a Mexican federal republic because Texans lost their political 
rights when Mexico became dominated by military dictatorships.
  In 1824, a military dictatorship took over in Mexico that abolished 
the Mexican constitution. Facing an even more oppressive regime than 
the British Empire, the Texas Declaration of Independence states that 
Texas's government had been ``forcibly changed, without their consent, 
from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to 
a consolidated central military despotism.''
  The Texas Declaration of Independence was also fully justified 
because this military dictatorship had ceased to protect the lives, 
liberty, and property of the people of Texas--Anglos and Tejanos.
  The new military dictatorship refused to provide for trial by jury, 
freedom of religion, or public education for their citizens.
  When Texans and Tejanos peacefully protested the undemocratic changes 
to Mexico's government, they were imprisoned unjustly.
  Failure to provide these basic rights violates the sacred contract 
between a government and the people, and Texans did what we still do 
today--stand up for our rights by declaring our independence to the 
world.
  In response, the Mexican army marched to Texas to wage a war on the 
land and the people, enforcing the decrees of a military dictatorship 
through brute force and without any democratic legitimacy.
  The struggle for Texan independence was a political struggle, not an 
ethnic conflict. In fact, many Texas Hispanics considered themselves 
Tejanos--not Mexicans--and Tejanos from all walks of life served 
bravely in the Texas War for Independence and sacrificed greatly.
  Tejanos were in Texas before Mexico became a nation, and Tejanos 
cherished the freedom to run their own affairs democratically just as 
dearly as Anglos. When the Mexican government failed, it failed all 
Texans and Tejanos equally.
  For example, two Tejanos who distinguished themselves in the Texas 
War for Independence were Captain Juan Seguin and Lorenzo de Zavala, a 
future Republic of Texas Vice President. The historical records are 
full of many other patriotic Tejanos as well.
  As future President Sam Houston and other delegates signed the Texas 
Declaration of Independence, Mexican General Santa Ana's army besieged 
independence forces at the Alamo in San Antonio.

[[Page E274]]

  Four days after the signing, the Alamo fell with her commander Lt. 
Colonel William Barrett Travis, Tennessee Congressman David Crockett, 
and approximately 200 other Texan and Tejano defenders.
  All these men were killed in action, a heroic sacrifice for Texan 
freedom. If this tragedy were not enough, weeks later Santa Anna's army 
massacred over 300 unarmed Texans at Goliad on March 27.
  In a dramatic turnaround, Texans and Tejanos achieved their 
independence several weeks later on April 21, 1836. Roughly 900 Texans 
and Tejanos of the Texan army overpowered a much larger Mexican army in 
a surprise attack at the Battle of San Jacinto.
  That battle is memorialized along the San Jacinto River with the San 
Jacinto Monument in Baytown, Texas in my district. The monument is 
larger than the Washington Monument here in D.C.
  Today is an important day for Texas identity, and patriotic Texans 
are observing this occasion with great pride at the monument in Baytown 
today. If it were not for our voting schedule here in Congress, I would 
be at home with them for this event.
  We give thanks to the many Texans from all backgrounds who sacrificed 
for the freedom we now enjoy. God bless Texas and God bless America.

                          ____________________