[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 7, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H1219]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TEXAS INDEPENDENCE DAY

  (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, last Friday, March 2, 2012, 
marked Texas Independence Day.
  It was 176 years ago that the Texas Declaration of Independence was 
ratified by the convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas.
  A military dictatorship took over Mexico, abolishing the Mexican 
Constitution. The dictatorship refused to provide trial by jury, 
freedom of religion, public education for its citizens, and allowed the 
confiscation of firearms. The last one being the most intolerable, 
particularly among Texans.
  Failure to provide these basic rights violated the sacred contract 
between a government and its people. Texas did what we still do today, 
stood up for our rights. In response, the Mexican Army marched to 
Texas, waging a war on the land and the people, enforcing the decrees 
of the military dictatorship through brute force and without any 
democratic legitimacy.
  As future Texas President and Governor Sam Houston, along with other 
delegates, signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, General Santa 
Anna's army besieged the independence forces at the Alamo in San 
Antonio.
  Yesterday, March 6, 176 years ago, 4 days after the signing, the 
Alamo fell with Lieutenant Colonel William Barrett Travis, former 
Tennessee Congressman David Crockett, and approximately 200 other Texas 
defenders.
  In a dramatic turnaround, Texans achieved their independence several 
weeks later on April 21, 1836. Roughly 900 members of the Texas Army 
overpowered a larger Mexican force. I'm proud to represent the San 
Jacinto Battlefield and State Park.
  God bless Texas and God bless America.

                          ____________________