[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5457-5458]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          BALLAD OF THE ALAMO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE.

     In the southern part of Texas
     In the town of San Antone
     There's a fortress all in ruins
     That the weeds have overgrown.
     You may look in vain for crosses
     And you'll never see a one.
     But sometime between the setting
     And the rising of the sun
     You can hear a ghostly bugle
     As the men go marching by.
     You can hear them as they answer
     To that roll call in the sky.
     Colonel William Barrett Travis, Davy Crockett
     And 180 more.
     Captain Dickinson, Jim Bowie
     They're all present and accounted for.

  Mr. Speaker, these are the lyrics to Marty Robbins' ``Ballad of the 
Alamo.''
  It was there in an old beat up Spanish mission in south Texas called 
the Alamo on March 6, 1836, 171 years ago today, that 187 men stood 
defiant against oppression and tyranny. They were an odd looking bunch. 
They were dressed in buckskin. They had large knives, tomahawks and 
long rifles. They were of all races, of all States, and 13 foreign 
countries, including Mexico. They were facing a professional army over 
20 times their size.
  They were there because of the new dictator of Mexico, Santa Anna. He 
had abolished the democratic Mexican constitution and made himself 
dictator of all of Mexico.
  Hispanics and Anglos living in the Texas part of Mexico wanted the 
Mexican constitution restored, or independence from Mexico.
  Santa Anna then invaded Texas with three armies to put down the 
dissenters. The men at the Alamo were led by a 27-year-old lawyer from 
South Carolina and Alabama named William Barrett Travis.
  There is a lot of legend, lore and tradition about the defense of the 
Alamo. But what is true, Mr. Speaker, is that the Alamo defenders 
believed that some things were worth living for and dying for. One of 
those being the word, liberty.
  Being surrounded, Travis knew he could not hold off Santa Anna's army 
and he sent out numerous dispatches for help. I have a copy of one of 
those letters on my office wall. It reads, ``Fellow citizens and 
compatriots, I am besieged by 1,000 or more of the enemy under Santa 
Anna. I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannon fire for over 
24 hours, but I have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded surrender 
at its discretion, otherwise this fort will be put to the sword. I have 
answered that demand with a cannon shot and the flag still waves 
proudly over the north wall. I shall never surrender or retreat. I call 
upon you in the name of liberty and patriotism and everything dear to 
our character to come to my aid with all dispatch. If this call is 
neglected, I am determined to sustain myself for as long as possible 
and die like a soldier that never forgets what is due his honor and 
that of his country. Victory or death, William Barrett Travis, 
commander of the Alamo.''
  Travis held out for 5 days and 6 days and up to 13 days. But no 
troops ever came to help the Alamo defenders except the 32 men from 
Gonzales, Texas.
  Eventually Travis and the boys were overwhelmed, and not one was 
spared by Santa Anna. But victory was expensive for the dictator Santa 
Anna. Travis, in his last letter from the Alamo said, ``Victory will be 
more costly for Santa Anna than defeat.'' He was right. Santa Anna's 
losses were staggering. He also had a crippled army and lost the moral 
victory to the Texas war of independence.

[[Page 5458]]

  Then on April 21, 1836, General Sam Houston routed Santa Anna's 
larger army at the marshes of San Jacinto. Texas became an independent 
nation and was so for 9 years. And Mr. Speaker, the rest, they say, is 
Texas history.
  William Barrett Travis is my favorite person in all of history. My 
grandson is named Barrett Houston in his honor.
  I conclude these remarks about the Alamo with Marty Robbins' closing 
lines:

     The bugles are silent.
     There's rust on every sword.
     There's a small band of soldiers
     That lie asleep in the arms of the Lord.
     And like a statue on his pinto
     Rides a cowboy all alone.
     And he sees the cattle grazing
     Where just a century before
     Santa Anna's guns were blazing
     And the cannons used to roar.
     His eyes turn sort of misty
     And his heart begins to glow
     And then he takes his hat off slowly
     To the men of that Alamo.
     To the 13 days of glory
     At the siege of the Alamo.

  Mr. Speaker, that's just the way it is.

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