[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2572-2575]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              THE TEXAS WAR OF INDEPENDENCE AGAINST MEXICO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Allen). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today is March 2, 2016. 180 years ago, 
on March 2, 1836, in a little place called Washington-on-the-Brazos 
down in Texas, people of what is now Texas declared their independence 
from the nation of Mexico--March 2, 1836. Tonight I am here to talk a 
little bit about those folks 180 years ago and the cause and the result 
of the Texas War of Independence against Mexico.
  We have to back up a little bit. For a long time, almost 300 years, 
what is now Texas was controlled by the Spanish. They claimed the land 
in Texas. It

[[Page 2573]]

was sparsely populated: some Indian tribes, but not very many folks. At 
some point, Spain also controlled what is now Mexico.
  Mexico, the nation of Mexico, chose to declare independence from that 
European country of Spain and went to war with Spain to secure their 
independence back in 1820. That revolution--they called it the War of 
Independence--was successful. Mexico set up an independent nation, a 
democracy. They formed a government and a constitution very similar to 
the United States. Texas was a part of Mexico at that time and was part 
of a state called Coahuila. It was the Coahuila de Texas, two areas of 
northern Mexico that were one state in Mexico.
  Things were fine until Mexico elected a President by the name of 
Santa Anna. When he became President of Mexico, this particular 
President abolished the democracy, abolished the constitution of 1824 
that set up the Government of Mexico, and declared himself the dictator 
of Mexico. In fact, he destroyed the Republic of Mexico, the democracy 
of Mexico, and put himself as dictator-in-charge.
  Throughout the history of the world, we know of a lot of dictators, 
but they all seem to have one thing in common: they take away the 
rights--the civil rights--of the people.
  Some people in Mexico didn't like this, and therefore they started 
their own secession movement, their own revolution, their own 
independence. Now, most Americans know that Texas was one of those 
areas in Mexico that declared its independence from Mexico, and that 
independence, that revolution, was successful. But there were other 
areas of northern Mexico--and here on this map I have some of those 
areas--that also declared their independence for the reason they wanted 
to be free. They wanted independence from the dictatorship.
  There was the Republic of the Yucatan, there was the Republic 
Coahuila, and there were three or four other republics, and the 
Republic of the Rio Grande. Several areas of population in Mexico 
declared their independence.
  So what happened? Santa Anna not only was the dictator, but he was 
the commander in chief, and he was the general. He was the guy. He 
moved his army from Mexico City into these areas of revolution, areas 
where people were fighting against the government, the republic, or the 
dictatorship of Santa Anna. He had squelched, really, all of these 
revolutionary movements; although, portions of these areas did declare 
independence and appeared to have independence for a period of time.
  So that brings us to 1835, several months before Texas declared 
independence. Here is what started the Texas War of Independence:
  While all of these other movements--some were going on, some would go 
on a few months later. But during this period, there was insurrection 
in northern Mexico because people were trying to seek independence. It 
started on October 2, 1835, at Gonzales, Texas, a small little 
community in Gonzales, Texas.
  Remember, Texas is a part of Mexico at this time. The Mexican 
Government, when it was a free government, had encouraged immigration 
into this part of Texas--not just from the United States, but from 
Mexico and from European countries.
  But this town of Gonzales, Texas, was in possession of a cannon. The 
cannon was to protect themselves from the people who lived in the area 
that were hostiles, as they were called in those days. Native Americans 
are who they were. And that cannon was for that purpose.
  The Mexican Government said: We want the cannon back. You cannot have 
the cannon in Gonzales, Texas. We don't want you having it.
  The Mexican Government made the demand on October 2 to the folks in 
Gonzales, Texas: Return the cannon to the Mexican military.
  The people, the settlers of Gonzales, said: No. We are not going to 
do it. We are not giving you back the cannon. We need it.
  So they resisted. They even made a flag. They called it the Come and 
Take It flag. You may have seen that recently. It is still popular with 
a lot of folks. It was a flag that said, ``Come and take it,'' with a 
cannon on it. They hoisted this, and they had a skirmish with the 
Mexican Army, who came to take the cannon. Shots were fired on both 
sides, multiple shots. Apparently, most of the people shooting weren't 
great marksmen. A couple of Mexican soldiers were wounded, and they 
retreated without the cannon. But that event started the actual 
shooting war in the War of Independence.
  Months before that, there had been complaints. There had been letters 
written to the Mexican Government. Stephen F. Austin, the Father of 
Texas, had been imprisoned in Mexico City trying to get some civil 
rights for people who lived in what is now Texas. But it all came to a 
head at this event in October of 1835.
  It is interesting what started the Texas War of Independence, the 
shooting war, is very similar to what started the shooting war between 
the colonists and Great Britain. You remember the British were in 
Boston. We have all heard about the march through Lexington and 
Concord.
  The purpose the British Army marched through Lexington and Concord in 
the 1770s was to take the firearms, the weapons, away from the 
colonists, out of the armories in Lexington and Concord. Of course, the 
colonists refused. They fired back, and it started the shooting war 
with the British Empire, later a successful War of Independence.
  It is interesting that both of them started when government showed up 
to take the weapons, the firearms, of the people who lived in that 
area.
  The shooting war started, and, quite frankly, it was successful up 
until about this time in 1836. An army of Texans had entered a place 
called the Alamo in February of 1836--February 23, 1836--because of the 
approaching army of Santa Anna that was coming north into Texas--Tejas, 
as it was called.
  The men that assembled at the Alamo to try to stop the invading army 
coming in were an interesting bunch. There were 100 to 187 of them. 
They came from almost all of the then-States of the United States. They 
came from several foreign countries, including Great Britain, Scotland, 
Ireland, France, Germany, and Austria. Many of them were from what we 
call Mexico, and they had come into the Alamo.
  An interesting name that is unique to Texas history is that Texans of 
Spanish Mexican descent were called Tejanos, a unique name for Texans, 
Tejanos of Spanish Mexican or Hispanic descent. There were eleven of 
them at the Alamo.
  The 180 to 187 were from all walks of life. I told you they were from 
all different countries. They were not only Anglos and Tejanos, but 
there were two African Americans, two Blacks, at the Alamo, we 
understand. They were lawyers; they were frontiersmen; they were 
shopkeepers; they were young, and they were old.
  There was even a United States Congressman at the Alamo. His name was 
David Crockett. He was a former Congressman from the State of 
Tennessee. He had gone to Texas to help in the revolution and also to 
see the fortunes that he could make as an individual.
  There were a lot of reasons why people came to Texas, but 180 to 187 
of them were in the Alamo to defend and to protect that concept of 
freedom.
  This is a painting of what the Alamo looked like at the time those 
men were in the Alamo.
  So they entered the Alamo--let's get the sequence of events correct--
February 23. They are in the Alamo on March 2 when Texas declared 
independence. They were in the Alamo for 13 days. The final battle at 
the Alamo was on March 6, 1836.
  While they were in the Alamo, they were led by the commander of the 
Alamo, who is really my most favorite person in all of history. He was 
a 27-year-old lawyer from South Carolina by way of Alabama. He had come 
to Texas to settle in the 1830s, and his name was William Barret 
Travis. He was placed in command of the Alamo, of all 180, 187 of the 
folks that were there. While he was in the Alamo--he entered on 
February 23--he realized

[[Page 2574]]

that the enemy was going to be a superior force.

                              {time}  1800

  In the cold, damp Alamo, a blue norther, as we called it in those 
days, had come. It was cold. The Alamo is near San Antonio, Texas. He 
wrote a letter asking for help. I have a copy of his letter on my wall 
in my office.
  Here is what it said. To me, it is one of the most passionate letters 
ever written about freedom. It is dated February 24, 1836, in Bexar.

       To the People of Texas and All Patriots and Fellow 
     Citizens. I am besieged by a thousand or more of the enemy 
     under Santa Anna. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily 
     and will no doubt increase to 3,000 or 4,000 in 4 or 5 days. 
     The enemy has demanded surrender at its discretion. 
     Otherwise, the fort will be put to the sword. I have answered 
     that demand with a cannon shot, and the flag still waves 
     proudly over the wall. I ask that you come to my aid with all 
     dispatch. If this call is neglected, I am determined to 
     sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who 
     never forgets what is due his own honor and his country--
     victory or death. William Barret Travis, Commander.

  That is a portion of the letter that he wrote that he sent out 
throughout the area of Texas asking for help. The courier was Jim 
Bonham, another South Carolinian that had come to Texas. He was William 
Barret Travis' boyhood friend. He would take this letter to different 
areas of Texas asking for help.
  Only one group of folks answered that letter, and it was the men in 
Gonzales, Texas, where this all started. They decided that they would 
leave Gonzales, which is near San Antonio, march to the Alamo and help 
defend the Alamo. There were 32 of them.
  When they arrived at the Alamo--some historians have said as they 
walked into the Alamo--Travis said they came here to die. That brought 
the total up to about 180 to 187.
  If you will, Mr. Speaker, think about what those 32 men left behind. 
This is a rough area of the world in Texas, just the weather. But the 
people they left behind were their wives and their kids because the men 
had gone to defend the Alamo.
  After the Alamo fell and all of those men were killed, it was then 
left up to those wives and children to make an existence in frontier 
Texas. They, in their own right, were amazing people that went ahead 
and forged an existence after Texas independence was declared.
  So they are in the Alamo. On March 2, Texas declares independence. 
Probably the men in the Alamo never knew that Texas declared 
independence.
  Finally, on March 6, after 13 days, Santa Anna and his superior army 
stormed the Alamo. All 187 Texans were killed. If any surrendered, they 
were executed.
  The Mexican casualties, according to Santa Anna, were about 1,000 
casualties on the Mexican side. The Tejanos that were in the Alamo, all 
11, were also killed in the attack.
  Travis made the comment in a later letter that was sent out of the 
Alamo before this March 6 attack that defeat will cost the enemy more 
than victory. It turns out he was right.
  Anyway, the Alamo fell. The flag that flew over the Alamo--I don't 
know if you can see it, Mr. Speaker--was not the Lone Star flag. A lot 
of people think it was the Lone Star flag, which is our Texas State 
flag.
  It is the flag of Mexico with the Mexican eagle removed from the 
flag. And the date of 1824 was placed on that flag. Most historians 
think that was the flag that flew over the Alamo.
  What is the significance of this? 1824 was the year that the 
constitution was written for the Republic of Mexico. The defenders of 
the Alamo wanted a constitutional government.
  That is why they flew this flag, the 1824 constitution flag, to let 
the world know that is why they were defending the concept of liberty, 
freedom, and a constitutional government as opposed to a dictatorship.
  But the Alamo fell. Santa Anna then started moving northeast through 
Texas. The Alamo is in San Antonio, Bexar County. It was just called 
Bexar in those days.
  Meanwhile, an individual by the name of Sam Houston, who was the 
commander of all Texas armies, the few that there were, had been 
preparing an army while the men in the Alamo were at the Alamo.
  He was assembling more volunteers--everybody was a volunteer--not 
only from Texas, but other Tejanos. Other folks from other States 
formed an army to defeat or to take on Santa Anna.
  Santa Anna had actually split his army into three different columns. 
He was moving his three columns up through northeast Texas from Mexico.
  Sam Houston and his army weren't ready; so, he didn't attack Santa 
Anna. In fact, he moved east. It is called the Runaway Scrape.
  Not only was the army moving east away from Santa Anna's invaders, 
but the people who lived there were leaving, too, because they were 
afraid of the Mexican Army.
  They were afraid of Santa Anna, is who they were afraid of. So you 
have the army, you have the settlers, and you have everybody moving 
northeast, called the Runaway Scrape.
  Sam Houston continued to move. He would not engage the Mexican Army. 
In fact, some Texas folks--politicians--were irritated with Sam Houston 
because he wouldn't go to battle.
  They kept moving east. They went through San Antonio, what is now 
Interstate 10 between San Antonio and Houston. They went right through 
that area, right through what is now Houston. The Mexican Army is 
following him. Santa Anna is following him.
  They go to a place called Harrisburg, which is just east of Houston, 
on the marshes of the San Jacinto River, a marshy area, to a peninsula, 
and Sam Houston stopped on April 20, 1836.
  Santa Anna continued to march and came on the peninsula. Both armies 
are on the peninsula. On April 21, here is what happened.
  As you know, Mr. Speaker, most battles throughout history, no matter 
where they are, no matter who they are--the Greeks, the Romans, 
everybody--start at sunup or right before sunup. But that didn't happen 
on April 21, 1836.
  The Texans went to battle in the middle of the afternoon. They 
weren't going to wait until the next day. The soldiers were ready to do 
battle. Sam Houston really had no choice but to lead them into battle. 
And so he did.
  In the middle of the afternoon, just one column--there were only a 
handful of them, more than at the Alamo--a single column, single file, 
was led by an individual playing a flute, another person carrying the 
flag, and a third individual beating the drums.
  The flutist didn't know any songs. So he played an old--we would call 
it a house of ill repute song, ``Come to the Bower.'' I don't know the 
lyrics of it, Mr. Speaker, but you can look it up.
  He played on his flute ``Come to the Bower,'' which was the song they 
marched into battle with, carrying a flag of Lady Liberty, a semi-
clothed individual on the flag. Then you had the drummer.
  Then you had all of these really scary-looking folks going into 
battle, the Texas Army. Most of them didn't have any kind of uniforms. 
They dressed like frontiersmen. They had a shotgun, a long rifle, a 
tomahawk, knives, well-armed individuals.
  Also with them was Juan Seguin. Juan Seguin was a captain in the 
Texas Army. He was a Tejano. He led this cavalry of Tejanos to protect 
one of the flanks when the Texans were marching down. He, like the rest 
of the Texas Army, did not have uniforms. They wore their normal 
clothes.
  Sam Houston wanted to make sure that the Texans and the foot soldiers 
didn't mix up the Mexican Army with the Tejanos that were in the 
cavalry.
  So he had all of the Tejanos put a playing card in their sombrero. In 
those days, apparently, the cards weren't small like they are today. 
They were big.
  They stuck this 4x6 card--or something like that--in their hats, 
their sombreros, so that everybody would know that they were on the 
side of liberty, not part of the Mexican Army, a unique part of Texas 
history.
  So, in the middle of the day, what had happened was Santa Anna was 
taking a nap. It was siesta time. Now,

[[Page 2575]]

some say historically--modern revisionists--that this isn't exactly 
true, but I believe it because I want to believe it.
  Santa Anna was preoccupied with an individual that was loyal to the 
Republic of Texas, an individual that we fondly call the Yellow Rose of 
Texas now. Therefore, he wasn't prepared to go into battle when the 
Texans were coming down this small hill.
  In any event, they were caught by surprise. This battle lasted 18 
minutes. Eleven Texans were killed, 600 of the enemy were killed, and 
the rest were captured. In fact, more were captured later than in the 
Texas Army.
  The battle lasted 18 minutes. Military historians studied this battle 
because of its decisiveness. So General Houston led one battle. It was 
successful. Santa Anna was captured.
  Texas claims independence from Mexico--that was April 21, 1836--and 
goes ahead and forms a government, forms a republic and, in September 
of the same year, elects a president and a vice president.
  From October of 1835 to September of 1836 was the War of 
Independence. Declaration of independence was on March 2. April 21 the 
battle was successful. Texas is a free and independent country and 
remains so for 9 years.
  The battle cry at the Battle of San Jacinto, as you have heard in 
history, was ``Remember the Alamo.'' ``Remember Goliad.'' That was 
another place where Texans were massacred that fought Santa Anna's 
army.
  This is what Texas looked like when Texas declared independence from 
Mexico. Maybe you can see it, Mr. Speaker. I don't know.
  You see what is now Texas over here, but you see a lot of other land. 
You see Oklahoma, part of Kansas, part of New Mexico, part of Colorado. 
It even goes up to part of Idaho, almost to the Canadian border. All of 
this area here, Texas claimed all of--that is the Republic of Texas--
and claimed it for 9 years.
  Texas periodically would try to join the United States as the 28th 
State. Two times Texas tried to join the Union, and two times Congress 
rejected Texas' approval into the Union.
  On the third time, rather than have a treaty with Texas--because 
Texas was an independent country--a joint resolution was filed.
  It passed the House of Representatives and it passed the Senate, 
because you didn't need two-thirds vote then. We still have those 
discussions today, don't we? A joint resolution.
  By one vote, Texas was admitted to the Union in 1845 and, in 1846, 
actually came into the United States as the 28th State.
  It was a republic once. A lot of people in Texas still think we are a 
republic, and we seem to act like it sometimes. But we have a unique 
history.
  The history of Texas, why I like it so much, is because everybody 
wanted to live in Texas, wanted to come to Texas, of all races, of all 
nationalities, from all States.
  They fought in a war against another nation, a dictator, for the same 
reason that the 13 colonies fought for independence against Great 
Britain: for freedom and for liberty.

                              {time}  1815

  There is an independent streak that runs through all Texans. It is a 
state of mind for Texas.
  Mr. Speaker, how much time remains?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 34 minutes remaining.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, we are of an independent mind, of an 
independent philosophy. March 2 is an important day for us because our 
ancestors and people we don't even know about decided that it was worth 
their lives to fight against tyranny--against a totalitarian government 
run by a dictator. They were volunteers. They were normal people who 
just had that flame of liberty in their souls, and they refused to have 
it taken away from them.
  So we remember those folks who created Texas, who fought for 
independence for Texas, those men at the Alamo--William Barret Travis, 
Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Jim Bonham, and 187 more individuals. The 
youngest was 15, Tapley Holland from Ohio. The oldest was 68--who 
fought and died for that liberty.
  When Texas became part of the United States, it had great depth 
because of the War of Independence. Part of the deal for Texas to be 
admitted to the Union, even by one vote, was this land that I mentioned 
to you that was all sold to the Federal Government, to the Union, to 
pay off the debts of the Republic of Texas. Thus, as we know now, Texas 
looks like this. All of these other areas became other States that were 
later admitted to the United States.
  When there was the agreement between Texas and the United States to 
join the Union, it was agreed--and it is still possible--that Texas may 
divide now the State of Texas into five different States. Now, that is 
not going to happen, because nobody is going to be able to agree on 
what should be called ``Texas''; but we can divide into five States, 
and that is the decision of the people who live in Texas.
  One of the other provisions of the joint resolution was that Texas 
may fly its flag, the Lone Star Flag--the flag of the one star, the 
Lone Star, the Lone Republic--even with the American flag. When you go 
to Texas, you will see a lot of American flags, and you will see a lot 
of Texas flags, but most of the Texas flags are flying level with the 
American flag. They can do that by law. Texas does that because of its 
agreement and admission into the Union.
  Our country has a great history, Mr. Speaker, with 50 States, with 
all of our territories. Our history is unique. No place on Earth is 
like the United States. It is because of our history, because of the 
diversity of the peoples and cultures in this country. The diversity of 
Texas, the diversity of the United States is what gives it strength. It 
is not a weakness. It is a strength.
  It is, I think, quite important that we as Members of the House of 
Representatives, who represent the 50 States of the United States, make 
sure that we talk about our history--how we are a unique Nation among 
peoples, how we have always been a unique Nation among peoples--and 
preserve what those folks at the Alamo fought for and what our folks 
fought for in the Colonies in wars since then, which are freedom and 
liberty. Those are not trite words. They are core words. The concept of 
liberty lives in every person ever born in history. Most people never 
see it. Most people in the world today aren't free, but there are a 
few, and those few--some of those few--are in what we call the United 
States of America.
  I thank all of those Texans back in Texas for honoring Texas 
Independence Day, March 2, 1836. Especially, we should always honor 
those people who lived in our history who gave their lives for the rest 
of us, because they were good folk.
  And that is just the way it is.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________