“No, he isn’t. He had to quit when the governor was ousted. The council was ag’in ’em both.”
“Who’s our head, then? Why doesn’t the convention reappoint him? We’ve got to have somebody, quick.”
“I reckon it will. But maybe he won’t accept. Wouldn’t blame him any. He’s been treated right shabbily.”
“He’ll take it,” assured Dick Carroll. “There’s nothing small or picayune about Sam Houston. And fighting for independence, under Houston, we’ll lick Santa Anna out of his boots.”
Nevertheless, upon the forms sitting enveloped in their blankets, or lying to try to sleep, rested a gloom not of the night alone. In the headquarters of General Houston a light burned until almost morning.
After breakfast the reassembling of the convention was eagerly awaited. No more news from Colonel Travis had arrived; but report stated that during the night the delegates had drawn up a declaration of independence, and that it was about ready for adoption. The report proved true. Soon after the convention was called to order, President Ellis arose, a mass of foolscap paper in his hand, and stated that he would have the secretary read the report of the committee upon an announcement of the Republic of Texas.
“The Unanimous Declaration of Independence made by the Delegates of the People of Texas in General Convention at the Town of Washington, on the 2nd day of March, 1836,” read Secretary Kimball.
“When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression: When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a consolidated, central, military despotism....” continued Secretary Kimball, in a long introduction; then “self-preservation” and “a right towards themselves and a sacred obligation to their posterity” warrant a people “to abolish such government” and to create another safer and happier.
“Nations, as well as individuals, are amenable for their acts to the public opinion of mankind [proceeded the declaration]. A statement of a part of our grievances is, therefore, submitted to an impartial world, in justification of the hazardous but unavoidable step now taken of severing our political connection with the Mexican people, and assuming an independent attitude among the nations of the earth.
“The Mexican government had pledged the colonists liberty of action under a republic and a constitution, and now had submitted it to a military despotism under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. It had refused to grant an appeal, according to the constitution, for statehood separate from unfriendly Coahuila. It had imprisoned Stephen Austin. It had refused to provide trial by jury. It had provided no schools or other means of public education. It had allowed the soldiers to oppress the citizens. It had forced the state congress of Texas and Coahuila to dissolve. It had demanded the surrender of citizens, for an imprisonment without a trial. It had seized trading vessels. It had interfered with religious liberty. It had demanded the delivery of private arms. It was invading Texas with an army, to drive the people from their homes. It was inciting the Indians to attack the colonists. It was, and ever had been, a “weak, corrupt, and tyrannical government.”