CHAPTER XXI

THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS

THE fate of the defenders of the Alamo was not more tragic than that of the men who had endeavored to undertake the expedition against Matamoros, at the time of the unfortunate controversy between Governor Smith and the council of Texas. We have related the conflict in authority between the military commanders: General Houston on one side, supported by the governor, and Colonels Johnson and Fannin on the other, supported by the council. Houston had gone in January to Refugio, where he had met Johnson and Doctor Grant, who was one of the most enthusiastic leaders in the expedition against Matamoros. The major-general had spoken to Johnson's men, who were nearly all volunteers from the United States, and had persuaded most of them to join his forces. Let us now see what was the fate of the men who remained with Johnson and Grant and of those who were with Fannin.

Johnson and Grant were ordered by Fannin to collect horses. They had reached San Patricio with less than one hundred men, after Houston's departure from Refugio, and they divided their command to obey Fannin's instructions. On March 2, Grant's detachment was surprised by a force of several hundred dragoons under General Urrea, and nearly all the men were killed by the Mexicans, Grant being among the slain. Johnson's detachment had not been more fortunate and had been almost entirely destroyed at San Patricio by Urrea, a little before he had slaughtered Grant and his men. Colonel Johnson escaped almost miraculously.

On March 13, Urrea advanced on Goliad, where was Fannin. The latter had sent Captain King with twentyeight men to Refugio, and the Mexicans attacked him there. He asked for reinforcements, which came under Colonel Ward, and he retired a little later to a wood, leaving Ward at the mission of Refugio. On March 14 and 15, King's men were all killed by the enemy, except two, and Ward, after a valiant defense, escaped from Refugio and started to join Fannin. On the way he was surrounded by a large force and had to surrender. Meanwhile Fannin had been ordered by Houston to abandon Goliad and retreat to Victoria. He waited, unfortunately, several days for the return of King and Ward from Refugio, and began his retreat only on March 19. He was soon attacked by the Mexicans and completely surrounded. He fought bravely until night, but in the morning of the twentieth he surrendered to Urrea, and he and his men were sent to Goliad, where they were soon joined by Ward's detachment, which had also been captured, as related above. On March 27, by direct order of Santa Anna, the prisoners to the number of three hundred and seventy-one were marched out of Goliad, and at a distance of half a mile from the fort, they were massacred by the guard of soldiers which accompanied them. Ward and Fannin were among the slain. This horrible Ideed was due to the enforcement of a law which declared pirates all foreigners entering the Mexican republic with arms in their hands. There is, however, no palliation for such a barbarous deed, and the massacres at the Alamo and at Goliad roused the Texans to make superhuman efforts to obtain their independence from Mexico.

On December 20, 1835, at Goliad, ninety-one citizens headed by Captain Dimit, had signed a declaration of independence ending with these words: "relying on our entire confidence upon the coöperation of our fellow citizens." All of the people of Texas were not yet ready for a separation from Mexico, although Austin wrote from New

Orleans, on January 7, 1836: "Were I in the convention I would urge an immediate declaration of independence," and ten days later he wrote again: "The whole nation of all parties is against us; they have left us but one remedyindependence." Houston also in January was in favor of an unequivocal declaration of independence.

The convention to which Austin had referred in his letter of January 7, met at Washington on the Brazos, on March 1, 1836. It organized by the election of Richard Ellis as president and H. T. Kimble as secretary, and the next day it proclaimed by a unanimous vote the independence of Texas. Fifty-eight delegates signed the declaration; of the signers three only were Mexicans. The grievances of the Texans have been summarized as follows by Bancroft: "They were based upon the changes made in the government by Santa Anna, and the establishment of a combined despotism of the sword and priesthood, in the place of the constitution under which the immigrants had settled in Texas. Particular instances of tyranny and of failure to provide for the welfare of Texas are enumerated: the rejection of the petition for a separate state government; the imprisonment of Austin; the failure to establish trial by jury and a public system of education; arbitrary acts of oppression on the part of military commanders; the dissolution by force of arms of the state congress of Coahuila and Texas, thereby depriving the people of the right of representation; piratical attacks on Texan commerce; the denial of religious tolerance; invasion of the country for the purpose of driving the colonists from their homes; and inciting savages to massacre inhabitants on the frontiers."

A provisional government was organized by the convention, and David G. Burnet was elected president by that body; Lorenzo de Zavala, vice-president; Samuel P. Carson, secretary of state; Thomas J. Rusk, secretary of war; Robert Potter, secretary of the navy; Bailey Hardiman, secretary of the treasury; and David Thomas, attorney