Tag

Texas

Texas’ Declaration of Independence Blog

Texas’ Declaration of Independence

On March 2, 1836, Texas formally proclaimed its independence from Mexico with a declaration of independence at a convention at Washington-on-the Brazos. The event leading to that declaration was a revolution of Mexicans against the increasingly tyrannical governing of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. In 1824, Santa Anna dissolved the Mexican constitution with publication of his Seven Laws, which in…
M. Andrew Holowchak
November 2, 2026
The Melancholy Conclusion Blog

The Melancholy Conclusion

On March 1, 1836, the delegates at Washington-on-the-Brazos met in an unfinished building in near-freezing weather, and they appointed a committee of five to write a declaration of independence. The committee, chaired by George Childress, brought back a finished draft within a day. Historians suspect Childress had written much of it before he arrived. The convention adopted it on March…
Daniel Miller
October 8, 2026
Here Lie Your Brethren Blog

Here Lie Your Brethren

Reflections on the Alamo and Texas Independence, Part I In March of 1930, the former President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, and his wife Grace had occasion to travel through the State of Texas during a leisurely train trip. During an excursion to San Antonio, they were treated to a private tour of the Alamo. It was here that…
Miles Foltermann
April 22, 2026
Remember the Alamo Blog

Remember the Alamo

I was watching some old true crime story on one of the cable channels recently. Probably a rerun, though I don’t keep up with T.V. and its general blather. As a rule, T.V. is about as entertaining and educational as two goats eating weed grass without disturbing the dandelions. And the “news” is even worse. Anyway, this crime had taken…
Paul H. Yarbrough
March 6, 2024
God Bless Texas Blog

God Bless Texas

On Friday, 26 January, Slate magazine ran a piece entitled “GOP Governors Invoke the Confederate Theory of Secession to Justify Border Violations.” Slate has an interesting definition of “border violations.” A sensible, normal person would think that meant crossing the border illegally. Slate uses the phrase to refer to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has taken steps to guard his…
Earl Starbuck
January 29, 2024
A Righteous Cause at San Jacinto Blog

A Righteous Cause at San Jacinto

The Battle of San Jacinto was brief (less than a half-hour) and decisive. Santa Anna and his Mexican army were decisively defeated a few miles east of what is now Houston, Texas. It became known as Sam Houston’s “retreat to victory.” It essentially cleared the way for Texas as an independent republic. The Texans had recently declared independence (March 2,…
Paul H. Yarbrough
May 5, 2023
Two Southern Heroes Blog

Two Southern Heroes

The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P. Lane, A San Jacinto Veteran  (1887) John Salmon Ford, Rip Ford’s Texas  (1885, 1963) Our forebears of the antebellum South are being subjected to  pervasive dishonest slander (by both left and right) these days.  Brave and honourable people who did far more than their fair share in the creation of the United…
Clyde Wilson
February 22, 2022
The Latin South Blog

The Latin South

“The Hispanic community understands the American Dream and have not forgotten what they were promised,” declared Florida Senator Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who fled their native land in 1956 during the regime of Fulgencio Batista. Though their stories are not often told, Hispanics have been realizing that American vision in the South since the antebellum era. Indeed,…
Casey Chalk
June 23, 2021
Sam Houston and Texas Secession Blog

Sam Houston and Texas Secession

"Lincoln, under no circumstances, would I vote for ... So, I say, stand by the 'Constitution and the Union', and so long as the laws are enacted and administered according to the Constitution we are safe ..." (emphasis added) Letter from Sam Houston to Colonel A. Daly, August 14, 1860 The 1860 Election was still 3 months in the future and…
Vito Mussomeli
July 12, 2018
Texas Secession? Blog

Texas Secession?

It may not get anywhere at all, but there are a number of people in Texas trying to get the official state Republican Party to debate the issue of secession at the party convention on May 12-14. The movement got started by the Texas Nationalist Movement, a group that's been around for more than a decade, involved mostly in trying…
Kirkpatrick Sale
April 25, 2016
Remember the Alamo! Blog

Remember the Alamo!

T.R. Fehrenbach, author of the magisterial classic Lone Star: A History of Texas and Texans, passed away late last year in San Antonio at the age of 88. I recently came by chance across his obituary in The New York Times, which is a museum quality specimen of the intellectual and ethical defects of current American journalism and “scholarship.” The…
Clyde Wilson
May 7, 2014