-· I,
272
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1851
vessels in the course of the year; and with no communication by mails between the two countries-an isolated people, deprived almost of hope-had to stand upon their rights and advance against the tyrant, or violate their oaths. They chose to vindi- cate the Constitution that they had always looked upon as the palladium of their liberties. They did assert that they would do it. Santa Anna unhesitatingly demanded of them not only the public arms, comprising only one or two pieces of ordnance in the whole country, but their private arms, their rifles-the com- panions in perils past, and in troubles yet to come. They refused to surrender their private arms; they were their friends-their safety. They were their protectors against Indians and wild · beasts, for their wives and children; they were necessary to their existence, and they procured the meat upon which their little ones subsisted. But even these were demanded by his despotic will and proud mandate. T'exas would not yield, and defied the monster (loud cheering). He advanced to the Alamo, which was the first beleaguered place; it fell after many days and nights of incessant watching and heroic devotion; every human being but one white woman, an infant, and two negroes, perished: not one male was left to tell the tale of destruction. The next victims were Fanning's band; they, too, after fighting for a length of time, deceived by Santa Anna, were induced, through credulity, to surrender. Another massacre followed. First 187 at the Alamo, and then the tragic scene at Goliad, where upwards of 500 perished-these were the propitiations offered to his vengeance; they were offered for their country's redemption. But civil broils, or rather intrigue, had produced this fatal mis- take. Texas ought never to have lost 500 men in her revolution; it was enough to have lost one. The commander-in-chief had expressly ordered the Alamo to be blown up, and everything that could be, brought off forty days before the enemy besieged it; and eight days before Fanning's massacre, and after the fall of the Alamo, the commander-in-chief ordered him to fall back and unite with him, and thus arouse the drooping spirits of the few scattered Texans that remained, the only semblance of an army that Texas had or could hope to raise. He replied that he had assumed the responsibility of disobeying the order, that he had held a council of war, and resolved on defence, and would meet the consequences. The next intelligence that the army on the Colorado received was that Fanning was massacred, with most of his men. Some forty fugitives out of 500 escaped, and they were shot at by the enemy; some fell, p/retending to be dead,
. j•
I I l . 'I
l i
I' I
• I
' ! ' t ' 0 I
! i
Powered by FlippingBook