011r Catholic Heritage in Te:xas
and his views to dissuade them from going to Matamoros. He maintained that he, Houston, was the only lawful commander, and declared the Matamoros expedition was unauthorized. Johnson, on the other hand, representing the Council, from whom he had received his commission, protested that Houston had authority over the "regular" army only. Fortunately, the Council had on December 10, 1835, issued a call for a convention to meet on March I in accord with the recommendations of the Consultation. The Council and the rival governors did not sur- render to the Convention their power or the records until March II, although they had, in fact, been legally powerless since January 17, 1836, because the Council lacked a quorum. Eighty-eight ordinances and resolutions, dealing principally with military matters, were passed by the Council. It established a post office department; tried to provide for a more efficient administration of finances; set. up the machinery for collecting import duties to raise sorely needed revenue; took the first steps for organizing a navy; and, over the Governor's veto, issued the call for the election of delegates to a convention that was t9 meet on March I to assume control of affairs." Accordingly, delegates to a convention "with ample, unlimited, or plenary powers as to the form of government to be adopted," were elected on February 1, 1836, and met on March I in Washington-on- the-Brazos. By that time the embattled colonists had reached the lowest ebb in their struggle for freedom. As the delegates gathered that cold March morning, only gloom seemed to surround them. The brave defenders of the Alamo had sent forth their last ringing call for aid in the face of certain doom. Their fall would leave the members of the Convention without the protection of a single armed man between them and the victorious forces of Santa Anna. Urrea's army was advancing rapidly along the coast and his thundering cavalry were almost in Goliad. The families were beginning to rush in a mad scramble to the Sabine for safety. There was no turning back now for the brave patriots that met at Washington-on-the-Brazos. Like the men of the Alamo, they had no alternative. There, in the cold gloom of Noah T. Byars' blacksmith shop, they began to forge a new nation. If conditions had changed rapidly and drastically between the call for the Consultation and its meeting on November 3, they had changed even more between the adjournment of the Consultation on November 17 and the assembling of the Convention on March 1, 1836. All possi-
15 Binkley, op. cit., I, 7 5-78.
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