The Struggle for b1depe11dence, 1835-1836
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to ignore the whole matter. On March 4, the Convention appointed Houston "Commander in chief of all the land forces of the Texian Army, both regulars, volunteers, and militia, while in actual service," thus ending the confusion that had so long demoralized the armed forces. Houston, upon receipt of the last urgent call for help from the Alamo, withdrew from the Convention on March 6. He did not know that the Alamo had fallen that day; in fact, he did not receive the sad news until he arrived in Gonzalez five days later. The final days of the Convention were most hectic. News of the fall of the Alamo spread over all a sense of impending disaster, which was heightened by the orders of Houston, issued on March 13, to evacuate Gonzalez and Goliad. His decision to retreat filled the Con- vention and the people with panic. Soldiers left the army with or without permission to look after their families. In those last frantic hours the Convention had to establish an interim government before they could adjourn, because the Constitution adopted on that fateful night of March 16 was not to go into effect "until the same be submitted to the people and confirmed by a majority vote thereof." Hurriedly, David G. Burnet was elected President by a vote of twenty-nine to twenty-three; Lorenzo de Zavala was made Vice President; Samuel P. Carson, Secretary of State; Bailey Hardeman, Secretary of the Treasury; Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War; Robert Potter, Secretary of the Navy; and David Thomas, Attorney General. Like the Consultation, the Convention had worked under great stress. Its accomplishments under the circumstances are, therefore, all the more remarkable. Of the fifty-nine members there were thirteen lawyers, six physicians, thirteen merchants, and one minister. The majority were past forty years of age, and nine of them were under thirty. The record shows that forty-eight of the fifty-nine had moved to Texas before the beginning of the Revolution. 30 Texan headquarters were removed from Washington-on-the-Brazos to Harrisburg and from Harrisburg to Galveston Island. Houston com- plained that the Government's retreat had demoralized the army and Burnet replied: "The enemy are laughing you to scorn; you must fight them. You must retreat no farther. The country expects you to fight. The salvation of the country depends on you doing so." 30 There is a printed version of the Journal. of the Convention in Gammel, LawJ of Texas, I, 823-904. This account omits important details found in the Ms. copy in Convention Papers. The correspondence of the Convention is found in Binkley, Official. Correst,ondence of tl,e Tera.11 Revo/41/io11 1 I, 465-5c,4.
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