as their opinion, predicated in part upon the senti- ments of the people with whom they conversed, that they ought to become an independent people. ThC'rr was great weight also given to the consideration that volunteers from abroad, then in the field, were not willing any longer to fight for l\Iexican liberty, upon which they themselves set so little value.-'l'hen it was that a sudden change took place in the public mind, favorable to independence. For the purpose of showing that the declaration of the second of :i\Iarch did not in any way provoke the late hostilities in Texas, I will here remark, that the :.\Iexican army entered the town of San Antonio on the 23d of February, seven days prior to the assemb- ling of the Convention, and that the Alamo was stormed on the sixth of l\Iareh, fiye clays only after the above declaration. As soon as his power was made plenary and indis- putable, the General took the field, and collected all the forces at Gonzales, which had been previously draughted into the service, amounting to one third of the whole effective force of Texas. . In addition to these were some volunteers just arrived from the United States. In obedience to orders from the Gen- eral, thirty-eight m('n had all'eady been sent from Gonzales to the aid of C'ol. Travis in the Alamo. Bnt
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