Texans are special people. Texas is a special State. Yesterday was the 173rd anniversary of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico. Fifty-nine men gathered in a windowless wooden building at Washington-on-the-Brazos debating the future of Texas. At the same time, 173 miles west, in the city of San Antonio de Bexar, the Mexican Army, 3000 strong, besieged about 189 Texians and Tejanos in a hundred- year-old abandoned mission compound called the Alamo. By affixing their signatures to the declaration the delegates gave meaning to the siege. Those 189 men under the command of William Barrett Travis saw liberty as a cause for which they willingly laid down their lives.

Just as with George Washington and our nation’s founding fathers, the revisionist historians have attacked these men. They have been characterized as land grabbers and speculators seeking profit. It has been my experience that very few men are willing to die for the prospect of wealth. Thousands have given their lives for liberty,

Today too many have no idea of the meaning of March 2, 1836, things that I learned in the first grade from a colorful history of Texas picture book. Not long ago I was shown a book purporting to be Texas history that did not mention the Alamo and only briefly touched on the fight for independence.

It is no longer politically correct to stand for liberty. The revisionist historians would have us to believe that we ugly Americans came and took away this land from a peaceful and democratic republican government. This is not so. From 1800 on there was a stirring of revolution in the southern lands. There indeed were groups that tried to take Texas by force. Father Hidalgo, an unlikely revolutionary, led an unsuccessful revolt against Spain. In the aftermath the Magee-Gutierrez expedition (at best a footnote in Texas history) established the first Republic of Texas. It was a very short- lived republic. This first Republic of Texas died at the Battle of Medina a few miles south of San Antonio. The battle was a bloody affair with few known survivors of the rebel army. They were given no quarter and in the aftermath the state was decimated by the royalist army putting to death everyone who had any part in the rebellion. In that royalist army, learning his trade was a young lieutenant, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. He learned it well.

Those who signed the declaration and those who died in the Alamo were for the most part homesteaders looking for a new start in this blessed land. They had been invited into the country and had proven to be hard workers and law-abiding citizens. They had supported Santa Anna in his election to the presidency of Mexico and enjoyed freedom under the Mexican Constitution of 1824. Santa Ana abrogated he 1824 constitution and became de facto dictator of Mexico. Heavy new requirements were placed on the citizens of Texas, colonists and Tejanos alike. The spirit of ‘76 and of the Hidalgo heroes brought the Texans together until they reached a breaking point. A conflict followed that led to the banks of Buffalo Bayou and San Jacinto to establish the new free state and republic.

This was no Yankee land grab but a genuine fight for freedom. The honor roll places men like Lorenzo de Zavala alongside Sam Houston; the heroes of the Alamo included Gregorio Esparza alongside David Crockett; Galba Fuqua alongside Jim Bowie.

Whether your family goes back to the Republic or you arrived in Texas only yesterday you are an heir to the bravery and the love for freedom of those who signed the declaration and who fought in the Alamo. Don’t let anyone take that away from us.=