Date: 2005-03-02
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. today. March 2 marks Texas Independence Day. and this morning at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. Texas. Texans paid tribute with a musket volley salute in full costume to the Texas veterans who are buried there. Texas cities and towns across the State "are holding many important Memorial events in honor of the fact that 169 years ago today. the Texas Declaration of Independence was ratified by the Constitutional Convention of 1836 at WashingtonontheBrazos. Less than 100 years after American patriots declared independence from the tyrannical British Empires military domination. Texas declared its independence from Mexico. After July 4. 1776. democratic government became a birthright for the people of the new World. but one that -we would have to fight for. Like the American patriots driven to revolution by heavyhanded British intervention. Texas declared its independence after many years of living peacefully as part of the Mexican federal republic because Mexico became dominated by military dictatorships. The seeds of Texas independence were sown in 1824. when a military dictatorship abolished the Mexican constitution. In the words of the Texas declaration of independence. the Texas peoples government have been forcibly changed without their consent from a restricted federative republic composed of sovereign states to a consolidated central military despotism. The Texas Declaration of Independence also based the justification for revolution on the grounds that the government of Mexico had ceased to protect the lives and liberty and property of the people. The military dictatorships that had unfortunately captured the Mexican government also did not provide for trial by jury. freedom of religion or public education. Failure to provide these essential services violates the sacred contract between government and the people. It is important to remember that the struggle for Texas independence was a political struggle. not an ethnic conflict. In fact. many Texas Hispanics consider themselves Tejanos and not Mexicanos. Tejanos lived in Texas long before Mexico existed and they moved there for the same reasons Anglos later moved there. freedom to run their own affairs anda wild but productive landscape. So we are inspired by so fiany Tejanos that joined the fight for independence when the Mexican government became an exploitive military regime. including Captain Juan Sequin. Lorenzo de Zavala. a future republic of Texas vice president. When Texans and Tejanos protested the undemocratic changes to Mexicos government. they were thrown in jail and the Mexican Army marched to war on Texas to enforce the decrees of the military dictatorship at the point of a bayonet. While future President Sam Houston and other delegates signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Santa Annas army was besieging the Texans and Tejanos at the Alamo in San Antonio. The Alamo fell on the morning of March 6. 1836 when Lt. Colonel William Barrett Travis. Tennesseean congressman David Crockett and approximately 200 other Texan and Tejano defenders were killed in action a heroic sacrifice for Texan freedom. On March 27. this same Army massacred over 300 unarmed Texans at Goliad. Fortunately. Texans and Tejanos achieved their independence several weeks later on April 21. 1836 when approximately 900 Texans and Tejanos of the Texas Army overpowered a much larger Mexican army in the surprise attack at the Battle of San Jacinto. Texas Independence Day is important to all Americans because it is the event that show the brotherhood of freedom can be stronger than the brotherhood of ethnicity or nationality. as Tejanos proved at. Gonzalez. Bexar. Goliad and the Alamo and along the banks of the San Jacinto River and the government of the republic of Texas. People sometimes wonder what makes Texas and Texans so different and I believe part of that answer is the passion for freedom that gave us the first Texas Independence Day is still alive today. Something about being raised in Texas or even living there for an extended period of time makes Texans less willing to put up with the infringement on our rights. more willing to fight for them. I believe part of that passion comes from knowing Texas history. Today we give thanks to the many Texans of all backgrounds that sacrificed for the Texas freedom we enjoy. God bless Texas and God bless America.