Today is a day to remember for Texans wherever you are.
March 2 every year we celebrate Texas Independence Day wherever we are. I say “wherever we are” because as John Steinbeck put it, “A Texan outside of Texas is a foreigner.”
I’ve always felt that way and breathed a sigh of relief when I crossed back into Texas. It was like a breath of fresh air.
It was on this day, March 2, 1836 in the Texas town of Washington in a clapboard building, that delegates convened to declare independence through a document that created a sovereign nation called The Republic of Texas. 
The day before the delegation approved the now famous document declaring Texans to be free and independent, a cold front had moved into that area of Texas and the building was drafty and cold. We know the town now as Washington-on-the Brazos. The document was not actually signed on March 2 as stragglers fighting the cold still came into the town area to be a part of history. But they all came together finally, and in the end there were 59 signatures on the document including four Hispanic names representing their Mexican brothers who believed in freedom.
Now we know the conditions….they were wretched. The weather miserable. It was hardly a place for such a noble beginning. However, the men who gathered there were determined and persistent against the forces arrayed against them. They had read a desperate plea for help from Texian forces at the Alamo. Yet they stayed and created a nation.
It was only a few days later on March 6 when there were 185 men who vowed to “Never Surrender or Retreat” at the Alamo. In their defeat, they crippled Santa Anna’s armies. They held out for 13 days against the most formidable of forces, then went down fighting to the last man and his last blood stained breath.
Just two weeks later, after the battle of Coleto Creek on March 19, Colonel James Fannin and most of his 340 men were brutally murdered in Goliad. They had been promised an honorable surrender by General Jose Urrea, but instead were marched down a road and shot by firing squad on Santa Anna’s direct orders. The Goliad massacre started a panic among Texas citizens who started a retreat eastward now known as the Runaway Scrape, toward the U.S. border. Many wrote of the hardships they endured.
Declaring independence had enraged Santa Anna who vowed to kill all those involved in the insurrection.
But some still persisted in the dream. One of those was Sam Houston, a leader of men with a history 
all his own. He was known to his Indian brothers as ‘The Raven’. Houston commanded the last viable Texian army after the two crushing defeats. They were the last hope of a nation.
The signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence merely met to formalize an agreement they all knew whose time had come. They signed and then left their wretched conditions and went back to their duties.
Sam Houston and his army drew out Santa Anna’s armies to the breaking point and turned on them at a place called San Jacinto on April 21. General Houston ordered Vince’s Bridge burned so there would be no retreat. There would finally be Victory or Death.
It was a battle that lasted 18 minutes. The enraged Texans could have killed many more than the over 600 they did and they would have killed Santa Anna himself had not Sam Houston intervened. Santa Anna later ordered all Mexican forces out of Texas.
That was the struggle, the events, the hardships, and the creation.
But what does it mean to us today 173 years since?
It means we are different.
We are unique among all the races of the world. We are Texans, all of us.
We spent ten years as an independent nation and it changed our opinion of ourselves forever. In our minds, in our heart of hearts, in our attitudes, we will always be Texans first, Americans second.
There are those who will never understand that feeling of honor we must uphold.
If that meeting in the town of Washington on a miserably cold day on March 2 never taken place, we would not feel that way today.
As it is now, we are what we are. Independent. Different. Opinionated. Prideful about our state, and we even speak a different language colored with Mexican, southern and western phrases we now know as Texan.
Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad. Remember March 2.
Because of March 2, we are who we are….Texans.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Be careful, very careful! The rest of us might just be moving there, to become citizens of the great state of Texas. The way our country is going, we might have to congregate there and start over!
I have a daughter there, and she would take us! (Well, maybe not!) LOL!
Nice post on the history of your great state. I’m sure President Bush is glad to be home!
You might like to read this
Well said, my friend!
Not only are we different, opinionated, independent, prideful, but tolerant as well–up to a point. We allow our liberal friends to blow their media driven steam, and we tolerate it. We allow talk of gun control, and we tolerate it. We allow others to bash our state and we tolerate it–up to a point. Be careful my friends, and don’t go beyond that point. We can be worse than a live chain saw in a dark closet.
Now we face another invasion from our southern border–an invasion of illegal Mexican aliens, along with many from Central and South America and hate-filled terrorist from Middle East countries–all perpetuated by our liberal friends (or enemies) in Washington. What happened to the days when immigrants were welcomed into this country, but allowed here only if certain conditions were fulfilled? What happened to the days when those who came here were so proud and thankful that they wanted to become Americans and learn our language? What happened to our leaders who made their first priority protecting this country? George W. Bush was ridiculed, bashed, cursed, demonized, and spit upon—-BUT HE KEPT US SAFE!
At this moment a FULL SCALE drug cartel war wages on our southern border. Will we survive? Will we continue this tolerance? Yes we will—-up to a point.
Texans are beginning to get a little riled. Beware, that’s not a good sign in Texas!
I left Texas {TAD} in 1958, but i left my heart there. Everything you just said is “RIGHT ON IT”. How true it is when I go HOME, the instant I cross the texas BORDER, I have a magnifisent feeling. The air is even different. By the way the Osborn coat of arms is HOUSTON. One of my forefathers married Sam Houstons sister. I now reside in Atlanta, EAST Mexico, Ga. SEE YA SOON !!!
Let me add a great big amen to your words Dave and thank you for them.
We are independent, we are different, we are opinionated and we damn sure are prideful. I guess the current status and condition of our society and of our country probably causes more concern for Texans than any other group of people. We are living in a time where politics and federal bureaucracy is comprised of some of the most dishonest bunch of thieves and liars that Texans have ever encountered. But, what can we do about it?
I used to think that Texas would eventually become an independent republic again because we would reach a point in time when all Texans would step up and say “enough”. I thought that this would probably not happen in my lifetime, or maybe not even in my kids’ lifetimes. Now, I am not so sure. I think we are fast approaching that time. I am believing more and more the message on proposed bumper stickers that says: “I’ll keep my Freedom, my Money and my Guns and you keep the CHANGE!”
Many States, including Texas, are stepping up and passing resolutions to send to Congress saying we will not be bound by any laws you pass which violate the 10th Amendment to the Constitution. That amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” If the feds would abide by the Constitution, we would have no problems. Will this happen? Never, but this is at least a start.
Interestingly enough, Texas, in the annexation treaty of 1845, when Texas entered the Union, reserved the right upon a majority vote of its citizens to divide Texas into a total of 5 states. Legislation to this effect has actually been introduced in the Texas Legislature on several occasions over the years. Some of the bills were whimsical in nature and some were more serious. The biggest problem was where to draw the lines. Now I would hate it for my beloved Texas to be divided at all. But think about it as a means to an end. Alan Erwin wrote a book called “The Power Exchange”. This was a work of fiction where Texas did in fact divide into 5 separate states, and each state elected 2 Senators to Congress. That in essence gave Texas 10 Senators in Washington. When all 10 Senators showed up, Congress refused to seat all of them saying that we were only entitled to 2 Senators. Texas then took the position that the US violated the annexation treaty so therefore we were the Republic of Texas once again. The US promptly began an invasion of Texas and we kicked their butts at the Red River before they could ever cross. The book ended at this point. Remember, this was a work of fiction. But, you’ve got to admit it sounds pretty interesting. Some other books on this subject are: “The 5 States of Texas” by Donald W. Whisenhunt and “The Howling of the Coyotes” by Ernest Wallace.
Take a road trip to the Alamo and be there on March 6 at 6:00 am [Friday in 2009] and listen to the sounds as they conduct the memorial on the date that the Alamo fell honoring all those that gave their lives so that Texans would have the right to feel the way we do. I promise that you will go away from that tribute ready to take some action.
GOD BLESS TEXAS!!!!
Personally I am from Texas and love Texas with all of my heart. Sectionalism is still a big thing in America whether you believe it or not. Some people are from the south. Some from New England. Even some from free thinking California. But Texans are different. We are our own different people with different customs than other people. America would be a shadow of itself without the great state of Texas.
God bless Texas first and America second