The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 24, July 1920 - April, 1921 Page: 40
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The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Texas. The memorial forwarded to Congress by the Convention,
which closed April 13, 1833, is a gloomy one. It was written
by David G. Burnet. After enumerating many evils from which
the people were suffering, due to the lack of a strong local gov-
ernment, it declared:
We do not mean to attribute these specific disasters to the union
with Coahuila, for we know they transpired long anterior to the
consummation of that union. But we do maintain that the same
political causes, the same want of protection and encouragement,
the same mal-organization and impotency of the local and minor
faculties of the government, the same improvident indifference
to the peculiar and vital interests of Texas, exists now that oper-
ated then. Bexar is still exposed to the depredations of her
ancient enemies, the insolent, vindictive, and faithless Comanches.
Ier citizens are still massacred, their cattle destroyed or driven
away, and their very habitations threatened, by a tribe of erratic
and undisciplined Indians, whose audacity has derived confidence
from success, and whose long-continued aggressions have invested
them with a fictitious and excessive terror. Her schools are neg-
lected, her churches desolate, the sounds of human industry are
almost hushed, and the voice of gladness and festivity is converted
into wailing and lamentation, by the disheartening and multiplied
evils which surround her defenceless population. Goliad is still
kept in trepidation; is paralyzed in all her efforts for improve-
ment; and is harassed in all her borders by the predatory incur-
sions of the Wacoes, and other insignificant bands of savages,
whom a well-organized local government would soon subdue and
exterminate.3
Santa Anna, who was, in effect, dictator in Mexico when Stephen
F. Austin presented this memorial, refused the request, imprisoned
Austin, and in October, 1834, announced his purpose to send four
thousand troops to San Antonio, "for the protection of the coast
and rontier."4 In March, 1835, Congress decreed the reduction
of the militia throughout the Republic to one man for every five
hundred inhabitants, and the disarming of the remainder.
Troops dispatched to Texas began to arrive early in 1835, and
conflicts with the settlers soon began. At Anahuac a collector,
backed by a small body.of troops, attempted to collect tariff duties,
which the Texans resented." This situation, together with the
"Yoakum, History of Texas, I, 475.
4E. C. Barker, in Texas Historical Association Quarterly, VII, 250;
Brown, History of Texas, I, 275.
'Barker, op. cit., 250.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 24, July 1920 - April, 1921, periodical, 1921; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101078/m1/46/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.