The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 30, July 1926 - April, 1927 Page: 240
330 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
great weight with the people as a whole, to securing unity of the
people in favor of a declaration of separation from the Mexican
government. Austin, along with a majority of intelligent observ-
ers, saw that Texan independence was inevitable, and proceeded
to prepare the people for the coming struggle. Without review-
ing the movement for independence and the manner in which a
large proportion of the Texans had arrived at the point of look-
ing forward to it, the adoption of the declaration of independence
and the lives of the committeemen who reported that instrument
are herein considered. The provisional government authorized
the holding of this, the fourth convention of the colonists, whose
delegates were invested with plenary powers. The convention was
to assemble on March 1st.4
On February 1, an election of delegates to the convention was
held in the various municipalities. Sixty-two delegates were
elected to the convention and fifty-nine were present to take part
in the proceedings. Three delegates, James Kerr, J. J. Linn, and
Juan Antonio Padilla arrived too late to participate in the conven-
tion. According to Colonel W. F. Gray,' an eye-witness at the
convention, when the delegates assembled on the cold morning
of March 1, forty-one members were present who had been duly
18, to Thomas F. McKinney, January 21, etc., in Austin Plapers MSS.,
University of Texas.
'The Daily National Intelligencer, Washington, D. 'C., March 22, 1836,
carried the following item from Charleston, South Carolina, dated
March 14:
"Elections were going on . . . for members to the new convention
which was to assemble on the 1st, March. On the 4th, March, the Texan
Declaration of Independence was to be made at :San Felipe land the Pro-
visional Government under the new order of things instituted."
For a more specific forecast of independence and defence of Texas by
the colonists, see, for instance, The Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, March
22, 1836.
'Colonel Gray, one of thousands who were hard hit by the depression
of 1833, came to Texas to investigate the land situation. He was em-
ployed to act as agent by two friends of Washington, D. C., who were
interested in land possibilities in Texas and Louisiana. In a diary, he
carefully and apparently scrupulously narrates his observations. He
made two trips to Texas; one in 1835-36, and the second in 1837. For
what he observed, his Diary must be acknowledged a good source.
It is interesting to notice that Gray was confirmed by the 'Senate of
the Republic to be a Notary Public of Houston, January, 1839. In 1840
he was confirmed as District Attorney of the First Judicial District. See
E. W. Wlinkler, Secret Journals of the Senate of the Republic of Texas,
1836-1815 (Austin, 19111), 129, 188.240
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 30, July 1926 - April, 1927, periodical, 1927; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117142/m1/266/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.