Texas Almanac, 1943-1944 Page: 51
[338] p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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TEXAS INDIANS 51
continually depressed, through a jealous and
partial course of legislation, carried on at a
ar-distant seat of government, by a hostile
majority, in an unknown tongue; and this,
too, notwithstanding we have petitioned in
the humblest terms for the establishment of
a separate state government, and have In
accordance with the provisions of the National
Constitution, presented to the General Con-
gress, a Republican Constitution, which was,
without just cause, contemptuously rejected.
It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a long
time, one of our citizens, for no other cause
but a zealous endeavor to procure the accept-
ance of our Constitution and the establish-
ment of a state government.
It has failed and refused to secure, on a
firm basis, the right of trial by jury, that
palladium of civil liberty and only safe guar-
antee for the life, liberty and property of the
citizen.
It has failed to establish any public system
of education, although possessed of almost
boundless resources (the public domain), and
although it is an axiom in political science
that, unless a people are educated and en-
lightened, it is idle to expect the continuance
of civil liberty, or the capacity for self-gov-
ernment.
It has suffered the military commandants
stationed among us to exercise arbitrary acts
of oppression and tyranny, thus trampling
upon the most sacred rights of the citizen,
and rendering the military superior to the
civil power.
It has dissolved by force of arms the State
Congress of Coahulla and Texas, and obliged
our representatives to fly for their lives from
the seat of government, thus depriving us of
the fundamental political right of representa-
tion.
It has demanded the surrender of a number
of our citizens, and ordered military de-
tachments to seize and carry them into the
interior for trial, in contempt of the civil
authorities, and in defiance of the laws and
the Constitution.
It has made piratical attacks upon our
commerce by commissioning foreign despera-
does, and authorizing them to seize our
vessels and convey the property of our citi-
zens to far-distant ports for confiscation.
It denies us the right of worshiping the
Almighty according to the dictates of our own
consciences, by the support of a national
religion calculated to promote the temporal
interests of its human functionaries rather
than the glory of the true and living God.
It has demanded us to deliver up our arms,
which are essential to our defense, the right-
ful property of freemen, and formidable only
to tyrannical governments.
It has invaded our country, both by sea apd
by land, with intent to lay waste our terri-
tory, and drive us from our homes; and has
now a large mercenary arm advancing, to
carry on against us a war of extermination.
It has, through its emissaries, incited the
merciless savage, with the tomahawk and
scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants
of our defenseless frontiers.It has been, during the whole time of our
connection with it, the contemptible sport and
victim of successive military revolutions, and
hath continually exhibited every characteristic
of a weak, corrupt and tyrannical govern-
ment.
These and other grievances were patiently
borne by the people of Texas, until they
reached that point at which forbearance
ceases to be a virtue. They then took up
arms in defense of the National Constitution
They appealed to their Mexican brethren for
assistance. Their appeal has been made in
vain, though months have elapsed, no sympa-
thetic response has yet been heard from the
interior. They are, therefore, forced to the
melancholy conclusion that the Mexican peo-
ple have acquiesced in the destruction of
their liberty, and the substitution therefor of
a military despotism, that they are unfit to
be free, and incapable of self-government.
The necessity of self-preservation, there-
fore, now decrees our eternal political separa-
tion.
We, therefore, the delegates, with plenary
powers, of the people of Texas, in solemn
convention assembled, appealing to a candid
world for the necessities of our condition, do
hereby resolve and declare that our political
connection with the Mexican nation has for-
ever ended, and that the people of Texas do
now constitute a free, sovereign and inde-
pendent Republic, and are fully invested with
all the rights and attributes which properly
belong to independent states, and, conscious
of the rectitude of our intentions, we fear-
lessly and confidently commit the issue to
the decision of the Supreme Arbiter of the
destinies of nations.
RICHARD ELLIS, President.
Charles B. Stewart. Charles S. Taylor.
Thomas Barnett. John S. Roberts.
James Collinsworth. Robert Hamilton.
Edwin Waller. Collin McKinney.
John S. D. Byrom. Albert H. Latimer.
Francisco Ruiz. James Power.
Antonio Navarro. Sam Houston.
Jessie B. Badgett. David Thomas.
William D. Lacey. Edward Conrad.
William Menefee. Martin Parmer.
John Fisher. Edward 0. LeGrand.
Mathew Caldwell. Stephen W. Blount.
J. William Mottley. James Gaines.
Lorenzo de Zavala. William Clark Jr.
Stephen H. Everitt. Sydney 0. Pennlngton.
George W. Smyth. William Carrol
Elijah Stapp. Crawford.
Claiborne West. John Turner.
William B. Scates. Benjamin B. Goodrich.
M. B. Menard. G. W. Barnett.
A. B. Hardin. James G. Swisher.
J. W. Bunton. Jesse Grimes.
Thomas J. Gazley. S. Rhoades Fisher.
R. M. Coleman. John W. Moore.
Sterling C. Robertson. John W. Bower.
George C. Childress. Samuel A. Maverick.
Bailey Hardeman. Sam P. Carson.
Robert Potter. A. Briscoe.
Thomas Jefferson James B. Woods.
Rusk. Asa Brigham.Prehistoric Texas-Indian Tribes.
The story of aborigine man in Texas falls
into three parts: First, those who passed
from the scene before the coming of the first
white man, leaving to the archaeologist the
only evidence of existence; secondly, the
Indian tribes living within the present bounds
of Texas when white men came; thirdly, the
migration into Texas from the East by groups
of aborigines, driven westward by the impact
of white man's advance from the Atlantic
Seaboard, and the decline and passing of all
aboriginal peoples.
Climate and indigenous flora and faunaresources of Texas made it a more than
ordinarily habitable region. The great herds
of buffalo, deer and other wild animals, the
fish of the coast and inland streams, and the
native fruits, the berries and pecans made
maintenance of life relatively easy. Not only
was the population relatively large, but, even
in that day Texas was characterized by an
outstanding characteristic of today-diversity.
This diversity of prehistoric cultures grew
out of the diversity of soils and physiographic
conditions that have contributed largely to
diversity since the advent of white men. In
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Texas Almanac, 1943-1944, book, 1943; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117165/m1/53/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.