The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 36, July 1932 - April, 1933 Page: 38

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Vice-President by Potter; no opposition. He was elected by unani-
mous vote.
With Burnet and Zavala, as members of the provisional cabinet,
were also Carson, Rusk, Potter, Hardiman and Thomas.o
Its business attended to, the Convention adjourned-and none
too soon-for Santa Anna had entered Texas and had advanced
to Bastrop on the Colorado, only about sixty miles distant from San
Felipe. To avoid capture the members of the cabinet decided to
retire to Harrisburg, and Zavala left for that place on March 17.
Living with Zavala during the Convention and staying with him
at his home after its adjournment was William F. Gray, who gives
us an interesting insight into Zavala's character and the hopes
which he entertained for the future. In his diary for March 13
he wrote the following:
Zavala expresses the belief that in twelve months he will be in
Mexico. He thinks that Santa Anna's race is nearly run; that a
revolution will take place in Mexico and the liberal party will be
in the ascendancy; that he .[Zavala] is the most popular man of
that party, and he thinks he will be called to head it. The seeds
of ambition are not yet extinct in him, and vanity is his weak
side.3'
Such was the opinion of one of Zavala's contemporaries whose
judgment was sober and reasonable; and it makes one wonder
what would have been Zavala's future had he lived to see the
downfall of Santa Anna after the attainment of Texas Independ-
ence. But this was fated not to be; Mexico was doomed to be
harassed by the machinations of the one for nearly a quarter of a
century more, while the life of the other was to be cut short
within the year.
The setting up of the governmental headquarters at Harrisburg
and the presence at that place of Lorenzo de Zavala were responsible
for the tactics which Santa Anna adopted. The Mexican general
himself tells us that upon learning that the government was in
Harrisburg he conceived the plan to capture it and especially the
Vice President, Zavala.82 For this purpose, he left the main body
"Gray, From Virginia to Texas, 132.
81Ibid., 127.
"2Filisola, Memorias, II, 457 et seq.; quoted from Santa Anna, Manifiesto;
Delgado, Mexioan Accownt of the Battle of Sarn Jacinto, 2.