The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 90, July 1986 - April, 1987 Page: 4
492 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
proval of the local authorities, to attack Bradburn because he would not
release his civilian prisoners, including William B. Travis. After initial
skirmishes, the Anglo-Texans realized that they needed cannon and
sent a party to the Brazos to bring several small field pieces stored
there. Other volunteers camped north of Anahuac on Turtle Bayou,
where they drafted an explanation of their recent attack against the
garrison. The insurgents aligned themselves with the federalist move-
ment led by Antonio L6pez de Santa Anna, whose troops had recently
won victories in the civil war that had kept Mexico in turmoil for two
years. The Texan rebels announced that they were opposing centralism
at Anahuac as santanistas.5
Conservatives in San Felipe, traditionally the center of political power
in Anglo-American Texas, deplored the attack at Anahuac and in let-
ters to the civil and military authorities at San Antonio disavowed the
rebels. San Antonio was the seat of government for Texas, although it
was subservient to Saltillo, the state capital for Coahuila y Texas. The
San Felipe ayuntamiento (town council) asked the political jefe (chief) at
San Antonio to come to San Felipe to help cool emotions during the
emergency. On June 25 he addressed a public meeting at San Felipe
warning the insurgents not "to assume to themselves the rights of the
majority." The residents passed resolutions condemning the rebels by a
sixty-six to one tally, but it was too late. The action at Anahuac against
the centralist outpost was compounded even as the jefe spoke, for
Anglo-Texans were moving into position to attack Velasco, the fort at
the mouth of the Brazos. Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea resisted as
long as he could but capitulated on June 29.6
The use of the word tory appeared in a letter written on July 4, 1832,
perhaps inspired by that significant date. Others may have used the
prejudicial term earlier, but William H. Wharton of Brazoria, a sup-
porter of the insurgents, is the first known to have recorded it. Whar-
ton wrote, "I have received several letters . . . breathing all the same
toryish spirit and shewing that we have as much opposition to expect
from our own country men as from the Mexicans."7
6Ibid., 96-105.
6Citizens' Meeting, June 25, 1832, Charles Adams Gulick, Jr., et al. (eds.), The Papers of Mi-
rabeau Buonaparte Lamar (6 vols.; Austin,1968), I, 120-121; Ram6n M6squiz to the People,
June 25, 1832, ibid., 121, 122 (quotation); San Felipe Ayuntamiento to the Citizens, June 26,
1832, ibid., 123-124; Report of Ugartechea, July 1, 1832, ibid., 132-136; John Austin to Sam-
uel May Williams, June 19, 1832, Samuel May Williams Papers (Rosenberg Library, Galveston);
William Chambers, Sketch of the Lfe of Gen. T.J. Chambers (Galveston, 1853), 15-17.
7William Brown, Asa Mitchell, and William H. Wharton to Committee, July 4, 1832, Gulick
et al. (eds.), Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, I, 139-140.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 90, July 1986 - April, 1987, periodical, 1986/1987; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117152/m1/30/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.