The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944 Page: 107

                                
JOHN A. WILLIAMS
CHAMPION OF MEXICO IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE
TEXAS REVOLUTION
C. ALLEN TRUE
History records many courageous individuals who have suf-
fered persecution, banishment, or martyrdom through refusal
to sacrifice personal convictions. Paramount among the beliefs
and convictions which bulk large in the Anglo-American way
of life one finds the love for law and order, and an abhorrence
of lawlessness-an adherence to the inalienable right to differ
with one's fellow man, to the right of criticism of those who
would infringe upon it, and to the desire for liberty as well as
for independence.
These Anglo-Saxon principles were personified in a hitherto
neglected participant in the activities which led up to the Texas
Revolution, who not only had the fortitude to express his con-
victions but who accepted banishment rather than relinquish
them. This was John A. Williams of the Municipality of Liberty.
He was not alone in his opposition to the sometimes extra-
legal tactics of his fellow-citizens; but he was one of the most
outspoken critics of the early revolutionary activities and a
sincere believer in the inefficacy of the program then followed
by the municipal governments-a course which ultimately was
to lead to conflict with Mexico.
John A. Williams is first noted as an opponent of the growing
opposition to Mexico on April 17, 1835, when, as president of
the Ayuntamiento of Liberty, he published a document bearing
the title, Ayuntamiento of Liberty: "Resolutions, urging modera-
tion, respect for authority, obedience to law, condemning extreme
views, demanding suppression of all unlawfulness." This docu-
ment in part reads as follows:
Department of Nacogdoches
Jurisdiction of Liberty.
We the members of the Ayuntamiento of Liberty having been informed
of the difficulties existing between some merchants and the Collector of
the Maritime Custom House at Galveston in relation to the collection of
duties imposed on foreign wares, goods and merchandise, and being de-
( 107 ]