The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900 Page: 171
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Another ITexas Flag.
quarrel was that there was no consistent policy. The radical revolu-
tionists succeeded in breaking up the Matamoros expedition and
spoiling the effort to carry the war into Mexico; but the con-
servatives, on the other hand, were able to prevent the abandonment
of the outposts at Goliad and Bexar. This will serve to explain
the meaning of the flag used at the Alamo. It represented the
policy of the conservatives in being identical with the Mexican
national flag, except that the figures 1824 took the place of the
eagle.
During the earlier stages of the revolution, Stephen F. Austin
was of the conservative party. He was, in fact, the most prominent
and generally trusted man belonging to it; and, after the Texans
had actually risen, it was doubtless only the weight of his influence
that restrained their hot impulses and turned the scale in its favor.
But the progress of events towards the end of the year 1835 made
it more and more evident that there could be no resuscitation for
"the republican principles," as the declaration of November 7th
expressed it, of the constitution of 1824, and that the only hope
for Texas was absolute separation from Mexico. Austin held out
against this policy until he left Texas near the end of December,
1835, in order to begin his work as a member of the commission to
the United States.2 But in two letters, one to Royall and S. R.
Fisher and the other to Gen. Sam Houston, both written from New
Orleans and dated January 7, 1836,3 he declared himself in favor of
an unequivocal declaration of independence. His change of atti-
tude removed the most .serious obstacle to such a declaration, and it
was thenceforth practically certain that the convention which had
been called to meet on March first would make that declaration.
Now it became necessary to devise a flag for the new republic
which the convention was expected to bring to birth. Just how the
matter was approached is not made clear by the materials I have
been able to discover; but the evidence indicates that Austin him-
self prepared a design, which was modified by the commission and,
thus changed, was recommended for adoption.
On the eighteenth of January, 1836, Austin 'wrote a letter from
2Austin to Royall, Dec. 25, 1835, printed in Brown's History of Texas,
I 466-8.
sBrown's History of Texas, I 469-72.171
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900, periodical, 1900; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101015/m1/181/?rotate=90: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.