The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940 Page: 1

                                
THE
SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
VOL. XLVIII              JULY, 1939                     No. 1
The publication committee and the editors disclaim responsibility for views expressed
by contributors to THE QUARTERLY
THE MEN OF GOLIAD
DEDICATORY ADDRESS AT THE UNVEILING OF THE MONUMENT
ERECTED BY THE TEXAS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION
AT THE GRAVE OF FANNIN'S MEN
HARBERT DAVENPORT
1. REMEMBER GOLIAD!
It is proper and fitting, now that the people of Texas have at
last performed the sacred duty of marking the grave, and -com-
memorating the sacrifices, of that remarkable band of young knight-
errants who were Colonel Fannin's men, that their memorial should
have been erected by Texas, but paid for by the United States.
They died as soldiers of Texas; but their significance in history is
not so much in that they died for Texas, as in that they were
slain as Texas Volunteers from the United States, and that the
memory of their wanton and needless slaughter was for three-
quarters of a century the controlling influence in international
relationships between the United States and our neighbor to the
south.
Though part of the Texan battlecry at San Jacinto was Remember
Goliad! (literally, perhaps, Remember Labadee!), Remember the
Alamo*! was what the Texans really meant. Forget Goliad! would
have been a more correct expression of the mingled shame and
pride with which early Texans regarded Fannin's men. That
anarchy in Texan councils; incompetent Texan leadership and
worse; and petty personal prejudices, factional intrigues, and high-
handed determination of minor Texan leaders each to have his