The Texas Almanac, for 1860, with Statistics, Historical and Biographical Sketches, &c., Relating to Texas. Page: 51
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HISTORY OF TEXAS. D1
appointment. But it procured delay and afforded a specious salvo for past de-
linquencies. After being urged by members of the Convention to hasten to the
suffering army, he left Washington on the 6th March f6r Gonzales, where a
number of volunteers had assembled. _
The.Convention continued its 'sittings with tranquillity; the drafting a con-
stitution accordant with the new condition of the country engaging its chief
attention. While that important document was in process of preparation,
they adopted an ordinance to organize the militia of the Republic, and disposed
of divers other matters of interest. Before their final adjournment they passed
an executive ordinance applicable to the future government ad interim, and
conferring upon it such extraordinary powers as the existing emergencies
seemed to require.
On the evening of the 16th March, a messenger arrived from the west, bear-
ing the melancholy intelligence that the Alamo had fallen, and all within it
been massacreA. The Convention assembled forthwith, and with some few
symptoms of undue excitement, proceeded to the institution of an executive
government for the embrvo republic. David G. Burnet was elected President;
Lorenzo de Zavala, a distinguished Mexican, was elected Vice-President; .Col.
Samuel P. Carson, formerly of North-Carolina, Secretary of State; Bailey Harde-
man, Secretary of the Treasury; CoL Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War; Rob-
ert Potter, Secretary of the Navy; and David Thomas, Attorney-Geral.
The inauguration of the new government was completed about tw 6 'clock in
the morning of 17th March, the Convention having been in session all the night.
Mr. Burnet delivered a pertinent address of some length, and on the ensuing
day issued a proclamation from which we extract the following: "The gov-
ernment will remove to Harrisburg; but that removal is not the result of any
apprehension that the enemy is near us. It was resolved upon as a measure
conducive to the common good, before any such report was in circulation, and
it has not been expedited by such report. . . . Let us acquit ourselves
like men: gird up the loins of our minds, and by one united, prompt, and ener-
getic exertion, turn back this impotent invader; and planting our standard on
the bank of the Rio Grande, dictate to him the terms of mutual recognition."
Both these documents were published at San Felipe, in fugitive handbills, a
very few of which are now extant.
The same express that gave intelligence of the fall of the Alamo, told, also,
that Gen. Houston and his little army were in rapid retreat from Gonzales.
This was calculated, and did contribute to the general excitement. As soon as
the ceremonies of installation were finished, the Convention adjourned sine die ;
to meet no more. The next day the little town of Washington was evacuated,
not only by the members, whose services were no longer required, but by every
family, excepting one, Mr. Lott's, who kept the hotel The entire population
west of the Brazos was also broken up and fugitive, and panic seemed to rule
the day. The-President and the Secretaries of War and the Navy, remained at
Washington three days longer, occupied in such matters as required immediate
attention, when they also, in the afternoon, repaired calmly to the residence of
the late Col. Groce, on the route to Harrisburg.*
Our military calamities were not to terminate with the slaughter and the
holocaust of the Alamo; new victims were required to exemplify the folly of
absence and of leaving the frontier forces without a head; and without arrange-
ment or plan of operations. Col. Fannin and his brave associates were re-
quired to furnish them. But before we narrate their disasters, we must refer to
the events at Gonzales. The citizens of the west were scattered over a large
* We have been more minute in these small matters because of the many scandals that have
been propagated in regard to them. Gen. Houston set the first-clap-trap, in his letter to Mr. H.
Ralet which has-been paraded in divers histories and fulsome pampdlets, and has now found a
gentil place-in hi, list ?entIrial speech. If his perversions are worthy to he preserved among
the files of the federal Senate, a brief exposure of them may claim a more bumble position in a
Tex is Almanac.
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The Galveston News. The Texas Almanac, for 1860, with Statistics, Historical and Biographical Sketches, &c., Relating to Texas., book, 1860~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123766/m1/53/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.