Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/71

Rh and treated with contempt by the General Council; who, promising to reinforce him, commanded the officer to defend the place to the last. The entire reinforcement sent to Travis' aid was only thirty men, making his whole effective force not more than one hundred and eighty-five men, without a month's provisions, seventy miles distant from all Texan settlements, and the whole intervening territory swept by Mexican cavalry. Some excuse may be offered for this disobedience and contempt of orders, from the fact that less than one year before, the Alamo had surrendered and San Antonio had been reduced, by the efforts of a Texan force under Milam, with less than two hundred men opposed to nearly twelve hundred men under Gen. Cos, But it was Santa Anna, now with seven times as many troops as Cos had, and no greater number of troops commanded by Travis, than Milam commanded. The result was foreseen by Gen. Houston; but the martyrdom that ensued was no less conspicuous, and the costly sacrifice which immortalized the victims, Travis, Crockett, Bowie, and their heroic comrades, was no less needed as a necessary factor in the final and grand consummation of Texan liberty and independence.

The last express that ever left the Alamo brought a letter to Washington on Sunday, March 6th, to the President of the Convention. No sooner was its intelligence made known, than terror pervaded the community. There was a general rush to the hall of the Convention. Without summons or signal, the members took their seats, and the President his chair. The President arose. He announced the reception of a document, "of the most important character ever received by any assembly of men." He then read a letter from Col. W. B. Travis most thrilling in its character. Breathing the language of despair, it was written in the fervor of lofty patriotism and devoted courage. The excitement ensuing was so great that even calm men could hardly command themselves, or say what the emergency required. Robert Potter, remarkable as a Member of Congress of the United States, and as a Cabinet officer of the Texan Republic for sad vices and a terrible end, moved that "the Convention do immediately adjourn, arm, and march to the relief of the Alamo." A proposition for fifty-six men, to march to the aid of one hundred and eighty-five men, against an investing force of over eight thousand! As he rose from his seat, all eyes were turned upon Gen. Houston. There was a death-like stillness. Feeling that the fate of Texas hung on the next movement of the Convention, he had resolved upon his own course, and what ought to be done by the Convention. He opposed the motion of Robert Potter as madness, and worse than treason to the people. He held that a declaration of independence,