Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/73

Rh supporters sympathized with Santa Anna, Bravo, Bustamente, Almonte, Herrera, and Paredes. The enemies of Texas in Mexico believed that they had the cordial sympathy of the enemies of Texas in the United States, and they hoped for success, because they believed their sympathizers in the United States all - powerful. Trustworthy and confidential agents with money to expend, were stationed in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. Here these agents of bold and impudent tyrants fought battles and won victories for Mexican despotism. It was strange and sad to behold the descendants of the heroes of 1776 frowning scornfully upon the youthful form of Texan liberty. The braggart threats of Paredas were made without apprehension of any danger in being summoned to battle. What a change came over these Anglo-Saxon opponents of Texan liberty! Twelve years after the battle of San Jacinto, they appropriate ten millions of dollars and fifty thousand volunteers with enthusiasm to enforce the decree of annexation. With shouts of political fervor, they make the hero of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and Buena Vista President of the United States. History reveals itself strangely.

Notwithstanding all opposition, Gen. Houston was ever true to his purposes and principles. Assured that the Alamo had fallen and its brave defenders had met their fate, he moved on to Gonzales, although not a man joined him on his way. When he set out from the Convention at Washington, he dispatched an express to Col. Fannin intending to secure from that officer a junction of his forces with his own on the Cibolo, a small river between Gonzales and San Antonio, and with forces united march to the relief of the Alamo. Reaching Gonzales on March 10, 1836, he found three hundred and seventy-four men, without suitable apparel, unarmed, without organization or supplies. They were immediately assembled, organized, and they elected their own officers. The scouts, who arrived about the time of Gen. Houston's arrival from the vicinity of San Antonio, were under the impression that the Alamo had fallen. This was confirmed by two Mexicans who came in from San Antonio, and whose families had resided among the American colonists. The statement was written down, as Gen. Houston believed it to be correct. The terrible fact was evident that, on the morning of the 6th of March, the Alamo had been assailed, and all human beings in it put to death, except a woman, her child, and a negro; and that the bodies had been dragged out, heaped with wood, into one pile, a vast hecatomb, and burned to ashes.

The fall of the Alamo, and the cool-blooded barbarity exhibited by Santa Anna and his minions, stirred a spirit wherever known, destined to culminate in the overthrow of Mexican despotism, on