Relive Texas history
SHOUTS FROM THE REPUBLIC tells the story of the birth and life of the Republic of Texas. Whether casual observer or learned student of Texas’ history, SHOUTS will excite you with rich stories and deep insights. Readers will recognize the tremendous value the settlers placed on Freedom, the pursuit of which dramatically altered their livelihoods, and in many cases, demanded their lives.
EXCERPTS
"These rights... granting the freedom to bear arms, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, etc, ...and the promise of free and very cheap land, incentivized Americans to immigrate to Texas. They came by the thousands...."
"The life of a settler who moved to Texas was one of difficulty, and by its very nature, that life was focused on survival. ...No one in Austin's colony even possessed a plow. Corn was planted with a stick."
"...Texas must soon be the most flourishing section of the [Mexican] Republic." — Mexican Colonel Juan Almonte
"In Mexico that very same month, the Federal Constitution of 1824 was scrapped in favor of a dictatorial form of government. Santa Anna, who had once championed that Constitution and the freedoms it guaranteed, declared himself dictator and published to the world that the Federal Government and Constitution of 1824 were no more."
"War is upon us and there is no remedy..... — Stephen F. Austin
"If he will submit, let him go to the military power and
prostrate himself. If he will not submit, let him give his
answer from the mouth of his rifle!" ... -Stephen F. Austin
"Of the fifty-eight signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, fully forty of them were under forty years old."
"If there is anything in this world particularly worth living for, it is freedom; anything that would render death to a brave man particularly pleasant, it is freedom." — David Crockett
"This morning we are in preparation to meet Santa Anna. It is the only chance of saving Texas..." — Sam Houston
"Houston made an animated speech, towards the conclusion of which he said, 'The army will cross, and we will meet the enemy. Some of us may be killed and will be killed; but soldiers, remember the Alamo, the Alamo, the Alamo!' In response, one soldier was reported to have said, '[And] damn few will be taken prisoner!"
"Five days after the battle, General Houston wrote a message in lead pencil on a piece of paper no larger than a hand... 'Tell our friends all the news, that we have beat the enemy... Tell them to come on and let the people plant corn.' "
"Texas was its own free nation."
"anti-slavery activist and Boston-based publisher William Garrison [exclaimed], 'Those who would befriend Texas would dethrone God'."
"[But] Houston's game of diplomatic chess was having its intended effect in the United States. A resolution for annexation passed both the U.S. House and Senate...."
"The negotiators in Mexico knew that the only hope they had to defeat annexation lay in returning to Texas quickly with a treaty... and numerous reports reached Mexico that the United States was sending warships in the Gulf of Mexico and massing troops on the Texas frontier."
"The citizens of the new Republic had voted overwhelmingly in 1836 to enter the American Union if the United States would have them, but the American abolitionists brought great pressure to bear on the U.S. Congress and defeated an annexation bill in the House of Representatives so soundly that hope for its eventual success was largely abandoned."
"News of annexation was received with great delight by the citizens of Texas.... Texas celebrated. But Mexico, which had repeatedly declared that it would consider the annexation of Texas by the United States to be an act of war, was massing its whole force on the Texas border for an invasion. Mexico would, in fact, face off against the United States Army in a few months in what would become known as the Mexican War. This war would last two years and settle once and for all the question of Texas sovereignty and borders. A direct result of the war would be the acquisition by the United States of all territory west of Texas to the Pacific Ocean."