Texan pride has deep roots
By Mike Haynes
Most
non-Texans don’t get it.
Residents
of the other 49 may have pride in their states, but that of Texans seems to
well up from a deeper level. Maybe it’s the fact that we once were our own
country. The Indian wars, the cowboy mystique and the Texas revolution against
Mexico all play into it.
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| This illustration by San Antonio artist Wade Dillon shows William B. Travis in his Alamo headquarters about to write his "Victory or Death" letter on Feb. 24, 1836. |
The outcome
of that revolt was determined at San Jacinto in April 1836, but the heart of the
conflict was what Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna called “a small
affair” six weeks earlier. The Alamo in San Antonio, where around 200 Texas
rebels were killed by a large Mexican army, is called “the Shrine of Texas
Liberty” in part because the slaughter inspired the defeat of Santa Anna at San
Jacinto.
And a huge
factor that turned the Alamo siege and fall into a legendary event was a piece
of paper with just over 200 words on it that a courier sneaked out of the
fortress – a document that didn’t return to the location where Col. William
Barret Travis wrote it until this February.
My wife and
I stood in line for three hours on March 1 to see the Travis letter for about
three minutes. For me – and I think even for Kathy – it was worth it to see the
actual paper and ink that Travis used to fashion the words, “To the People of
Texas & all Americans in the world,” “I shall never surrender or retreat”
and “Victory or Death.”
Our eyes
were a foot from those famous words, protected by glass and armed guards,
before we exited the Alamo chapel and received stickers that said, “Saw the
Letter!” That was on a Friday. On the weekend, the wait was four hours and up,
and the lines stretched around three sides of a downtown San Antonio block.
That letter
played a role in placing the Alamo into the imaginations of Texans but also
others around the world. The help Travis asked for didn’t come, but within
days, his words were published in Texas newspapers. The 26-year-old lawyer-turned-commander
had a flair for the dramatic, and it inspired many to join Sam Houston and the
victory weeks later.
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| This 2.25-inch sticker was given to each person who viewed the "Travis Letter" exhibit at the Alamo Feb. 23 to March 7. |
The impact
of the Alamo and the letter certainly stirred patriotism, and I wonder whether
a spiritual element also was involved.
Travis
added a P.S.: “The Lord is on our side,” explaining that his men had been short
of food but providentially found 80 or 90 bushels of corn and “got into the
walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves.”
God
probably doesn’t take sides in wars any more than he does in sports, and some
of the Catholics in the Mexican army must have thought they were the ones with
a divine advantage.
But Travis
most likely was not being cavalier in his mention of “the Lord.” His uncle
Alexander was a passionate Alabama preacher who, according to biographer William
Davis, had much influence on the young Texas adventurer.
After leaving his wife in Alabama –
not a particularly scriptural action – William Travis had become a community
and political leader in Texas. He supported visiting ministers and wrote to the
Christian Advocate and Journal in New York, urging its editor to publicize the
need for preachers in Texas.
He joined those who protested the
Mexican government requirement that settlers be Catholic.
During that 13-day Alamo siege, a
highly literate man such as Travis, familiar with the Bible and faced with the
prospect of death, must have prayed for everything from military aid to
personal deliverance. His P.S. proves that God was on his mind.
He also
must have been aware that not all prayers are answered as we would like,
writing that he was prepared to “die like a soldier who never forgets what is
due to his own honor & that of his country.”
Such stirring
prose is part of the reason why, 177 years later, people take their hats off
when entering the Alamo church and why the 13-day display of a piece of paper
drew 20,000-plus people to those hallowed grounds. And it helps explain why
Texas is different.
