Birthplace of Texas remains understated
Today, a few thousand ardent Texans will gather 70 miles northwest of Houston to celebrate independence at the place where Texas became Texas.
On March 2, 1836, delegates at Washington-on-the-Brazos approved a declaration of independence from Mexico, proclaiming to the world that Texas was a sovereign nation.
Each year, there are bigger Texas Independence Day events in Austin and other cities. Texans, after all, do love a party, and a die-hard Texan will testify that few things are more worthy of celebration than the birth of Texas.
In comparison to the festivities in larger cities, where the overwhelming majority of Texans now live, the celebration at the modest reproduction of the meetinghouse in rural Washington County will be a distinctly understated affair.
There will be historical re-enactments, period music, a reading of the declaration, and recognition of the descendants of the 59 signers of the declaration. If prior years are any indication, there will be an air of reverence rather than revelry, something refreshing in itself in an era when noise normally trumps substance.
It is that substance that makes this truly the place where Texas became Texas.
The delegates meeting in convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos periodically received letters from the Alamo while it was under siege. This led to heated discussions about what the delegates’ duty should be.
Sam Houston, statesman that he was, understood that world leaders would judge Texans not simply on whether they could defeat the more powerful Mexican army, but whether they comported themselves under the rule of law.
When a delegate moved that the convention put its business on hold and ride to the defense of the Alamo, Houston insisted that the meeting continue.
He pointed out that without both a declaration and a constitution, Texans would be considered “nothing but outlaws, and can hope neither for the sympathy nor respect of mankind.”
Houston understood that without the recognition of world leaders, Texas’ uphill battle to win independence — and to hang onto it afterward — would be even more daunting.
William Barret Travis knew that, too.
In a letter that was received in Washington-on-the-Brazos on the fateful day that the Alamo fell, the commander of the Alamo reiterated his determination to fight to the death. On the second page of the letter, Travis urged convention delegates to finish their work, saying, “… let the convention go on and make a declaration of independence and we will then understand and the world will understand what we are fighting for. If independence is not declared, I shall lay down my arms and so shall the men under my command.”
The delegates finished their work in the nick of time as Santa Anna and his army marched eastward, hellbent on capturing the political leaders of the rebellion and making them pay. Theirs was an inglorious departure, but the work the delegates accomplished before joining the Runaway Scrape changed the world forever.
Washington-on-the Brazos is always covered in Texas history books, but generally it’s given short shrift compared to the events of the Alamo, Goliad and San Jacinto. Battles, after all, are the currency of a revolution, and generally make for more interesting reading than the politics that spawned them.
But while the battles richly deserve their place in the limelight, the convention at the drab little meetinghouse northwest of Houston deserves more attention than it gets.
The place may be named Washington-onthe-Brazos, but it could justifiably be called the Philadelphia of Texas. For it is here, on March 2, 1836, that Texas became Texas.