Texas Quotes
In one of the most famous rebuffs of a politician to his constituents, the congressman sent the following message home to his constituents after receiving instructions from them which he did not care for. He went to Texas where he died defending the Alamo.
This quotation illustrates the racist view of Native Americans that prevailed at the time. The Mexican government invited settlers and would give then the Indian lands. In addition to Mexicans who came to Texas, many Americans also went to Texas, changing their citizenship to Mexico. Later, they banded together and broke from Mexico and Joined the United States. The Indians lost most of their lands.
This quotation shows what prompted the Texas rebellion against Mexico. Military dictators had taken over the Federal Government of Mexico and Mexico was no longer a free country.
Austin renounced his American citizenship and committed himself to Mexico where he was recruiting American emigrants for settlement in what is now Texas as a Mexican territory. Later, he grew disillusioned with the Mexican government and chose Texas independence.
Under the Mexican law which governed Texas at the time, slavery had been much curtailed. Austin and many others wished to expand it “to permit families to bring the necessary and indispensable house servants and laborers”
Austin personally found slavery very repugnant:. But slavery was a part of the early fragile Texas economy and Austin's moral compunctions were subjugated to his perception of economic necessity:
More and more evidence had been mounting that innocent men had been mistakenly sentenced to death throughout the country and Texas executed more people than any other state.
This is a great example of politically sophisticated oratory. The decision was that the crèche violated the constitution and the state opinion was split between those in favor and those opposed. A reporter asked the governor what she thought of the court decision. Her response not only amused the public and the press but completely avoided having to take a stand on the issue of religious symbols being exhibited on state property.
This remarkable quotation shows that this great Southern leader, 15 years before the Civil War, publicly stated that the institution of slavery was doomed to extinction. As such it was not worth worrying about in such issues as new territories of the Union and other more important and long lasting things. This quotation however is not commonly cited.
A part of this quotation is very often taken out of context by just quoting the phrase “prosecution of an exterminating war” implying that Lamar was urging genocide. However, the war was urged only if the Indians did not cease their raids and massacres. Further, he specifically excludes women and children from the “extinction”. In addition he holds out the option of forced “total expulsion” if the raids continue. Brutal his threats were. And given that the whites were taking the Indians traditional lands it is easy to see where there were reasons for Indian resistance to white expansion. However, there was another reason that Lamar and most of the white settlers wanted the Indians expelled: They wanted the land.
This quotation is one of the few times where history helped to implement policy. President Johnson & Singletary, a historian and ex University of Texas Chancellor, has decided that Camp Gary at San Marcos would serve as the first Job Corps urban center; enrollees from 6 different states were to be sent. The youth would be living in integrated quarters in proximity to San Marcos, whose citizens were concerned for the safety of their area and the virtue of their daughters. But most of the opposition was racial. One group to go was 100 youth from Memphis. Connolly’s staff had recommended that he veto the Tennesseans, and he sent a communication to Singletary asking him to withdraw the Memphis contingent as prevention to his veto. The phone was silent for a minute after Singletary’s statement. Then the governor replied, “We Texans are a lot of things but we are not ungrateful. OK we’ll take the Tennesseans, Otis, but make sure that they are nice boys and not too uppity.” History had won.
