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Posted on Saturday, July 27, 2013 @ 23:33:56 EDT in Texas
by Southern
Son of the South
[Texas History Previous Section: The Revolutionary Movement in Texas]
The Columbia Committee of Safety and Correspondence
By 1835, independence fever was running high in the Texas Territory. The idea of a general consultation of all Texas had its origin in the jurisdiction of the municipality of Columbia. The people approved and recommended it in a meeting held there as early as the 23d of June, 1835. At another assembly, in the town of Columbia, on the 15th of August, a committee of fifteen persons was appointed, to be called " a committee of safety and correspondence for the jurisdiction of Columbia." It was " instructed to prepare an address to all the jurisdictions of Texas, requesting them to cooperate in the call for a consultation of all Texas." The committee published its address, and it was sent by express to every municipality in Texas. This was a genuine pronunciamento; the consequent plan being that each jurisdiction or municipality should elect five individuals as representatives, the elections to be held on the 5th of October, and the consultation to convene at the town of Washington on the 15th of the same month.
Each member elect was to ascertain and bring with him the number of people in his jurisdiction ; and those jurisdictions that had not already appointed committees of correspondence and safety, were to do so.
This arrangement for a consultation was wise; it was intended to unite and direct the energies of the whole people in compliance with the wishes of the majority. There were in Texas, at that time, three parties, as follows : the war-party, who thought the country should fight at once ; a second party, that wished to consult and be united before adopting warlike measures ; and a third party, known as submissionists, who were opposed to war under any circumstances. A general consultation would heal these divisions, and enable Texas to present an undivided front to her enemy.
The Mexicans commenced their warlike movements at Goliad. Colonel Ugartachea had been too long in Texas, knew too much of the character of her people, and was entirely too humane in his disposition, to answer the ends of General Cos; besides, he had not been as active in arresting the persons proscribed as it was supposed he ought to have been, though his experience at Velasco had taught him the necessity of great prudence in his dealings with the colonists. He was accordingly made to give place in the Texan commandancy to Colonel Nicholas Candelle, a man of barbarous antecedents, and much prejudiced against the Texans. He commenced his career in Goliad by putting the alcalde in jail, and extorting from the administrador the sum of five thousand dollars, under the penalty of being sent on foot a prisoner to Bexar in ten hours. He also stripped the town of its arms, pressed the people into the ranks as soldiers, and gave notice that the troops would be quartered upon the citizens—five to a family — and should be supported by them. Read More...
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Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 @ 23:08:20 EST in Texas
by Southern
BLUFFTON, TX
Johnny C. Parks died two days before his first birthday more than a century ago. His grave slipped from sight along with the rest of the tiny town of Bluffton when Lake Buchanan was filled 55 years later.
Now, the cracked marble tombstone engraved with the date Oct. 15, 1882, which is normally covered by 20 to 30 feet of water, has been eerily exposed as a yearlong drought shrinks one of Texas' largest lakes.
Across the state, receding lakes have revealed a prehistoric skull, ancient tools, fossils and a small cemetery that appears to contain the graves of freed slaves. Some of the discoveries have attracted interest from local historians, and looters also have scavenged for pieces of history. More than two dozen looters have been arrested at one site.
"In an odd way, this drought has provided an opportunity to view and document, where appropriate, some of these finds and understand what they consist of," said Pat Mercado-Allinger, the Texas Historical Commission's archeological division director. "Most people in Texas probably didn't realize what was under these lakes."
Texas finished its driest 12 months ever with an average of 8.5 inches of rain through September, nearly 13 inches below normal. Water levels in the region's lakes, most of which were manmade, have dropped by more than a dozen feet in many cases. Read More...
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Posted on Sunday, October 02, 2011 @ 01:00:46 EDT in Texas
by Southern
CBS
HOUSTON
It's a tradition with roots that can be traced far back in history: Before being put to death, a condemned prisoner can choose his last meal.
Not so anymore in Texas.
Officials who oversee the country's busiest death chamber stopped the practice on Thursday after a prominent state senator complained about a hefty request from a man executed for his role in a notorious dragging death. Now, inmates get to eat only what the kitchen serves.
The controversy began after Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed on Wednesday for the hate crime slaying of James Byrd Jr. more than a decade ago, asked for two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. Prison officials said Brewer didn't eat any of it.
"It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege," Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote in a letter Thursday to Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Within hours, Livingston said the senator's concerns were valid and the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their final meal was history.
"Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made," Livingston said. "They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit." Read More...
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