A Toast To TEXAS

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"It's customary on Texas Independence Day to raise a glass of spring water to toast the Lone Star State, as Sam Houston and other delegates in the tiny town of Washington are said to have done 171 (173) years ago.

On March 2, 1836, in a small, windowless wood building, delegates declared, "the people of Texas do now constitute a free, sovereign and independent republic." But knowing his famed repute for drinking, some might strain to imagine Houston swilling anything nonalcoholic on that cold day, his 43rd birthday.

The true story of Texas is no less elusive than what Houston might have poured into his cup that day. March 2 has been somewhat overshadowed by March 6, the anniversary of the fall of the Alamo, and April 21, the day independence was won in the Battle of San Jacinto.


Republic of Texas Birthplace,Independence Hall

But Alamo commander William Barret Travis saw declaring independence as a deed worth dying for. As about 200 Texians were under siege by Mexican troops, Travis wrote a letter to Jesse Grimes, one of the delegates who gathered 125 miles away.

"If independence is not declared, I shall lay down my arms, and so will the men under my command," he wrote. "But under the flag of independence, we are ready to peril our lives a hundred times a day, and to drive away the monster who is fighting us under a blood-red flag, threatening to murder all prisoners and make Texas a waste desert."

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