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logo    Mythical Texas Heroism-At the Founding and Today


Texas, in distinction from other states, has its own pantheon of heroes because it was, for a moment in time, an independent nation. This mythical history is taught to all students in the public schools, and the figures who inhabit the pantheon are idealized. Scrubbed of their mythical honor, they present a picture of the unscrupulous, however.

In 1821, Moses Austin obtained from Mexico a colonization grant which contains the following two articles:

"ART. 1. The government of the Mexican nation will protect the liberty, property and civil rights, of all foreigners, who profess the Roman Catholic apostolic religion, the established religion of the empire.

ART. 30. After the publication of this law, there can be no sale or purchase of slaves which may be introduced into the empire. The children of slaves born in the empire, shall be free at fourteen years of age."

Stephen F. Austin, Moses son, established the first American settlement, and settlers from the United States began arriving in large numbers. Whether they were aware of the conditions of the two articles cited above is doubtful, but if they were, they were disingenuous.

By 1835, these American transplanted Mexicans were fomenting revolution, and by 1836, they had declared a War of Independence and Sam Houston proclaimed the area to be The Independent Republic of Texas. These Texans then applied for admission to the United States and Texas become a state in 1845. 

Pressure to call a convention to consider secession began in October 1860, and in 1861 Texas seceded.

All this in a mere 40 years!

It is apparent that these Texans did not join the Union because of any devotion to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence, nor can they be said to be men whose word was their bond. They had the ability to shift their allegiance in any moments whimMexican today, Texan tomorrow; Texan today, American tomorrow; American today, Confederate tomorrow. And this is a state that is said to extol patriotism. Hogwash!

Even the manner in which these Texans convened a convention for secession was dishonorable:

The election of delegates needed all the legitimacy the Texas legislature could give it, because what evidence still exists indicates that the election procedures did not even meet the minimal standards of the day. Delegates were often elected by voice votes at public meetings. Unionists were discouraged from attending such meetings or chose to ignore the process because they considered it illegal. As a result the delegates overwhelmingly favored secession. Delegates to the convention were in some ways a typical cross section of the free male population of the state. Their average age was about forty, and almost all had been born in slaveholding states. Though they were slightly wealthier than the average Texan, the great planters and merchants of the state did not dominate the convention. In two significant ways, however, the convention differed from the population as a whole. Lawyers made up 40 percent of the membership and slaveowners about 70 percent, although most owned fewer than fifty slaves (from documents in the Texas State Archives). So in a mere 40 years, the commitment given to Mexico to abjure slavery seems also to have been abandoned, and it has been said that the Texan petition to join the Union was motivated by the desire to make Texas a slave state.

So much for the honor of the gods in the Texas pantheon.

The Texas educational system is not known for its production of educated students. Its graduates can rarely either speak or write standard English, and their ability to calculate is in doubt. The ranking of the Texas educational system is not something Texans can be proud of, and although Texans seem to have adopted the no child left behind slogan, it has and does consistently leave all children behind. But one thing Texans seem to learn well is the honorable characteristics of its mythical heroes.

The gallery in the state legislature is euphemistically referred to as the Owners Box because it frequently seats lobbyists, and one Texas legislators has recently been quoted as saying, "Can you imagine the kind of B.S. we'd be passing without them [lobbyists]?"

But nothing illustrates the current honor of Texas officialdom more than a story that appeared today in the Dallas Morning News. It exposes a Texas probate judge whose friends and partners benefit from lucrative work in his court. That politicians pass on such work to their friends and associates is, perhaps, not unusual. However, this judicial Texan honor seems to have reached the depths of depravity.

In 1997, an estate was filed for settlement in his court that was to set up an approximately a one million dollar inheritance for the deceased's nine year old daughter. That estate has not to this day been closed, and the judge's friends and partners who he assigned to the case have milked it for at least $206,000nearly a quarter of its valuewhile the child, now 17, has received almost nothing.

So mythical Texas heroism is still the order of the day in Texas. And if this little piece reminds you of the select group of Texans who have migrated to the nations capitol, you now know why prevarication and the violation of ethical rules are so prevalent among them. Those traits are what characterize honor in Texas. (5/26/2005)