Shaggy's, Gone but Not Forgotton

Happy Indpendence Day

That's right, Independence Day, Texas Independence Day,that is. It was on this day in 1836 that Texas declared its independence from Mexico. It seems that old Andy Jackson had sent his disgraced buddy Sam Houston down here to see what he could do about getting Texas added to the Union without snatching it from Mexico fair and square. So old Sam got together with Stephen Austin, Davey Crockett and a few others and really stirred things up. They were aided by the fact that a certain Mexican general was trying to annex as much territory as he possibly could. Next thing ya know, Texas is a republic with no way to support herself or pay her war debts, so she gets welcomed into the United States at a time when they were trying real hard to balance the number of slave states with the number of non-slave states and just in time for the unCivil War.



The Republic was larger than the state we now know as Texas and included parts of what are now New Mexico and Colorado. Its western border was defined bu the Rio Grande River and it looked something like this:

Sound track for this post has to be The Yellow Rose of Texas. (Follow the link to read the original lyrics and the story. I think it is hysterical that the big hotel in San Antonio is misnamed.)

Photo of map from: http://www.trulytexas.com/ps-tx1839.html