Texas Got It Right!. Sam Wyly

      the slogan “Come and Take

      It,” 187 of their brethren

      (including nine

      Tejanos, or Texans of

      Mexican descent)

      met their end at

      the point of a bay-

      onet or barrel of

      a gun, fighting

      bitterly, to the

      last man and

      Bowie knife, at

      an old Spanish

      religious outpost

      called the Alamo. A

      The Alamo, originally named Mis-

      sion San Antonio de Valero, was a

      home to missionaries and their Indian

      converts for almost seven decades

      before it was secularized in 1793.

      few weeks later, Mexican troops massacred 342

      Texan prisoners at Goliad, where an early version of

      the Texan Declaration of Independence had been

      signed. But the Texas rebels were not deterred.

      They’d thrown in all their chips with a perilous

      cause—that of independence from a dictatorship—

      and they were going to take that cause to its

      conclusion.

      TEXAS GOT IT RIGHT!

      21

      After the massacres at the Alamo and Goliad (see pre-

      vious pages) in 1836, Sam Houston’s army was being

      pursued by General Santa Anna. Things were not

      looking good. Of course, that

      is exactly the kind of moment

      when a Texan likes to double

      down. Which is just what Sam

      Houston and his men did.

      Taking up positions in a forest

      next to the plain where Santa

      Anna and his troops had set

      up camp, Houston became the

      pursuer. On the afternoon of April 21, 1836, his

      Texans charged their enemy, shouting, “Remember

      the Alamo!” and “Remember Goliad!” The Battle of

      San Jacinto, as this fight came to be known, was over

      in eighteen minutes. Santa Anna’s troops were

      routed, and he was taken prisoner. A month later he

      signed the Treaties of Velasco, which laid the founda-

      tion for Texan independence. The men of Sam

      Houston’s army hadn’t

      buried the memory of the

      Alamo and Goliad; they ral-

      lied around it. Those Texan

      fighters, whose democracy

      had been usurped by Santa

      Anna, knew in their hearts

      that to keep fighting was the

      only way forward.

      Top: Uncle Alfred Wyly leads the charge in Charles Shaw’s

      depiction of the Battle of San Jacinto. Above: A banner, based

      on the Mexican flag, that was flown during the Battle of the

      Alamo and afterward. The provinces of Zacatecas and Texas

      both rebelled when Santa Anna usurped their freedom, which

      had been guaranteed by the Mexican Constitution of 1824.

      TEXAS GOT IT RIGHT!

      22

      What filled the empty expanses of early Texas with

      Scots-Irish and other migrant settlers wasn’t just a

      hunger for land; it was a longing for the security

      and livelihood that land ownership brought to a

      family. The father of the Texas Republic, Stephen F.

      Austin, recognized that early on. So did Austin’s

      cousin, Mary Austin Holley, who was so inspired by

      the magnanimous opportunity that Texas offered

      newcomers of every background that she wrote a

      book about the place in order to inspire more

      people to come here: Texas, a History, the first

      English-language chronicle of Texas, published in

      1836. Three years later, Stephen Austin, as presi-

      dent of the young republic, pushed through a

      homestead act, which protected homesteaders from

      creditors who might seek to possess their land and

      property. The act also guaranteed every citizen or

      head of household “fifty acres or

      one town lot, including his or her

      homestead, and improvements

      not exceeding five hundred

      dollars in value.” Similar provi-

      sions and protections have been

      enshrined in Texas’s state constitu-

      tion ever since. They’ve also guided Texas policy

      when it comes to property ownership—for example,

      protecting homeowners from overleveraging them-

      selves to the banks by setting a commonsense

      minimum for down payments, a fact that helped

      steer Texas clear of the housing meltdown that trig-

      gered the Great Recession.

      Top: The “Lone Star Flag” was adopted as the national flag of

      the Republic of Texas in 1839. Today it is the Texas state flag.

      Above: Mary Austin Holley.

      TEXAS GOT IT RIGHT!

      23

      Texas is strong and self-sufficient by design. It is the

      only U.S. state to have joined the union by treaty—in

      1845, when the sovereign Republic of Texas voted to

      join the union. Texas bargained hard with the federal

      government to win favorable terms and became

      unique among states by keeping full control of her

      public land. Texas also retained control of the repub-

      lic’s historic coastal waters, which