Every Man to His Duty

A proclamation from an impeached governor

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Henry W. Smith, Provisional Governor of Texas (November 14, 1835–March 1, 1836). Oil on canvas portrait by William H. Huddle, 1888. Courtesy of the State Preservation Board Caretakers of the Texas Capitol.

He who longer slumbers on the volcano, must be a madman. –Henry Smith

The year 1836 was a frog year, when February had an extra day to leap over. It was a year of political confusion and national possibilities. It was a dangerous year. Within the first four months of that year, citizens of the Mexican state of Tejas would suffer terrible tragedies at the hands of Antonio Lòpez de Santa Anna, only to celebrate a glorious victory on the banks of the San Jacinto River and hail the birth of the Republic of Texas.

But before the emergence of the Texas heroes within the walls of the old San Antonio Mission de Valero and outside the walls of Presidio la Bahía and on the open plain along Buffalo Bayou, there were lesser known leaders of the Texas Revolution. One of these men was Henry W. Smith. An ad hoc organization of citizens directing the revolution, known as the Consultation, created a provisional government consisting of a governor, lieutenant governor, and general council. Smith was elected governor and James Robinson was elected lieutenant governor. Smith’s administration was fraught with conflict from the beginning. Inside six weeks of taking office, in January 1836, Smith tried to dissolve the general council. They retaliated by impeaching him, effectively removing him from office, appointing Lieutenant Governor Robinson to acting governor. Smith refused to budge. He seized the government’s archives and official seal, and promised to shoot “any son of a bitch” who tried to take them. No one challenged him.

In February, probably just before or shortly after Santa Anna arrived on the doorstep of the Alamo on February 23, Governor Smith issued a proclamation, calling men to arms and urging them to rush to the aid of the men locked within the Alamo. Three hundred copies of Governor Smith’s proclamation were printed and distributed on February 29 by Baker and Bordens.

The men who answered Governor Smith’s call, however, didn’t make it to San Antonio. Unbeknownst to them, by the time his broadside was distributed the defenders locked inside the old mission-fort only had a few days to live. The men who answered the call, instead, formed the nucleus of the heroes of San Jacinto.

Broadside of Governor Henry W. Smith’s proclamation, February 1836. Courtesy Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

1836 February

TEXAS

Expects Every Man To Do His Duty

Executive Department of Texas.

Fellow-Citizens of Texas,

The enemy are upon us! A strong force surrounds the walls of San Antonio, and threaten that Garrison with the sword. Our country imperiously demands the service of every patriotic arm, and longer to continue in a state of apathy will be criminal. Citizens of Texas, descendants of Washington, awake! arouse yourselves!! The question is now to be decided, are we to continue as freedmen, or bow beneath the rod of military despotism. Shall we, without a struggle, sacrifice our fortunes, our lives and our liberties, or shall we imitate the example of our forefathers, and hurl destruction upon the heads of our oppressors? The eyes of the world are upon us! All friends of liberty and of the rights of men, are anxious spectators of our conflict; or deeply enlisted in our cause. Shall we disappoint their hopes and expectations? No; let us at once fly to our arms, march to the battle field, meet the foe, and give renewed evidence to the world, that the arms of freemen, uplifted in defence of their rights and liberties, are irresistible. “Now is the day and now is the hour,” that Texas expects every man to do his duty. Let us shew ourselves worthy to be free, and we shall be free. Our brethren of the United States have, with a generosity and a devotion to liberty, unparalleled in the annals of men, offered us every assistance. We have arms, ammunition, clothing and provisions; all we have to do, is to sustain ourselves for the present. Rest assured that succors will reach us, and that the people of the United States will not permit the chains of slavery to be rivetted on us.

Fellow Citizens, your garrison at San Antonio is surrounded by more than twenty times their number. Will you see them perish by the hands of the mercenary soldiery, without an effort for their relief? They cannot sustain the siege more than thirty days; for the sake of humanity, before that time give them succor. Citizens of the east, your brethren of the Brazos and Colorado, expect your assistance, afford it, and check the march of the enemy and suffer not your own land to become the seat of war; without your immediate aid we cannot sustain the war. Fellow-citizens, I call upon you as your executive officer to “turn out;” it is your country that demands your help. He who longer slumbers on the volcano, must be a madman. He who refuses to aid his country in this, her hour of peril and danger is a traitor. All persons able to bear arms in Texas are called on to rendezvous at the town of Gonzales, with the least possible delay armed and equipped for battle. Our rights and liberties must be protected; to the battle field march and save the country. An approving world smiles upon us, the God of battles is on our side, and victory awaits us.

Confidently believing that your energies will be sufficient for the occasion, and that your efforts will be ultimately successful.

I subscribe myself your fellow-citizen,

HENRY SMITH, Governor.

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Mirabeau B. Lamar, The Papers of Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar, vol. 1, ed. Charles Adams Gulick Jr. and Katherine Elliott (Austin: A. C. Baldwin & Sons, n.d.), 343–44.

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