A Description of Early Texians
This is one of my favorite quotations. It speaks volumes concerning the nature and character of Texians.
“Though at their homes and in the forest, these hunter warriors are generally clad in buckskin pantaloons and hunting shirts, many of them have been familiar with fine garments, and when at court or public worship, appear in very respectable apparel. Some of them are professional men or planters of wealth, and on emergency can appear with credit among the politest circles of the Atlantic cities. Drawn together by common interest and common dangers, the learned, polite and wealthy, are not in their ordinary dress and appearance, very different from their poorer and less instructed neighbors. They are on terms of familiarity, because they have together gathered round the camp fire in times of storm and cold, and together fought the Mexicans and red men of the forest. Equality in their intercourse together is here very practically exemplified. “I served with you at the surrender of Bexar; I was with you in the expedition against Indians on the upper Brazos; I fought with you at San Jacinto,” cancels all distinctions, and the highest officer is at once on terms of perfect equality with the poorest individual who had ever been his companion in arms, and shared the danger and suffering of a Texian tentless campaign.”
Source:
A. B. Lawrence, Texas in 1840: Or the Emigrant’s Guide to the New Republic. (New York: William W. Allen, 1840). Pgs 232-233.