Ted Poe: “I rise today to honor the unique history of the great State of Texas. Today, March 2, marks Texas Independence Day. On…”

“I rise today to honor the unique history of the great State of Texas. Today, March 2, marks Texas Independence Day. On this day, 169 years ago, Texas declared its independence from Mexico and its dictator, Santa Anna, the 19th century Saddam Hussein. In 1836, in the small farm village of Washington-on-the-Brazos, 54 Texians, as they called themselves in those days, gathered to do something bold and courageous: Sign the Texas Declaration of Independence and once and for all ``declare that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, sovereign, and independent republic.'' As these determined delegates met to declare independence, Santa Anna and 6,000 enemy troops were marching on an old beat-up Spanish mission that we now call the Alamo, where Texas defenders stood defiant, stood determined. They were led by a 27-year-old lawyer by the name of William Barrett Travis. The Alamo and its 186 Texans were all that stood between the invaders and the people of Texas.”