Ted Poe: “Mr. Speaker, these are the lyrics to Marty Robbins' ``Ballad of the Alamo.'' It was there in an old beat up Spanish…”

“Mr. Speaker, these are the lyrics to Marty Robbins' ``Ballad of the Alamo.'' It was there in an old beat up Spanish mission in south Texas called the Alamo on March 6, 1836, 171 years ago today, that 187 men stood defiant against oppression and tyranny. They were an odd looking bunch. They were dressed in buckskin. They had large knives, tomahawks and long rifles. They were of all races, of all States, and 13 foreign countries, including Mexico. They were facing a professional army over 20 times their size. They were there because of the new dictator of Mexico, Santa Anna. He had abolished the democratic Mexican constitution and made himself dictator of all of Mexico. Hispanics and Anglos living in the Texas part of Mexico wanted the Mexican constitution restored, or independence from Mexico. Santa Anna then invaded Texas with three armies to put down the dissenters. The men at the Alamo were led by a 27-year-old lawyer from South Carolina and Alabama named William Barrett Travis.”