"nothing could be more shocking than to be deprived of their arms"

   "The most refined and studied despotism could not have devised a more cruel insult. To a people dependent to a great extent upon the rifle for subsistence, and who were surrounded by the most powerful and warlike nations of Indians on this continent, who, had the colonists been disarmed, would have slaughtered them like the helpless herd, and exterminated the colony without giving the party of the dictator further trouble, nothing could be more shocking than to be deprived of their arms. The consequence need hardly be told. Instant and universal revolt followed of course. The colonists, with the proscribed rifles in their hands, met General Cos midway. Storming the garrison of Goliad, in their onward march, they encountered him on the 4th of December, at San Antonio, stormed the eitadel, and made him and his army prisoners of war, whom they generously sent home with their arms on parole. Thus far the colonists were contending for their constitution." [Pg. 3]

   "It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion calculated to promote the temporal interests of its human functionaries rather than the glory of the true and living God.

   "It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defence, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical Governments.

   "It has invaded our country, both by sea and by land, with intent to lay waste our territory, and drive us from our homes; and has now a large mercenary army advancing, to carry op against us a war of extermination.

   "It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping-knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defence-less frontiers.

   "It has been, during the whole time of our connexion with it, the contemptible sport and victim of successive military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt, and tyrannical Government.

   "These and other grievances were patiently borne by the People of Texas, until they reached that point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. They then took up arms in defence of the National Constitution. They appealed to their Mexican brethren for assistance. Their appeal has been made in vain: though months have elapsed, no sympathetic response has yet been heard from the interior. They are, therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion that the Mexican People have acquiesced in the destruction of their liberty, and the substitution therefor of a military despotism; that they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self-government.

   "The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation...." [Pg. 5]

 - 24th Congress, 1st Session. [418] PROCEEDINGS OF A MEETING OF THE CITIZENS OF NASHVILLE, TENN., In favor of Recognising the Independence of Texas. June 27, 1836. Read, and ordered to be printed. TEXAS MEETING IN NASHVILLE. [PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, FIRST SESSION OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, BEGUN AND HELD AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, December 7, 1835, AND IN THE SIXTIETH YEAR OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES. IN SIX VOLUMES. VOLUME VI. Containing Documents from No. 404 to No. 430. WASHINGTON: PRINTED BT GALES & SEATON. 1836.]