On October 2, 1835, the Texas Revolution started when the government sent out troops to confiscate a cannon at Gonzales.

HD 17 Ties to Battle of Gonzales

The area of House District 17, which includes Caldwell, Bastrop, Lee, Burleson, and Milam Counties is intricately tied to that day, as is the situation we face, today.

When Lt. Francisco Casteneda arrived with 100 calvary to confiscate the cannon on September 29, 1835, he was stymied by a swollen Guadalupe River across which he saw 18 Gonzales militiamen, later called the Old Eighteen.

Matthew “Old Paint” Caldwell, of Gonzales, set off for Bastrop to sound the alarm. For that, Caldwell after whom both Caldwell County and the county seat of Burleson County are named, was nicknamed the “Paul Revere of the Texas Revolution.”

The Bastrop area sent two groups to Gonzales, one led by the commander of the Mina Volunteers, Robert Coleman, bringing 30 men, and the other by John Moore, bringing 40 men. Moore would become the leader of the over 140 men assembled to face off with Casteneda.

Sarah Dewitt (widow of impresario Green DeWitt) cut up the wedding dress of their daughter, Naomi, and created the famous Come and Take It flag under which Texas started its fight against the violations of the Mexican constitution by the dictator, Santa Anna.

After the first volley of the battle on October 2, which the Texans definitely fired, Moore and Casteneda parleyed. Casteneda asked Moore why the hostility. Moore said he was defending the decentralized Mexican Constitution of 1824 against the dictatorial consolidation of central power by Santa Anna. Castaneda said he was a supporter of decentralization, too, and Moore asked Casteneda to join with his group and fight for the Constitution. Casteneda replied with a familiar refrain of tyranny, he had to follow his orders.

Relevance to Today

At this moment in Texas history, we face as grave a centralizing threat against Texas self-governance as the threat faced by Texans in 1835. To insure that millions of our posterity will remain free in Texas will require the same grit and spirit of defiance shown by the people of Gonzales and Bastrop.

Globalist and Marxist tyrants who want to centralize power away from Texas to destroy everything Texans hold dear will not give up unless met with the original Texas spirit of resistance.

If there is anything that defines my political action, it is an understanding of the current threat to Texans and our future, an understanding of what it takes to defeat that threat, and a burning desire to engage the tyrannical, centralist enemy to secure the liberty of Texans today and in the future.

The picture is an amalgamation of the original Come and Take it flag with modern versions of it, expressing our need to stop tyrants from taking our guns, using the Great Reset and climate hoax to destroy the Texas economy, and defiance against the feds trying to stop us from defending ourselves against the border invasion.