a uniform except on parade days, suddenly found themselves subjected to the capricious tyranny of military rule.[33] On the 26th of June, 1832, the colonists took arms against this despotic interference with their constitutional freedom and besieged and captured the fort at Velasco. The garrison at Anahuac and that at Nacogdoches, were next reduced; and, in December of that year, when hostilities were suspended between Santa Anna and Bustamante, the colonists were again restored to the enjoyment of their rights guarantied under the constitution. In May 1824, Texas had been promised a separate State constitution as soon as she was prepared for it, but upon application to congress in 1833, after framing a suitable instrument in general convention at San Felipe, her request was denied. In 1835 the crisis at length arrived. The federal constitution fell. The resistance of several States to this despotism was suppressed by force. The legislature of Coahuila and Texas was dispersed at the point of the bayonet. Zacatecas, a brave stronghold of federalism, was assaulted by the central chiefs and her people butchered. And, finally, the whole republic, save Texas, yielded to Santa Anna. As this state at once resolved to maintain her sovereignty and federative rights, corresponding committees of safety and vigilance were promptly formed in all the municipalities. An immediate appeal to arms proclaimed the people's resolution to adhere to the constitution; and at Gonzales, Goliad, Bexar, Conception, Sepantillan, San Patricio, and San Antonio, they were victorious over the centralists. In November, 1835, the delegates of the Texan people assembled in "general consultation," and declared that "they had taken up arms in defence of the federal constitution of 1824, and that they would continue faithful to the Mexican confederacy as long as it should be governed by the laws that were framed for the protection of their political rights; that they were no longer morally or politically bound by the compact of union; yet, stimulated by the generous sympathy of a free people, they offered their assistance to such members of the confederacy as would take up arms against military despotism. This patriotic manifesto declaring at once the freedom of Texas and offering to other parts of Mexico a defensive alliance in favor of constitutional liberty, found no response from the overawed States, and thus Texas was abandoned to the mercy of a military president, who signalized his campaign of 1836 by acts of brutality which must forever consign his name to infamy."[34] Notwithstanding Santa Anna's successes at San Antonio and his frightful massacres, General Houston, the commander of the Texan forces, met and conquered the Mexicans on the 21st of April, 1836, in the brilliant action at San Jacinto, and thenceforth, in the emphatic language of an American statesman "the war was at an end."[35]