In September 1835, Santa Anna sent his brother-in-law, General Martin Perfecto de Cos, to Texas to confiscate the inhabitants’ arms and to arrest Santa Anna’s political opponents. Like the Americans in 1775 who demanded their English common-law rights, the Texans of 1835 demanded their rights under the Mexican Constitution of 1824. Texans realized these rights could be protected only by an armed populace.

Sam Houston, commander of the Texas citizens army, urged the North Americans:

Let each man come with a good rifle and one hundred rounds of ammunition—and…come soon.

Our war cry is ‘LIBERTY OR DEATH.’

On March 2, 1836, the Texas Declaration of Independence was adopted. That document charges Santa Anna’s government:

It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defense—the rightful property of freemen—and formidable only to a tyrannical government.

On March 9, a Declaration of Rights was adopted. Article 14 declared:

Every citizen shall have the right to bear arms in defense of himself and the Republic.

This statement, inspired by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, known as the American Bill of Rights, was an interpretation of what the Texans understood that American right to be.

Now, as in 1836, there are those who would deprive Texans, indeed all Americans, of this most basic right of free men. All other rights flow from this one. Without the means to resist oppression, none of our rights can be guaranteed.

American Daughter is a member of a coalition of weblogs devoted to exposing the hypocrisy of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and stopping its erosion of our traditional rights and values. Every Thursday, all of the participating weblogs join together to highlight particular legal challanges and court cases involving the ACLU.

This week, blogburst organizer Jay Stephenson has posted this article:

Hostettler asks Legion to help confront ACLU

Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., called veterans who belong to the American Legion to fight again, “to defend our sacred liberties.”

“This battle will be fought with letters, e-mails, phone calls and personal visits,” he said.

The enemy? The American Civil Liberties Union.

Hostettler was speaking Tuesday to 700 members of the American Legion who are in Washington for an annual convention. Tuesday afternoon, many of them went to lobby their representatives, and Hostettler’s bill, the Public Expression of Religion Act, was on their list of requests….

Go read the rest.