Manuel …show more content…
Zavala had been representing Mexico in Paris when he got word that Santa Anna had taken dictatorial control of Mexico. He came to Texas to work for the restoration of democratic government of his country. Zavala was invited to attend a conference of all representatives in the Brazos District to be held at San Felipe July 15. Asked to speak at meeting planned for August 8, 1835 at Lynch's tavern, Zavala was forced to decline because of ill health. However, he wrote a summary of the political situation to be read at the Lynchburg meeting. Zavala favored separate statehood for Texas within a democratic Mexican federation. Zavala went to San Felipe on October 15 as one of the five delegates from Harrisburg to the Consultation, a meeting of representatives from around Texas that discussed on the state of affairs with Mexico and turned into Texas' earliest provisional government. When the Consultation finally ended on November 3, Zavala was asked to represent Harrisburg on the committee of 12 to write a declaration. With the membership split between those advocating an immediate declaration of independence from Mexico and the majority desiring to return Mexican government to a federal system, Zavala was influential in drafting the Declaration to the Public (November 7, 1835) in support of a federal Mexican government and separate statehood for Texas. The Consultation then appointed him to translate the Declaration into Spanish. The balance of power at the Consultation had begun to swing towards those who favored separation from Mexico. Zavala realized that a national Mexican revolt against Santa Anna was not in the cards, and when the Convention met at Washington-on-the-Brazos in March 1836, Lorenzo de Zavala was forced to reassess his own beliefs. On March 3 he was among the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, an act that would brand him a traitor to his fellow Mexicans to this day. Zavala chaired the section