however chosen, nor President's counsellors, however shrewd, could have brought about a war of conquest between the United States and Mexico but for the bias, in American public opinion, which the Goliad slaughter produced.

It is not to the credit of Texas that the men of Goliad should have reposed for a century in an unmarked, unhonored, and almost unknown grave. A hundred and three years have passed since the Texan army, after retaking Goliad, buried their bones where now they lie; and since General Rusk, betrayed by his feelings, broke down in attempting the simple and eloquent eulogy he had prepared for delivery at their grave. Even now, when Texas, at a very long last, has remembered them, their monument is not in keeping with some that have been builded to commemorate smaller men and less important deeds. But their real memorials are elsewhere; this one but preserves their names, and fate, and marks their grave. The flag of their country, floating over the orchards and gardens of the Rio Grande; the cattle ranges of New Mexico and Arizona's mines and farms; the great city of El Paso; and those even greater cities -- Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco -- arisen on the California coast; the great dams on the western Colorado and tributary rivers, and the mighty works across the Golden Gate; majestic western mountains and great western harbors, all under the Stars and Stripes -- these are their true memorials; and although they did not know it, it was for these they gave their lives; and such is the price of Mexico's atonement for Santa Anna's wrong.

And though Texas and Texans have been derelict in commemorating these, their heroes, with visible monuments, and in consecrating their grave, they will not fail in that greater tribute that cannot be recorded in bronze or stone, but is enshrined in Texan hearts. For men such as these, who have died for their country, there is an immortality of memory not much beneath the immortality of the soul -- an eternity of remembrance existing in the consciousness of men -- and in that these men died for Texas, and their bones lie buried on Texan soil, the monument we now dedicate is but the symbol of an eternal tribute of gratitude and glory enshrined in every Texan's heart.

And in grateful remembrance of the lives that they lived and the deaths that they died, and of their devotion to the cause of freedom, which brought them here to die; through the years that