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The year had changed from 1832 to 1833, and the people of Gonzales and of all Texas, as far as Ernest could hear, expected great prosperity. Sam Houston had been to San Antonio de Bexar (or Bejar), and had returned eastward by the great highway, the Royal Road, north of Gonzales.

The convention was to meet in April to formulate a constitution and other measures for presentation to Santa Anna as soon as he should be installed as head of the Mexican Republic. Once permitted to elect its state officers and make its own laws, Texas would jump ahead.

The convention assembled at San Felipe on April 1, this 1833. Ernest did not ride over, but Dick Carroll, and other Gonzales citizens, did, to be on hand, so Gonzales was well informed as to what was done.

The constitution was drawn under the direction of Sam Houston, the chairman of the committee to prepare it. Another committee wrote a memorial or address to the Mexican government, explaining what Texas desired. It said that Texas was at a standstill, because of the attacks by the Indians, the lack of sufficient laws, and the restrictions placed upon immigration from the United States; and it asked that the government decree of 1830, which ordered that no more Americans should enter Texas, be officially repealed.