I hate to get on the bad side of some of our more illustrious politicians — most are smarter than me; all, being politicians, are certainly wealthier — but this column may land me in hot water with a few Austinites.

Especially the ones who’ve made it known that Texas might just be better off as an independent republic for the first time in almost two centuries.

I used to be in agreement, though probably not for the reasons you’re thinking.

I imagined how much fun it would be asking an Okie or Arkie for his passport and denying entrance to someone from Louisiana because of unintelligible speech.

It would be utterly fabuloso, I thought, to be able to import a legal Cohiba cigar from Havana.

I’ve since reversed my wordly mind. I’m a traditional kind of fellow.

I figure that if being part of the United States was good enough for my family members who died in the 1875 hurricane at Indianola, it ought to be good enough for me.

Besides, can you imagine the problems being our own country would cause?

Austin might legislate that the Yellow Jacket football team remain in a district with Waxahachie, Corsicana and Ennis forever.

At least now, there’s the slim chance President Obama will delete the three quaint hamlets from the map.

I like to think William Carrol Crawford would have agreed with my stance on such matters state, federal and otherwise.

Crawford was about as well-connected as any gentleman who ever lit a lantern in Johnson County.

He knew all about what it took to get Mexico and Santa Anna out of our hair a couple of centuries ago. He was one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

But let’s not get too far ahead of the story.

Crawford was born in Fayetteville, N.C., in 1804, and while still a small child moved with his parents to Georgia.

His parents died soon after, Alvarado historian Derik Moore has written, and he went to live with a loving and caring family.

In 1830, Crawford was ordained as a Methodist minister in Alabama.

He was the circuit-riding minister for 27 churches within a 300 mile area, which he had to cover every four weeks.

The stress of that responsibility took a toll on his heath. It almost made him a Baptist.

Circuit-riding ministers in those days had to cover their appointed charges in rain, sleet, hail, snow and on hot humid days.

They had to ford swollen rivers, follow rigid diets and suffer deprivation, all of which frequently led to health problems such as death.

After four years, historian Moore contiunued, Crawford met and married Rhoda J. Watkins, and with his wife and her family, he started for Texas in 1834.

The caravan of settlers settled at Shelbyville on Jan. 5, 1835.

His first appointment in Texas was in Shelby County.

The town had been surveyed but had not yet been settled. It consisted of a blacksmith shop in a corn field and one dwelling.

As a colonist, Crawford received a league and a labor of land — 4,605.5 acres.

Like Elizabeth Crockett, by way of late husband Davy, Crawford received a Bounty Certificate for 640 acres for serving in the Texas Army from April 9 to Sept. 8, 1836.

As soon as he was settled on his land, he was elected on Feb. 1, 1836, as a delegate from Shelby Municipality to the Texas Constitutional Convention, which met at Old Washington on the Brazos on March 1, 1836.

He supported the Texas Declaration of Independence and was one of its signers, meaning he accomplished at least one thing during his political lifetime, more than some later legislators can say.

He was appointed to the committee to draft a constitution for the new government. They passed the ordinance to secede from Mexico.

In an excerpt from “The Men Who Made Texas Free,” by Sam Houston Dixon, Crawford made the following statement:

“We were in great danger of having our throats cut ... if you had known and felt these things as I did you could realize more fully the joy that filled everyone’s heart when the news flew over the land that the murder of Fannin and Bowie and their brave men had been avenged on the field of glorious battle.”

Crawford was the postmaster of Shelbyville during the Republic of Texas days and for a short period of time after 1846. He moved to Pittsburg in Camp County in 1859.

After the Civil War and Reconstruction, he was postmaster there from 1874 until 1881.

After the death of his wife, he moved to Hill County and lived there until 1885, when he came to Alvarado.

He was visiting his son in Erath County, north of Dublin, when he died on Dec. 3, 1895. He was buried in Cow Creek Cemetery. In 1936, his remains were re-interred in the State Cemetery in Austin.

On tepid, windless nights, you can find his ghost drifting through the legislature, giving the august decision-makers a piece of his mind. Lord knows, they can use it.