- Texas Declaration of Independence
The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the
Republic of Texas fromMexico in theTexas Revolution . It was adopted at theConvention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos onMarch 2 ,1836 , and formally signed the following day after errors were noted in the text.Richard Ellis, president of the convention , appointed a committee of five;
George C. Childress ,Edward Conrad , James Gaines,Bailey Hardeman , andCollin McKinney (the last being the oldest member of the convention at age 70), to write the declaration, but the declaration was largely the work of Childress. As the text was completed in only one day after the committee was appointed, it is largely believed that Childress came to the convention already prepared with a draft.Among others, the declaration mentions the following reasons for the separation:
* The
1824 Constitution of Mexico establishing afederal republic had been usurped and changed into a centralistmilitary dictatorship underAntonio López de Santa Anna .
* The Mexican government had invited settlers toTexas and promised them constitutional liberty and republican government, but then reneged on these guarantees.
* Texas was in union with the Mexican state ofCoahuila asCoahuila y Tejas , with the capital in distantSaltillo , and thus the affairs of Texas were decided at a great distance from the province and in theSpanish language .
* Political rights to which the settlers had previously been accustomed, such as the right to keep and bear arms and the right to trial by jury, were denied.
* No system ofpublic education had been established.
* The settlers were not allowedfreedom of religion .Based upon the
United States Declaration of Independence , the Texas Declaration also contains many memorable expressions of American political principles:*"the right of trial by jury, that palladium of civil liberty, and only safe guarantee for the life, liberty, and property of the citizen."
*"our arms ... are essential to our defence, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments."
ignatures
*Richard Ellis, President of the Convention and Delegate from Red River
*Charles B. Stewart
*Thomas Barnett
*John S. D. Byrom
*José Francisco Ruiz
*José Antonio Navarro
*Jesse B. Badgett
*William D. Lacy
*William Menefee
*John Fisher
*Matthew Caldwell
*William Motley
*Lorenzo de Zavala
*Stephen H. Everett
*George W. Smyth
*Elijah Stapp
*Claiborne West
*William. B. Scates
*Michel B. Menard
*Augustine B. Hardin
*J. W. Burton
*Thomas J. Gazley
*Robert M. Coleman
*Sterling C. Robertson
*Benjamin Briggs Goodrich
*George Washington Barnett
*James G. Swisher
*Jesse Grimes
*Samuel Rhoads Fisher
*John W. Moore
*John W. Bower
*Samuel A. Maverick (from Bejar)
*Sam P. Carson
*Andrew Briscoe
*James B. Woods
*James Collinsworth
*Edwin Waller
*Asa Brigham
*George C. Childress
*Bailey Hardeman
*Robert Potter
*Thomas Jefferson Rusk
*Charles S. Taylor
*John S. Roberts
*Robert Hamilton
*Collin McKinney
*Albert Hamilton Latimer
*James Power
*Sam Houston
*David Thomas
*Edward Conrad
*Martin Parmer
*Edwin O. Legrand
*Stephen W. Blount
*Robert Thomas 'James' Gaines
*William Clark, Jr.
*Sydney O. Pennington
* William Carroll Crawford
*John Turner
*Herbert Simms Kimble , Secretaryee also
*
Texas Independence Day
*Timeline of the Republic of Texas External links
* [http://texashistory.unt.edu/widgets/pager.php?object_id=meta-pth-5872&recno=1071&path=/data/UNT/GLT/meta-pth-5872.tkl The Declaration of Independence, 1836] from [http://texashistory.unt.edu/permalink/meta-pth-5872 Gammel's Laws of Texas, Vol. I.] hosted by the [http://texashistory.unt.edu/ Portal to Texas History] .
* [http://www.lsjunction.com/docs/tdoi.htm Lone Star Junction Site]
* [http://texana.texascooking.com/texasindependenceday.htm Special Report: Texas Independence Day by Texas Cooking]
*Handbook of Texas|id=TT/mjtce|name=Texas Declaration of Independence
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