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Texas Declaration of Independence

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Texas Declaration of Independence
1836 facsimile of the Texas Declaration of Independence
CreatedMarch 2, 1836 (1836-03-02)
LocationEngrossed copy: Texas State Library and Archives Commission
AuthorGeorge Childress
Signatories59 delegates to the Consultation, 1 Secretary
PurposeTo announce and explain separation from Mexico
Full text
Texas Declaration of Independence at Wikisource

The Texas Declaration of Independence, adopted on March 2, 1836, at the Convention of 1836 in Washington-on-the-Brazos, formally declared Texas's independence from Mexico during the Texas Revolution. At the convention George Childress, James Gaines, Edward Conrad, Collin McKinney, and Bailey Hardeman were appointed to committee and tasked with drawing up a declaration of independence. Childress likely wrote the document, or most of it, by himself.[1] It was signed by delegates the following day after corrections were made to the text.

Background

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In October 1835, Tejanos and settlers in Mexican Texas launched the Texas Revolution.

Amongst the people of Texas some believed that the main goal should be complete independence from Mexico, while others sought the reimplementation of the Mexican Constitution of 1824. The 1824 constitution had enabled significant freedoms to be granted by the states, including immigration from the United States and the continued treatment of slaves as property, which were prohibited by the central government of Mexico, which was strengthened by the 1835 constitution of Mexico, Siete Leyes.[2] (Seven Laws) To find a compromise, a convention was called for on March 1, 1836.

This convention differed from the previous Texas councils of 1832, 1833, and the 1835 Consultation. Many delegates were young U.S. citizens who had recently arrived in Texas, by violating Mexico’s April 1830 immigration ban. Moreover, many of them had fought in battles during the Texas Revolution against Mexico in 1835. Of the 60 signers, three were Tejanos: Lorenzo de Zavala, Jose Francisco Ruiz[3] and Jose Antonio Navarro.[4] Most of the delegates were members of the War Party and were adamant that Texas must declare its independence from Mexico.[5][6] Forty-one of these delegates arrived in Washington-on-the-Brazos on February 28.[6]

Development

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Replica of the building at Washington-on-the-Brazos where the Texas Declaration was signed. An inscription reads: "Here a Nation was born."

The convention was convened on March 1 with Richard Ellis as president.[7] The delegates selected a committee of five to draft a declaration of independence; this committee was led by George Childress along with Edward Conrad, James Gaines, Bailey Hardeman, and Collin McKinney. The committee submitted its draft within a mere 24 hours, and this led historians to speculate that Childress had written much of it before he arrived at the Convention.[8] The document closely mirrors the United States Declaration of Independence in both structure and tone.

The declaration was approved on March 2. Based primarily on the writings of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson, the declaration proclaimed that the Mexican government "ceased to protect the lives, liberty, and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived"[9] and alleged that it committed "arbitrary acts of oppression and tyranny."[10][11] The declaration also formally states that Texas "is, and of right ought to be, a free sovereign and independent republic." [12]

The delegates expressed frustration that the constitution of Mexico had been altered ("overturned", in their words) by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to centralize power and remove state autonomy. The central government of Mexico was accused of invading "our country", to "drive us from our homes." The settlers were not allowed freedom of religion. All legal settlers were required to convert to Catholicism. The Spanish language, which was required for legal papers, and to gain citizenship, was called "an unknown tongue." Attempts by the Mexican government to enforce import tariffs were described as "piratical attacks" by "foreign desperadoes" to "convey the property of our citizens to far distant ports for confiscation."[13] Throughout the declaration are numerous references to United States laws, rights, and customs. Omitted from the declaration was the fact that the author and most of the signatories were citizens of the United States, occupying Texas illegally, and therefore had no legal rights in the governance of Mexico. The declaration clarifies that the men were accustomed to the laws and privileges of the United States, and were unfamiliar with the language, religion, and traditions of the Mexican nation that they were rebelling against.

The declaration officially established the Republic of Texas, although it was not officially recognized at that time by any government other than itself. The Mexican Republic refused to recognize the declaration because it still claimed the land and considered most of the delegates to be foreign invaders, and the United States didn't recognize the declaration until 1837 because to do so would be an act of war against Mexico. The declaration's adoption was followed by the Battle of the Alamo and ultimately the decisive Texian victory at the Battle of San Jacinto in April 1836.[14]

This initiated a diplomatic campaign that ultimately secured formal recognition from the United States in 1837[15], France in 1839, Great Britain in 1840, the Netherlands in 1840, and informal trade ties with Belgium.[16]

The declaration states the following fifteen reasons for rebelling[17]:

  1. "The Mexican government, by its colonization laws, invited and induced the Anglo-American population of Texas to colonize its wilderness under the pledged faith of a written constitution, that they should continue to enjoy that constitutional liberty and republican government to which they had been habituated in the land of their birth, the United States of America."
  2. "-the Mexican nation has acquiesced in the late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who having overturned the constitution of his country, now offers us the cruel alternative, either to abandon our homes, acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny, the combined despotism of the sword and the priesthood."
  3. "It (The Mexican Government of Santa Anna) has sacrificed our welfare to the state of Coahuila, by which our interests have been continually depressed through a jealous and partial course of legislation, carried on at a far distant seat of government, by a hostile majority, in an unknown tongue, and this too, notwithstanding we have petitioned in the humblest terms for the establishment of a separate state government, and have, in accordance with the provisions of the national constitution, presented to the general Congress a republican constitution, which was, without just cause, contemptuously rejected."
  4. "It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a long time, one of our citizens, for no other cause but a zealous endeavor to procure the acceptance of our constitution, and the establishment of a state government."
  5. "It has failed and refused to secure, on a firm basis, the right of trial by jury, that palladium of civil liberty, and only safe guarantee for the life, liberty, and property of the citizen."
  6. "It has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources, (the public domain,) and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self government."
  7. "It has suffered the military commandants, stationed among us, to exercise arbitrary acts of oppression and tyrrany, thus trampling upon the most sacred rights of the citizens, and rendering the military superior to the civil power."
  8. "It has dissolved, by force of arms, the state Congress of Coahuila and Texas, and obliged our representatives to fly for their lives from the seat of government, thus depriving us of the fundamental political right of representation."
  9. "It has demanded the surrender of a number of our citizens, and ordered military detachments to seize and carry them into the Interior for trial, in contempt of the civil authorities, and in defiance of the laws and the constitution."
  10. "It has made piratical attacks upon our commerce, by commissioning foreign desperadoes, and authorizing them to seize our vessels, and convey the property of our citizens to far distant ports for confiscation."
  11. "It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God."
  12. "It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defence, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments."
  13. "It has invaded our country both by sea and by land, with intent to lay waste our territory, and drive us from our homes; and has now a large mercenary army advancing, to carry on against us a war of extermination."
  14. "It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenseless frontiers."
  15. "It hath been, during the whole time of our connection with it, the contemptible sport and victim of successive military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt, and tyrranical government."

Modeled after 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 defense, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments."

In the claim that Mexico had invited settlers, the declaration did not mention that many settlers, including the author and majority of signatories, were factually uninvited, illegal immigrants who failed to comply with settlement laws.[18] From Mexico's viewpoint, lawful elections of 1835 seated many conservative politicians who intended to strengthen Mexico's republic form of government and defend their nation from what they described as an invasion of illegal immigrants. Mexican legislators had lawfully amended the 1824 constitution by passing the Seven Laws.

While conservative politicians in Mexico City framed the Seven Laws as a legitimate constitutional restructuring, the abolition of the 1824 Constitution was widely viewed by federalists as an illegal centralization of power.[19] This led to a period of armed federalist rebellions in several Mexican states throughout the decade starting with Zacatecas in 1835 and Texas in 1836.

Signatories

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The New Republic, with the area in yellow under formal control and the green area as claimed territory, over modern borders

Sixty men signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Three of them were born in Mexico, those being José Antonio Navarro, José Francisco Ruiz, and Lorenzo de Zavala.[20] Fifty-seven moved to Texas from the United States,[21] and ten of them had lived in Texas for more than six years, while one-quarter of them had been in the province for less than a year.[18] This is significant, because it indicates that the majority of signatories had moved to Texas after the Law of April 6, 1830. This law, banning immigration, had taken effect and this meant that the majority were legally citizens of the United States, occupying Texas illegally.[22] A sixtieth name, the Convention Secretary, Herbert S. Kimble, was not a delegate but is signed at the bottom of the document.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Steen, Ralph W. (1952). "TSHA | Texas Declaration of Independence: History and Significance". Retrieved March 2, 2026.
  2. ↑ Roberts and Olson (2001), p. 98.
  3. ↑ Association, Texas State Historical. "José Francisco Ruiz: Military Officer and Public Official in Texas History". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved December 9, 2025.
  4. ↑ BERNICE, STRONG (June 15, 2010). "RUIZ, JOSE FRANCISCO". tshaonline.org. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  5. ↑ Association, Texas State Historical. "The War Party in Texas: A Historical Overview". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
  6. 1 2 Roberts and Olson (2001), p. 142.
  7. ↑ Davis (1982), p. 38.
  8. ↑ Roberts and Olson (2001), p. 144.
  9. ↑ Roberts and Olson (2001), p. 145.
  10. ↑ Association, Texas State Historical. "Browse Publications of Type Southwestern Historical Quarterly (SHQ)". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  11. ↑ Roberts and Olson (2001), p. 146.
  12. ↑ "Declaration of Independence of Texas, 1836".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ↑ "Texas Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836 | Texas State Library". www.tsl.texas.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
  14. ↑ Edmondson, J.R. (2000). The Alamo Story: From Early History to Current Conflicts. Republic of Texas Press. ISBN 9781556226780. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  15. ↑ "Texas* - Countries - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved June 3, 2026.
  16. ↑ Association, Texas State Historical. "The Diplomatic History of Texas: From Independence to Annexation". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved June 3, 2026.
  17. ↑ "Texas Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836 | Texas State Library". www.tsl.texas.gov. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
  18. 1 2 Scott (2000), p. 122.
  19. ↑ Costeloe, Michael (October 1988). Federalism to Centralism in Mexico: The Conservative Case for Change, 1834-1835. Cambridge University Press. pp. 173–185.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  20. ↑ "Texans' Struggle for Freedom and Equality Exhibit - Tejano Voices | Texas State Library".
  21. ↑ "Texas Declaration of Independence". sonofthesouth.net. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
  22. ↑ Fehrenbach, T.R. (November 6, 2000). Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans (Revised ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306809425. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)

References

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  1. ↑ Brands, H. W. (2005). Lone Star Nation: The Epic Story of the Battle for Texas Independence. Anchor Books. ISBN 9781400030725. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  2. ↑ Campbell, Randolph B. (2003). Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195138421. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  3. ↑ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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