Hot! Texas Declaration Of Independence

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TheTexas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Mexico in the Convention of 1836 at on March 2, 1836, and formally signed the following day after errors were noted in the text.

Background

In October 1835, settlers in Mexican Texas launched the .

However, within Texas, many struggled with understanding what was the ultimate goal of the Revolution. Some believed that the goal should be total independence from Mexico, while others sought the reimplementation of the Mexican Constitution of 1824 (which offered greater freedoms than the centralist government declared in Mexico the prior year). To settle the issue, a convention was called for March 1836.

This convention differed from the previous Texas councils of 1832 , 1833 , and the 1835 Consultation . Many of the delegates to the 1836 convention were young men who had only recently arrived in Texas, although many of them had participated in one of the battles in 1835. Most of the delegates were members of the War Party and were adamant that Texas must declare its independence from Mexico. Forty-one delegates arrived in on February 28.

Development

The convention was convened on March 1 with George Childress and also included Edward Conrad, James Gaines, Bailey Hardeman , and Collin McKinney . The committee submitted its draft within a mere 24 hours, leading historians to speculate that Childress had written much of it before his arrival at the Convention.

The declaration was approved on March 2 with no debate. Based primarily on the writings of John Locke and , 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" and complained about "arbitrary acts of oppression and tyranny". The declaration officially established the .

Among others, the declaration mentions the following reasons for the separation:

The 1824 Constitution of Mexico establishing a federal republic had been usurped and changed into a centralist military dictatorship by Gen. Antonio L pez de Santa Anna .

The Mexican government had invited settlers to and promised them constitutional liberty and republican government, but then reneged on these guarantees.

Texas was in union with the Mexican state of Coahuila as Coahuila y Tejas , with the capital in distant Saltillo , and thus the affairs of Texas were decided at a great distance from the province and in the Spanish language .

Political rights to which the settlers had previously been accustomed, such as the and the right to , were denied.

No system of had been established.

The settlers were not allowed .

Based upon the , 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."

Mexico s abolition of slavery a prime motivation? Signatures See also Notes

Roberts and Olson (2001), p. 98.

Roberts and Olson (2001), p. 142.

Davis (1982), p. 38.

Roberts and Olson (2001), p. 144.

Roberts and Olson (2001), p. 145.

Roberts and Olson (2001), p. 146.

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Scott (2000), p. 122.

References