Texas Declaration of Independence

The declaration states that the Mexican government had invited settlers to Texas under the system of empresario land grants. Beginning with the colonization laws of 1823 and 1824, Mexico actively incentivized immigration from the United States to develop the region economically and to serve as a populated frontier buffer against raids by hostile indigenous tribes, such as the Comanche. In October 1835, Tejanos and settlers in Mexican Texas launched the Texas Revolution.^{[citation needed]}

Amongst the people of Texas some believed that the main goal should be complete independence from Mexico, while others sought the restoration of the Mexican Constitution of 1824 which had established a federal republic with significant state autonomy, unlike 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 59 delegates, 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]

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 with no debate.^[9] 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"^[10] and stated that it committed "arbitrary acts of oppression and tyranny."^[11][12] The declaration also formally states that Texas "is, and of right ought to be, a free sovereign and independent republic." ^[13]The delegates expressed frustration that the Federalist constitution "of their country (Mexico)" which they had "sworn to support" had been altered ("overturned", in their words) by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to centralize power and remove state autonomy.^[14] Throughout the declaration are numerous references to United States laws, rights, and customs.

The declaration officially established the Republic of Texas, initiating 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 Mexican government led by Santa Anna refused to recognize the declaration and viewed the delegates as rebels; However the document formalized the revolution's political goals. The declaration's adoption was in the midst of the Texas War for Independence which began in October 1835, with the Battle of Gonzales and included the now famous Siege of the Alamo and ultimately the decisive Texian victory at the Battle of San Jacinto in April 1836.^[17]

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

• The 1824 Constitution of Mexico establishing a federal republic had been overturned and allegedly been changed into "a consolidated central military despotism" by Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna.
• The Mexican government had invited settlers to Texas but then allegedly reneged on a "constitutional liberty and republican government to which they had been habituated in the land of their birth, the United States of America."
• Texas was in union with the Mexican state of Coahuila as Coahuila y Tejas, with the capital in distant Saltillo. Thus the affairs of Texas were decided at a great distance from the province and in the Spanish language, which the immigrants called "an unknown tongue."
• Political rights to which the settlers had previously been accustomed in the United States, such as the right to keep and bear arms and the right to trial by jury, were denied.
• No system of public education had been established.
• The settlers were not allowed freedom of religion. All legal settlers were required to convert to Catholicism.
• 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."
• The central government of Mexico was accused of invading "our country", to "drive us from our homes."

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."

While centralist 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.^[18] 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.

Sixty men signed the Texas Declaration of Independence though only fifty-nine were delegates. Three of them were born in Mexico, those being José Antonio Navarro, José Francisco Ruiz, and Lorenzo de Zavala.^[19] Fifty-six moved to Texas from the United States,^[20] 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.^[21] 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.

• Texas Independence Day
• Timeline of the Republic of Texas