Posted on 03/02/2008 10:09:07 AM PST by Spktyr
The Unanimous Declaration of Independence made by the Delegates of the People of Texas in General Convention at the town of Washington on the 2nd day of March 1836.
When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.
When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a consolidated central military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the everready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants.
When, long after the spirit of the constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the constitution discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to force a new government upon them at the point of the bayonet.
When, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abdication on the part of the government, anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements. In such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable rights of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves, and a sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their future welfare and happiness.
Nations, as well as individuals, are amenable for their acts to the public opinion of mankind. A statement of a part of our grievances is therefore submitted to an impartial world, in justification of the hazardous but unavoidable step now taken, of severing our political connection with the Mexican people, and assuming an independent attitude among the nations of the earth.
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.
In this expectation they have been cruelly disappointed, inasmuch as 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.
It 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenseless frontiers.
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.
These, and other grievances, were patiently borne by the people of Texas, untill they reached that point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. We then took up arms in defence of the national constitution. We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance. Our appeal has been made in vain. Though months have elapsed, no sympathetic response has yet been heard from the Interior. We are, therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion, that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of their liberty, and the substitution therfor of a military government; that they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self government.
The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation.
We, therefore, the delegates with plenary powers of the people of Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid world for the necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and declare, that our political connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations.
Signed: Richard Ellis, President of the Convention and Delegate from Red River. Charles B. Stewart Tho. Barnett
John S. D. Byrom Francis Ruis J. Antonio Navarro Jesse B. Badgett Wm D. Lacy William Menifee Jn. Fisher Matthew Caldwell William Motley Lorenzo de Zavala Stephen H. Everett George W. Smyth Elijah Stapp Claiborne West Wm. B. Scates M. B. Menard A. B. Hardin J. W. Burton Thos. J. Gazley R. M. Coleman Sterling C. Robertson James Collinsworth Edwin Waller Asa Brigham
Geo. C. Childress Bailey Hardeman Rob. Potter Thomas Jefferson Rusk Chas. S. Taylor John S. Roberts Robert Hamilton Collin McKinney Albert H. Latimer James Power Sam Houston David Thomas Edwd. Conrad Martin Parmer Edwin O. Legrand Stephen W. Blount Jms. Gaines Wm. Clark, Jr. Sydney O. Pennington Wm. Carrol Crawford Jno. Turner
Benj. Briggs Goodrich G. W. Barnett James G. Swisher Jesse Grimes S. Rhoads Fisher John W. Moore John W. Bower Saml. A. Maverick (from Bejar) Sam P. Carson A. Briscoe J. B. Woods H. S. Kimble, Secretary
Today’s Sam’s birthday, too.
His Indian friends called him the ‘big drunk’.
Don’t give up on it. One of my uncles did the research so I don’t know how to go about it. But there are some pretty good records available. You might get some guidance from the Daughters of the Texas Republic. I’ll check my personal library for mentions of Bevil and freepmail you if I find anything interesting.
Try these books.
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Madeleine+Martin&kn=Texas&sts=t&x=51&y=14
There is a Bevil Oaks settlement on Hwy 105 about 6 miles west of Beaumont nestled against the banks of Pine Island Bayou. Because of its location on the Bayou it could well date back into history as Pine Island ties into the Neches River and thus has access to Beaumont and the Gulf.
If the Union so much as raises an eyebrow at our intent to split up, our annexation contract with the Union is breached, null and void, and Texas forthwith reverts to her own Sovereign Country.
Doesn’t the annexation documents provide for this to occur as provided for under the US Constitution? Thus the Congress would have a say.
Thanks a bunch! I already ordered the book. Now I hope I haven’t wasted $33.
Yes that is a little north east of the location I was speaking of. I’m not much into genealogy but it is interesting at times to look for old family history. Good luck into your search.
I at one time owned a piece of property that had the original title going back to the original land grants. It was interesting to look at the history via the land transfers.
Haven’t delved that deep (but I am going to), but I highly doubt Sam would let Congress decide our Sovereignty, should Texas need to employ the ‘nucular’ option.
It would be pointless to demand the 5-state solution if it were subject to congressional oversight.
There is a second book with more families at the link also. Some libraries in that part of the state should have those books. There was no mention of Bevil in my books, which deal more with west and central Texas and the Alamo.
Good luck. You will be quite popular in your family if you come up with some good finds.
I remember reading something years ago that the Congress in session when Texas re-enter the Union after the Civil War took that option away. It would be secession and our own nation again. Something like that. Better find a Freeper that is a Texas historian.
Haven’t delved that deep (but I am going to), but I highly doubt Sam would let Congress decide our Sovereignty, should Texas need to employ the ‘nucular’ option.
I’ll help you a bit by linking you to the annexation resolution which Texas agreed to. I’ll link and quote the appropriate section. Note the reference subject to the US Constitution..... Then go read the Constitution, Article IV, Sec. 3.
-—Third — New States of convenient size not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas and having sufficient population, may, hereafter by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the Federal Constitution; and such states as may be formed out of the territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri Compromise Line, shall be admitted into the Union, with or without slavery, as the people of each State, asking admission shall desire; and in such State or States as shall be formed out of said territory, north of said Missouri Compromise Line, slavery, or involuntary servitude (except for crime) shall be prohibited.
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks txflake. I think its time for another war with mexico.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.