Today is Texas Independence Day!
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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.....”
And so it was written.... that is the opening to the The Texas Declaration of Independence (March 2, 1836).
The Alamo mission at San Antonio was in its 7th day of being assaulted by thousands of Santa Anna's troops.
By the 13th day, Santa Anna's "take-no-prisoner" policy had all 189 defenders killed, including Jim Bowie and former U.S. Congressman Davy Crockett.
The only Texas army left in the field was Col. James Fannin's.
It departed Goliad to rescue the Alamo but was surrounded in open ground and captured. Santa Anna ordered all 350 prisoners executed.
When the Mexican officer hesitated, Santa Anna sent another officer who carried out the order.
Had Fannin's troops been left in prison, Texas would have been disheartened, but instead Santa Anna's cruelty aroused world outrage.
The Texas Declaration of Independence, signed MARCH 2, 1836, stated:
"General Antonio Lopez Santa Anna...demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defense-the rightful property of freemen-and formidable only to tyrannical governments...has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenseless frontiers...
We fearlessly...commit the issue to the...Supreme Arbiter of the destinies of nations."
Let us submit our cause as well.
NOTE: This Saturday we will gather on the Capitol Steps and once again, declare Independence. Will you join me?
On this day in 1836, Texas became a republic. On March 1 delegates from the seventeen Mexican municipalities of Texas and the settlement of Pecan Point met at Washington-on-the-Brazos to consider independence from Mexico. George C. Childress presented a resolution calling for independence, and the chairman of the convention appointed Childress to head a committee of five to draft a declaration of independence.
In the early morning hours of March 2, the convention voted unanimously to accept the resolution. After fifty-eight members signed the document, Texas became the Republic of Texas. The change remained to be demonstrated to Mexico.
As usual, Tyrants don’t take kindly to the peasants rising up. And Mexico was no different.
The concept of being able to “self-rule” doesn’t sit well with well, rulers!
As a reminder, Article 1 Section 1 of the Texas Constitution reads:
"Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States, and the maintenance of our free institutions and the perpetuity of the Union depend upon the preservation of the right of local self-government, unimpaired to all the States."
Liberty is a Lifetime Event
In parallel to the 13 colonies war for independence, Victory didn’t come early and didn’t come often.
The Lone Star Republic's Declaration of Independence came at the most desperate hour of the Texas Revolution. The Founding Fathers of Texas gathered at Washington-on-the-Brazos were faced with military disaster on every front. The day of the Declaration, Texas soldiers lost the Battle of Agua Dulce. The besieged Alamo would fall four days later. Two weeks later, the Battle of Refugio would be lost by Texian forces. Eighteen days later, Texas forces would lose the Battle of Coleto. Three weeks later, the Goliad Massacre would terrorize the infant Republic. The "Runaway Scrape," the mass flight of Texans to escape the fury of Santa Anna, was getting underway.
Texas was losing every battle, and Texas was losing the war.
Sounds a lot like Commander George Washington’s rag tag army travails.
However, not all was lost. A spirit of Freedom and Liberty was blowing in the wind. In the face of catastrophe, with no rational hope but to sue for terms, the Texans did the only thing they could do. They fought on. They refused to surrender their liberties.
They declared independence.
The declaration was approved on March 2 with no debate. 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"and complained about "arbitrary acts of oppression and tyranny". The declaration officially established the Republic of Texas.
Congress passes law after law after law demanding more and more and more from us every single day. The IRS, BATF, EPA, Dept. of Education, TSA, etc. the list goes on.
Is this what those 59 signers died and fought for? Would Houston, Travis, Childress, Milam, and all the Founding Fathers of Texas take kindly to things like DC demanding to see their papers to travel, to be strip searched, patted down and photographed, they and their children and wives as one example?
I think not.
It is time to declare your independence today.
As a reminder, his Saturday we will gather on the Capitol Steps and once again, declare Independence. Will you join me?
Join with the Constitution Party of Texas, the only political party in Texas willing to live as our forefathers did.
For God, Family and the Republic,
Bryan Malatesta
Chairman
Sources: TexasPolicy.com, AmericanMinute.com, Texas State Historical Association
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