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, 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.
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 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.
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.
Read the entire Texas Declaration of Independence. It’ll make you think about events occurring in our time.
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Big Jolly, thanks for posting this. We were remiss in not publishing it yesterday, but you have come to the rescue. Viva Republica de Texas !
It was not all that long ago that the United States of America was born. And not that much later the Republic of Texas was born. Indeed how short are the memories of some of our contemporaries who are willingly lulled into a complacency so satisfying and effortless. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
Thanks BigJ for the article, and I agree with Texpat and Adee.
We remembered the Alamo, we remembered Goliad, we remembered San Jacinto. Now we have to remember Ramos and Compean, Johnny Satan, phony fences and phony Senators, a President who refuses to protect our borders. Will it be borne out that Travis, Bowie, Crockett and countless others all died in vain so our politicians cold give it back? Let’s hope not, but as someone said, hope is not a plan.
Texas ain’t what it used to be. Now the Feds says “bend over” and Texas is forefront responds “how far?”
What a mistake to join into the Union.
May the Republic of Texas to raise up again from the ashes and “that the people of Texas” may again “constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic,” to again be “fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations.”
It is our right and heritage; denied by not lost.
As most of you know, I am from Illinois. If Illinois had undergone, what Texas did, I fear the outcome would have been much different. Texas and to be Texan, is an independence, a fire, that is tangible. I was struck by this in 75 when I moved here, and have been struck by it ever since. Never underestimate Texas.
GTT
Nat, right on. That was written on doors all over the country when folks decided Texas was a place of promise in the 1800s. Still is, but the GTT notation has been lost. Texan by choice since 1969.
Never forget what happened when a dictator tried to take away our guns.
#6 Agreed, except that these days Texans often underestimate themselves. The lefties running the public schools teach that there was something evil about the way we got Texas, though for some reason they see nothing evil in the way we got the 13 colonies together.
I recently visited the small town of Brownwood, which is smack dab in the middle of Texas, and was astonished to see that all yard work and landscaping was being done by middle aged white men. No illegals, at least none to be seen in plain view. This is important because it lays to the lie the idea that U.S. citizens will no longer do that sort of work.
If the President won’t send the U.S. Army to protect our border the way the presidents did a hundred years ago, we should send the Texas Army. Round up the illegals and drop ‘em in the middle of the desert on the northern New Mexico border, where Bill Richardson will welcome them with open arms. Or maybe in Havana ….
When will Texas reclaim its Independence?
God Bless Texas!
#10
Send Perry with e’m.
Can you imagine someone like Shelia Jackson Lee or Shelley Sekula Jackson Rodriquez Lee Gibbs being associated with a document like this? They are still looking for the “promote the general welfare” clause.
Ah yes, the real Texas. Now we are led around by our noses by the current republican establishemnt and an executive who is from Connecticut but wears a cowboy hat-but they know how to keep texas on board.
We have a “war on terror” and federal right to life and marriage amenments to pass (wich will never happen.) Im starting to think reconstruction really worked. Did you know when Bush was gov. of Texas he removed the Robert E Lee placard from the court house in Austin? He did it in the middle of the night. BUt hes a real Texan, right? And the Republican establishment represents old Texas values like states rights, right? Yeah right.
May be time to dust that venerable document off and update the dates–it’s still in our Constituion that we have the Right of Secession.
Happy Day Texans.
“May be time to dust that venerable document off and update the dates–it’s still in our Constituion that we have the Right of Secession.”
Agreed. But the republican party would say this is the opinion of a “nut job” using the same brush they use to paint Ron Paul. Why dont we ask Chris Peden his views on states rights? Ron Paul is pro states rights-and he thinks Abraham Lincoln was a tyrant, but hes just for hippies, not real Texans.
True Texans will defend Texas to the end. Has anyone told the Mexican government they lost the war? I guess their ignorance is showing big time at the expense of us real Texans.
Perhaps we should get Billy Mays (as shown on TV spokesperson) to get some Mighty Putty so we can put up a real wall on the border. I previously was for an electrified fence (touch it and you’re zapped), but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen.
To bad Pancho V. Perry is on the side of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna………
This will be the soon to come Declaration:
, who having overturned the constitution of his country(USA), now offers us the cruel alternative, either to abandon our homes(TransTexas Corridor), acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny, 4 more years of Jorge Bush in the form of ObamaRama, Spillary, or McShamed.
The US government, by its refusal to enforce our immigration laws, invited and induced the Mexican population of Mexico to colonize the Southwestern USA under the pledged faith and blessing of Jorge Traitor Bush and Pancho V. Perry.
Thanks BigJolly. Remember the Alamo then and Now.
Although I agree with many of these comments, this one was soooo….soooo….dang, vlou! You go, girl!
As for Phil:
Sorry that my kinfolk only got to shoot the tassle offa Santa Anna’s hat in the War of Bueno Vista. However, it makes a great talking point while hanging on my wall. (Conservation framed, of course!!)
I think tRick Perry only wears cowboy hats.
It ain’t Sunday
It ain’t March 2nd
It’s after 4 AM Monday March 3 and still no Open Thread ?
Still no OC, Dov