Kaleidoscope

The Republic of Texas

         The Texas Revolution began when Texas fired upon Mexican soldiers at the small town of Gonzales in October 1835. The shots resulted from growing tensions between Texans and the Mexican national government embodied in Santa Anna, a charismatic military leader who had assumed the presidency of Mexico and begun process of centralizing power and, in the eyes of Texans, abolishing democracy. Before the blood was shed in Gonzales, the Texans launched a campaign of petitions, memorials and broadsides aimed at expressing their rights as citizens of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas and rallying like-minded Mexicans to do the same. The three documents in this case are some of the rarest in Texas history, and demonstrate the evolution of Texans’ ideas about resistance to Mexican authority.

        The first, ¡¡¡Liberty, Constitution, and Federation!!!, was adopted on June 22, 1835, by citizens of San Felipe de Austin, the capital of Stephen F. Austin’s first empresario colony. This broad street enumerates the Texans’ grievances with Santa Anna and appeals to all Coahuilans to rise up  and resist his efforts to consolidate power. The document and others like it had no effect and tensions mounted, leading to bloodshed at Gonzales. Later Texans called a convention to be held at San Felipe in November to discuss the growing hostility with the national government. On November 7, 1835, more than 60 delegates attending the convention issued “Declaration of People of Texas,” espousing their “rights” as Mexican citizens and pledging their adherence to the constitution of 1824 and resistance to Santa Anna. The Mexican President answered their broadside by amassing an army and marching to Texas, arriving at the Alamo on February 23, 1836. By this time another convention had been called, and the delegates met at Washington-on-the-Brazos beginning on March 1. A day later the convention issued the third document, a “Declaration to Independence” modeled on that of the U.S., and Texas severed its ties to Mexico altogether. Texas won its independence on the San Jacinto battlefield on April 21, 1836, when Sam Houston and the Texas forces surprised and defeated a part of the Mexican army and later captured Santa Anna.

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