![]() ![]() With the declaration of independence, the chairman appointed one person from each municipality to a committee to draft a constitution. It authorized its agents in the United States to seek a $1 million loan and pledge land for its redemption. The convention also halted public land sales and closed the land offices. Those men who left Texas to avoid military service, refused to participate, or gave aid to the enemy would forfeit their rights of citizenship and the lands they held in the republic. The convention declared all able-bodied men ages seventeen to fifty liable for military duty and offered land bounties of 320 to 1,280 acres for service from three months to one year. Ultimately fifty-eight members signed the document. The next day, March 2, the delegates unanimously adopted Childress's suggestion for independence. When the committee met that evening, Childress drew from his pocket a statement he had brought from Tennessee that followed the outline and main features of the United States Declaration of Independence. At its adoption, the chairman of the convention appointed Childress to head a committee of five to draft a declaration of independence. Childress, who had recently visited President Jackson in Tennessee, presented a resolution calling for independence. If they chose independence they had to draft a constitution for a new nation, establish a strong provisional government, and prepare to combat the Mexican armies invading Texas. The convention delegates knew they must declare independence-or submit to Mexican authority. He had control of all troops in the field-militia, volunteers, and regular army enlistees. ![]() Houston was chosen commander in chief of the revolutionary army and left the convention early to take charge of the forces gathering at Gonzales. Sam Houston, a former United States congressman and governor of Tennessee, was a close friend of United States president Andrew Jackson. Richard Ellis, representing the Red River district and president of the convention, and Martin Parmer of San Augustine, had participated in constitutional conventions in Alabama (1819) and Missouri (1821), respectively. Carson of Pecan Point and Robert Potter of Nacogdoches had served, respectively, in the North Carolina legislature and in the United States House of Representatives. Two-thirds of the delegates were not yet forty years old. A majority were from other places-primarily from the United States, but also from Europe. Only ten of the delegates had been in Texas by 1836. Two delegates (José Francisco Ruiz and José Antonio Navarro of Bexar) were native Texans, and one (Lorenzo de Zavala) had been born in Mexico. Forty-one delegates were present at the opening session, and fifty-nine individuals attended the convention at some time. The convention held at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 1, 1836, was quite different from the Consultation. They then proceeded to Washington and separated: Wharton remained in the capital, Archer went to Richmond, and Austin headed for New York City. At New Orleans, in early January of 1836, the agents found enthusiastic support, but advised that aid would not be forthcoming so long as Texans squabbled over whether to sustain the Mexican constitution. Austin to the United States to solicit men, money, supplies, and sympathy for the Texas cause. The idea of independence from Mexico was growing. These delegates represented the seventeen Texas municipalities and the small settlement at Pecan Point on the Red River. ![]() On December 10, 1835, the General Council of the provisional government issued a call for an election on February 1, 1836, to choose forty-four delegates to assemble on March 1 at Washington-on-the-Brazos. As dissension and discord mounted in Texas, both on the military front and at the seat of the provisional government of the Consultation at San Felipe, the colonists agreed that another popular assembly was needed to chart a course of action. The dictatorship of President Antonio López de Santa Anna, supported by rich landowners, had seized control of the governments and subverted the constitution. In the fall of 1835 many Texans, both Anglo-American colonists and Tejanos, concluded that liberalism and republicanism in Mexico, as reflected in its Constitution of 1824, were dead. This entry is currently being revised and the new version will be available soon! ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |