| |
| |
|
|
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
|
|
|
WHEREAS, Citizens of Texas are marking the 175th anniversary |
|
|
of the adoption of the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, |
|
|
2011; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, By the fall of 1835, tensions that would culminate |
|
|
in the Texas Revolution were coming to a head, and in December, a |
|
|
convention of delegates from every Texas municipality was called to |
|
|
meet in the new town of Washington on March 1, 1836; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, On the first day of the convention, George C. |
|
|
Childress introduced a resolution calling for a committee to draft |
|
|
a declaration of independence; the measure was approved, and the |
|
|
convention president, Richard Ellis, appointed a five-member |
|
|
committee, with Mr. Childress as chair, to prepare the document; |
|
|
the resulting composition is generally believed to be almost |
|
|
entirely the work of Mr. Childress, who may have arrived at the |
|
|
convention with a draft that he had already written; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Patterned on the declaration of 1776, the Texas |
|
|
Declaration of Independence was presented to the convention on |
|
|
March 2; according to the report of an observer, the declaration was |
|
|
then "committed to a committee of the whole, reported without |
|
|
amendment, and unanimously adopted, in less than one hour from its |
|
|
first and only reading"; the motion to adopt was made by Sam |
|
|
Houston, whom the convention appointed two days later to take |
|
|
command of the Texas army; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Delegates also adopted a constitution for the new |
|
|
Republic of Texas and elected an interim government; those chosen |
|
|
to serve were David G. Burnet, president, Lorenzo de Zavala, vice |
|
|
president, Samuel P. Carson, secretary of state, Thomas J. Rusk, |
|
|
secretary of war, Robert Potter, secretary of the navy, Bailey |
|
|
Hardeman, secretary of the treasury, and David Thomas, attorney |
|
|
general; the constitution was ratified by voters the following |
|
|
September, and the interim government served until that October, |
|
|
when regular elections were held; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, News that the Alamo had fallen reached the |
|
|
convention on March 15, and two days later, reports that the Mexican |
|
|
army had advanced to within 60 miles of Washington prompted the |
|
|
delegates to hastily adjourn; little more than a month later, |
|
|
however, the Battle of San Jacinto made Texas independence a |
|
|
reality; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Republic of Texas endured until December 29, |
|
|
1845, when Texas officially entered the Union as the 28th state; |
|
|
those nine years, when Texas enjoyed the status of an independent |
|
|
country, constitute a remarkable chapter in its history, and more |
|
|
than a century and a half after annexation, they continue to |
|
|
engender a special sense of pride and identity among its citizens; |
|
|
now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas |
|
|
hereby join the people of the Lone Star State in commemorating the |
|
|
175th anniversary of the adoption of the Texas Declaration of |
|
|
Independence. |