March 2, 1836, marks Texas’ formal declaration of independence from Mexico. The Texas Declaration of Independence was signed by 59 delegates at Washington-on-the-Brazos, now commonly known as the birthplace of Texas.
Akin to the United States Declaration of Independence, this declaration aimed to establish the rights of citizens to life and liberty, with an emphasis on “the property of the citizen.” Settlers in the region officially recognized their independence from Mexico and adopted the Republic of Texas.
The Texas Declaration of Independence was drafted amidst a revolution against the Mexican government, circa October 1835. By December of 1835, Texians (Anglo-American settlers), and Tejanos captured the town of San Antonio. Two months preceding this, on February 23, 1836, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ordered troops to retake the city.
For nearly two weeks, Mexican forces laid siege to the Alamo. On March 6, four days after the declaration, Mexican troops scaled the mission’s walls; 183 defenders were killed, including several Mexicans who had fought for Texas independence, and their oilsoaked bodies were set on fire outside the Alamo. The Republic of Texas won its independence on April 21, 1836, with a final battle along the San Jacinto River.
The following is an excerpt from the document: “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 their inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression. When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted Federative Republic, composed of Sovereign States, to a consolidated Central Military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the ever ready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants. 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.”