When the Convention of 1836 met at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 1, the Texas Revolution was already underway. Mexican forces were surrounding the Alamo, and the delegates had to decide whether Texas would continue seeking changes within Mexico or become an independent nation.
One of the convention’s first actions was to appoint a five-member committee to prepare a declaration of independence. George C. Childress served as chairman of the committee and is generally credited with writing most of the document. Because the six-page declaration was completed so quickly, historians believe Childress may have brought an earlier draft or notes with him to the convention.
The committee presented the declaration on March 2, 1836. The delegates approved it and signed the document, officially declaring Texas independent from Mexico.
The Texas Declaration of Independence was influenced by the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Like the earlier American document, it explained ideas about the purpose of government, listed grievances against the existing government, and then declared political independence.
The Texas declaration argued that governments should protect the lives, liberty, property, and rights of the people. Its writers claimed that the Mexican government had failed to do so and that the people of Texas therefore had the right to create a new government.
The delegates listed several grievances, or formal complaints. They argued that Santa Anna’s government had weakened the federal system established by the Constitution of 1824 and increased the power of the central government and military. They also complained about the arrest of Stephen F. Austin, the lack of a strong system of trial by jury, limits on religious freedom, military interference with civil government, and the refusal to make Texas a separate Mexican state.
The declaration reflected the perspective of the delegates who wrote it. Some of its language about Mexico and Indigenous peoples was harsh and reflected the attitudes and political arguments of the time. Historians examine these claims as evidence of how the delegates justified independence, rather than assuming that every statement in the document represented an objective description of events.
The document ended by declaring that the political connection between Texas and Mexico was over and that Texas was now a “free, sovereign, and independent republic.”
Copies of the declaration were distributed throughout Texas so people could learn what the convention had decided. March 2, 1836, therefore became the date recognized as Texas Independence Day.