Lesson 27

• Conventionof1836

SOCIAL STUDIES TEKS

4 - 15, 21, 22, 23

7- 14, 16, 21, 22, 23

8 - 15, 19, 29, 30

STAAR

4, 7 - Writing - 1, 2, 3

4, 7, 8 - Reading - 1, 2, 3

8 - Social Studies - 3

L27

INSTRUCTIONAL SUGGESTIONS

1. FOLDED ENVELOPE INVITATIONS: Using the “Texas Declaration of Independence”

(included in this lesson), students will design a Folded Envelope Card (see Appendix) inviting

delegates to the Convention of 1836.

They will write the date, time, and location on the invitation, as well as draw an illustration of

the meeting place. Students will then choose a delegate and write his name on the front.

2. COMPARISON OF DECLARATIONS: Give each student copies of the Texas Declaration of

Independence and the United States Declaration of Independence (both are included in this

lesson). On the separate Student Activity Sheet, they will compare both documents by:

Declaration of Independence

of the Republic of Texas

Lesson 27Lesson 27

TEXAS ALMANAC TEACHERS GUIDE

ArestoredversionofIndependenceHallatWashington-

on-the-Brazos.PhotobyRobertPlocheck.

Lesson 27 — Declaration of Independence

L27-1

a. Identifyingspecicphrases

used in both documents that

are similar.

TEXAS: “Lives, liberty and

property”

U.S.: “Life, liberty, and pursuit of

happiness”

b Identifying who is being accused.

c. Identifying the rights addressed in

both documents, such as “trial by

jury,” “right of representation.”

d. Identifyingspeciccomplaintsin

the Texas document that are not in

the United States document, such

as religion.

3. ANNOTATED TEXAS DECLARATION:

Give each student a copy of the Texas

Declaration of Independence (included

in this lesson). They will use it to answer

the questions on the Student Activity

Sheet using illustrated annotations; such

as, an illustration or symbol of the event,

conict,oriteminthedocument,along

with a summary explanation.

4. DECLARATION TERMINOLOGY:

Students will work in groups. Each

group will dene a selected number

of terms from the Texas Declaration

of Independence that are listed on the

Student Activity Sheet.

Students will locate the words or phrases

in the Texas Declaration of Independence

and then rewrite the sentence or phrase

using contemporary terminology.

5. GRIEVANCES AGAINST MEXICO

T-CHART: Students will work in groups

to analyze the grievances the Texans had

against the Mexican government, as listed

in the Texas Declaration of Independence.

Using the T-chart on the Student Activity

Sheet, students will write the grievance

on one side and the historical back-

ground on the other side.

AcopyoftheTexasDeclarationofIndependence

liesonatableinIndependenceHall,arestored

versionofthebuildingwherethedeclarationwas

signedonMarch2,1836,atWashington-on-the-

Brazos.PhotocourtesyoftheTexasDepartment

ofParks&Wildlife.

STUDENT ACTIVITY

Lesson 27 — Texas Declaration of Independence

Comparison of Declarations

Use copies the Texas Declaration of Independence and the United States Declaration of

Independence and compare both documents in each of the four ways outlined, below.

a. Identifyspecicphrasesusedinbothdocumentsthataresimilar:_____

________________________________________________________________

b Identifywhoisbeingaccused:____________________________________

________________________________________________________________

c. Identifytherightsaddressedinbothdocuments:____________________

________________________________________________________________

d. IdentifyspeciccomplaintsintheTexasdocumentthatarenotinthe

UnitedStatesdocument:__________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

L27-2

STUDENT ACTIVITY

Lesson 27 — Texas Declaration of Independence

Annotated Texas Declaration

Read your copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence and answer these questions

using illustrated annotations; such as, an illustration or symbol of the event, conict, or

item, along with a summary explanation of the event, conict, or item.

a. To which constitution does the third paragraph refer?

b. To which convention does the eighth paragraph refer?

c. To which citizen does the ninth paragraph refer?

d. Towhichconictdoesthe14thparagraphrefer?

e. To which battle does the 17th paragraph refer?

f. Highlight ve words you do not know on your copy of the Texas Delcaration. Write each

wordanditsdenitionbelowanddrawanillustrationofthedenition.

1.___________________________________________

___________________________________________

2.___________________________________________

___________________________________________

3.___________________________________________

___________________________________________

4.___________________________________________

___________________________________________

5.___________________________________________

___________________________________________

L27-3

STUDENT ACTIVITY

Lesson 27 — Texas Declaration of Independence

Declaration Terminology

inestimable and

inalienable rights

oppression

sovereign states

military despotism

minions

tyrant

remonstrances

mercenary

malfeasance and

abdication

anarchy

enjoins

posterity

grievances

acquiese

incarcerated

zealous endeavor

procure

axiom

palladium of civil liberty

arbitrary

desperadoes

emissaries

dictates of our

ownconscience

melancholy conclusion

forbearance ceases to

be a virtue

plenary powers

rectitude of our

intentions

Working in groups, dene a selected number of the terms from the Texas Declaration of

Independence that are listed at left. Locate the words or phrases in the Declaration and

rewrite the sentence or phrase using contemporary terminology.

1._______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

2._______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

3._______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

4._______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

5._______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

6._______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

7._______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

8._______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

9._______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

L27-4

STUDENT ACTIVITY

Lesson 27 — Texas Declaration of Independence

Grievances Against Mexico T-Chart

L27-5

GRIEVANCES HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

STUDENT ACTIVITY

Lesson 27 — Texas Declaration of Independence

W

hen a government has

ceased to protect the lives,

liberty, and property of the

people, from whom its legitimate

powers are derived, and for the ad-

vancement of whose happiness it was

instituted; and so far from being a

guarantee for the enjoyment of those

inestimable and inalienable rights, be-

comes an instrument in the hands of

evil rulers for their oppression.

When the Federal Republican Con-

stitution 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 con-

sent, from a restricted federative re-

public, composed of sovereign states,

to a consolidated central military des-

potism, in which every interest is dis-

regarded 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, modera-

tion 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 discon-

tinued; 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.

When, in consequence of such acts

of malfeasance and abdication on the

part of the government, anarchy pre-

vails, and civil society is dissolved

into its original elements. In such a

crisis,therstlawofnature,theright

of self-preservation, the inherent and

inalienable rights of the people to ap-

pealtorstprinciples,andtaketheir

politicalaairsintotheirownhands

in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right

towards themselves, and a sacred ob-

ligation to their posterity, to abolish

such government, and create another

in its stead, calculated to rescue them

from impending dangers, and to se-

cure their future welfare and happi-

ness.

Nations, as well as individuals, are

amenable for their acts to the public

opinion of mankind. A statement of

a part of our grievances is, therefore,

submitted to an impartial world, in

justicationofthehazardousbutun-

avoidable step now taken, of sever-

ing our political connection with the

Mexican people, and assuming an

independent attitude among the na-

tions of the earth.

The Mexican government, by its

colonization laws, invited and in-

duced the Anglo-American popula-

tion of Texas to colonize its wilderness

under the pledged faith of a written

constitution, that they should contin-

ue to enjoy that constitutional liberty

and republican government to which

they had been habituated in the land

UNANIMOUS

Declaration of Independence,

BY THE

DELEGATES OF THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS,

IN GENERAL CONVENTION,

AT THE TOWN OF WASHINGTON,

ON THE SECOND DAY OF MARCH, 1836.

Notes

L27–6

STUDENT ACTIVITY

Lesson 27 — Texas Declaration of Independence

of their birth, the United States of

America.

In this expectation they have been

cruelly disappointed, inasmuch as the

Mexican nation has acquiesced in the

late changes made in the government

by General Antonio Lopez de Santa

Anna, who, having overturned the

constitutionofhiscountry,nowoers

us the cruel alternative, either to aban-

don our homes, acquired by so many

privations, or submit to the most in-

tolerable of all tyranny, the combined

despotism of the sword and the priest-

hood.

 Ithassacricedourwelfaretothe

state of Coahuila, by which our inter-

ests have been continually depressed

through a jealous and partial course

of legislation, carried on at a far dis-

tant seat of government, by a hostile

majority, in an unknown tongue; and

this too, notwithstanding we have

petitioned in the humblest terms for

the establishment of a separate state

government, and have, in accordance

with the provisions of the national

constitution, presented to the general

Congress a republican constitution,

which was, without just cause, con-

temptuously rejected.

It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a

long time, one of our citizens, for no

other cause but a zealous endeavor

to procure the acceptance of our con-

stitution, and the establishment of a

state government.

It has failed and refused to secure,

on a rm basis, the right of trial by

jury, that palladium of civil liberty,

and only safe guarantee for the life,

liberty, and property of the citizen.

It has failed to establish any public

system of education, although pos-

sessed of almost boundless resources

(the public domain) and although it

is an axiom in political science, that

unless a people are educated and en-

lightened, it is idle to expect the con-

tinuance of civil liberty, or the capac-

ity for self-government.

 It has suered the military com-

mandants, stationed among us, to

exercise arbitrary acts of oppression

and tyranny, thus trampling upon the

most sacred rights of the citizens, and

rendering the military superior to the

civil power.

It has dissolved by force of arms,

the state Congress of Coahuila and

Texas, and obliged our representa-

tivestoyfortheirlivesfromtheseat

of government, thus depriving us of

the fundamental political right of rep-

resentation.

It has demanded the surrender of

a number of our citizens, and ordered

military detachments to seize and

carry them into the Interior for trial, in

contempt of the civil authorities, and

in deance of the laws and constitu-

tion.

It has made piratical attacks upon

our commerce, by commissioning for-

eign desperadoes, and authorizing

them to seize our vessels, and convey

the property of our citizens to far dis-

tantportsforconscation.

It denies us the right of worship-

ping the Almighty according to the

dictates of our own conscience, by the

support of a national religion, calcu-

lated to promote the temporal inter-

est of its human functionaries, rather

than the glory of the true and living

God.

It has demanded us to deliver up

our arms, which are essential to our

defense, the rightful property of free-

men, and formidable only to tyranni-

cal governments.

It has invaded our country, both

by sea and by land, with intent to lay

waste our territory and drive us from

our homes; and has now a large mer-

cenary army advancing, to carry on

against us a war of extermination.

Notes

L27–7

STUDENT ACTIVITY

Lesson 27 — Texas Declaration of Independence

RICHARD ELLIS, President

of the Convention and

Delegate from Red River.

Charles B Stewart

Tho

s

Barnett

John S.D. Byrom

Fran

co

Ruiz

J. Antonio Navarro

Jesse B. Badgett

W

m

D. Lacey

William Menefee

Jn

o

Fisher

Mathew Caldwell

William Mottley

Lorenzo de Zavala

Stephen H. Everitt

Geo W Smyth

Elijah Stapp

Claiborne West

W

m

B Scates

M.B. Menard

A.B. Hardin

J.W. Bunton

Tho

s

J. Gasley

R. M. Coleman

Sterling C. Robertson

Benj Briggs Goodrich

G.W. Barnett

James G. Swisher

Jesse Grimes

S. Rhoads Fisher

John W. Moore

John W. Bower

Sam

l

A Maverick from

Bejar

Sam P. Carson

A. Briscoe

J.B. Woods

Jas Collinsworth

Edwin Waller

Asa Brigham

Geo. C. Childress

Bailey Hardeman

Rob. Potter

Thomas Jefferson Rusk

Chas. S. Taylor

John S. Roberts

Robert Hamilton

Collin McKinney

Albert H Latimer

James Power

Sam Houston

David Thomas

Edw

d

Conrad

Martin Parmer

Edwin O. LeGrand

Stephen W. Blount

Ja

s

Gaines

W

m

Clark, Jr

Sydney O. Penington

W

m

Carrol Crawford

Jn

o

Turner

Test. H.S. Kimble,

Secretary

It has, through its emissaries, in-

cited the merciless savage, with the

tomahawk and scalping knife, to

massacre the inhabitants of our de-

fenseless frontiers.

It hath been, during the whole

time of our connection with it, the

contemptible sport and victim of suc-

cessive military revolutions, and hath

continually exhibited every charac-

teristic of a weak, corrupt, and tyran-

nical government.

These, and other grievances, were

patiently borne by the people of

Texas, until they reached that point

at which forbearance ceases to be a

virtue. We then took up arms in de-

fense of the national constitution. We

appealed to our Mexican brethren

for assistance. Our appeal has been

made in vain. Though months have

elapsed, no sympathetic response has

yet been heard from the Interior.

We are, therefore, forced to the

melancholy conclusion that the Mexi-

can people have acquiesced in the

destruction of their liberty, and the

substitution therefor of a military

government; that they are unt to

be free and incapable of self-govern-

ment.

The necessity of self-preservation,

therefore, now decrees our eternal

political separation.

We, therefore, the delegates with ple-

nary powers, of the people of Texas, in

solemn convention assembled, appeal-

ing to a candid world for the necessities

of our condition, do hereby resolve and

DECLARE, that our political connec-

tion with the Mexican nation has forever

ended, and that the people of Texas, do

now constitute a FREE, SOVEREIGN,

and INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC, and

are fully invested with all the rights and

attributes which properly belong to in-

dependent nations; and, conscious of the

rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly

and condently commit the issue to the

decision of the Supreme Arbiter of the

destinies of nations.

Notes

L27–8

STUDENT ACTIVITY

Lesson 27 — Texas Declaration of Independence

W

hen in the Course of human

events, it becomes neces-

sary for one people to dis-

solve the political bands which have

connected them with another, and

to assume among the powers of the

earth, the separate and equal station

to which the Laws of Nature and of

Nature’s God entitle them, a decent

respect to the opinions of mankind

requires that they should declare the

causes which impel them to the sepa-

ration.

We hold these truths to be self-ev-

ident, that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their Cre-

ator with certain unalienable Rights,

that among these are Life, Liberty and

the pursuit of Happiness.--That to

secure these rights, Governments are

instituted among Men, deriving their

just powers from the consent of the

governed, --That whenever any Form

of Government becomes destructive

of these ends, it is the Right of the

People to alter or to abolish it, and to

institute new Government, laying its

foundation on such principles and

organizing its powers in such form,

as to them shall seem most likely to

eect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that

Governments long established should

not be changed for light and transient

causes; and accordingly all experience

hath shewn, that mankind are more

disposedtosuer,whileevilsaresuf-

ferable, than to right themselves by

abolishing the forms to which they

are accustomed. But when a long train

of abuses and usurpations, pursuing

invariably the same Object evinces a

design to reduce them under absolute

Despotism, it is their right, it is their

duty,tothrowosuchGovernment,

and to provide new Guards for their

future security.--Such has been the

patient suerance of these Colonies;

and such is now the necessity which

constrains them to alter their former

Systems of Government. The history

of the present King of Great Britain

is a history of repeated injuries and

usurpations, all having in direct ob-

ject the establishment of an absolute

Tyranny over these States. To prove

this, let Facts be submitted to a candid

world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws,

the most wholesome and necessary

for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to

pass Laws of immediate and press-

ing importance, unless suspended in

their operation till his Assent should

be obtained; and when so suspended,

he has utterly neglected to attend to

them.

He has refused to pass other Laws

for the accommodation of large dis-

tricts of people, unless those people

would relinquish the right of Repre-

sentation in the Legislature, a right in-

estimable to them and formidable to

tyrants only.

He has called together legislative

bodies at places unusual, uncomfort-

able, and distant from the depository

of their public Records, for the sole

purpose of fatiguing them into com-

pliance with his measures.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration

of the thirteen united

States of America,

Notes

L27–9

STUDENT ACTIVITY

Lesson 27 — Texas Declaration of Independence

He has dissolved Representative

Houses repeatedly, for opposing with

manly rmness his invasions on the

rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, af-

ter such dissolutions, to cause others

to be elected; whereby the Legislative

powers, incapable of Annihilation,

have returned to the People at large

for their exercise; the State remain-

ing in the mean time exposed to all

the dangers of invasion from without,

and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent

the population of these States; for

that purpose obstructing the Laws for

Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing

to pass others to encourage their mi-

grations hither, and raising the condi-

tions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administra-

tion of Justice, by refusing his Assent

to Laws for establishing Judiciary

powers.

He has made Judges dependent on

his Will alone, for the tenure of their

oces,andtheamountandpayment

of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New

Oces,andsenthitherswarmsofOf-

cers to harrass our people, and eat

out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of

peace, Standing Armies without the

Consent of our legislatures.

 HehasaectedtorendertheMili-

tary independent of and superior to

the Civil power.

He has combined with others to

subject us to a jurisdiction foreign

to our constitution, and unacknowl-

edged by our laws; giving his Assent

to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of

armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Tri-

al, from punishment for any Murders

which they should commit on the In-

habitants of these States:

 For cutting o our Trade with all

parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without

our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of

thebenetsofTrialbyJury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to

betriedforpretendedoences

For abolishing the free System

of English Laws in a neighbouring

Province, establishing therein an Ar-

bitrary government, and enlarging its

Boundaries so as to render it at once

anexampleandtinstrumentforin-

troducing the same absolute rule into

these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abol-

ishing our most valuable Laws, and

altering fundamentally the Forms of

our Governments:

For suspending our own Legisla-

tures, and declaring themselves in-

vested with power to legislate for us

in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government

here, by declaring us out of his Pro-

tection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, rav-

aged our Coasts, burnt our towns,

and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large

Armies of foreign Mercenaries to

compleat the works of death, desola-

tion and tyranny, already begun with

circumstances of Cruelty & perdy

scarcely paralleled in the most barba-

rous ages, and totally unworthy the

Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citi-

zens taken Captive on the high Seas

to bear Arms against their Country,

to become the executioners of their

friends and Brethren, or to fall them-

selves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrec-

tions amongst us, and has endeav-

Notes

L27–10

STUDENT ACTIVITY

Lesson 27 — Texas Declaration of Independence

Notes

oured to bring on the inhabitants of

our frontiers, the merciless Indian

Savages, whose known rule of war-

fare, is an undistinguished destruc-

tion of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions

We have Petitioned for Redress in the

most humble terms: Our repeated

Petitions have been answered only

by repeated injury. A Prince whose

character is thus marked by every act

whichmaydeneaTyrant,isuntto

be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in at-

tentions to our Brittish brethren. We

have warned them from time to time

of attempts by their legislature to ex-

tend an unwarrantable jurisdiction

over us. We have reminded them of

the circumstances of our emigration

and settlement here. We have ap-

pealed to their native justice and mag-

nanimity, and we have conjured them

by the ties of our common kindred to

disavow these usurpations, which,

would inevitably interrupt our con-

nections and correspondence. They

too have been deaf to the voice of jus-

tice and of consanguinity. We must,

therefore, acquiesce in the necessity,

which denounces our Separation,

and hold them, as we hold the rest of

mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace

Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives

of the united States of America, in Gen-

eral Congress, Assembled, appealing

to the Supreme Judge of the world for

the rectitude of our intentions, do, in

the Name, and by Authority of the

good People of these Colonies, sol-

emnly publish and declare, That these

United Colonies are, and of Right

ought to be Free and Independent

States; that they are Absolved from all

Allegiance to the British Crown, and

that all political connection between

them and the State of Great Britain, is

and ought to be totally dissolved; and

that as Free and Independent States,

they have full Power to levy War, con-

clude Peace, contract Alliances, estab-

lish Commerce, and to do all other

Acts and Things which Independent

States may of right do. And for the

support of this Declaration, with a

rmrelianceontheprotectionofdi-

vine Providence, we mutually pledge

to each other our Lives, our Fortunes

and our sacred Honor.

Georgia

Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall

George Walton

North Carolina

William Hooper

Joseph Hewes

John Penn

South Carolina

Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward

Jr.

Thomas Lynch Jr.

Arthur Middleton

Massachusetts

John Hancock

Maryland

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll

of Carrollton

Virginia

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson Jr.

Francis Lightfoot

Lee

Carter Braxton

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Franklin

John Morton

George Clymer

James Smith

George Taylor

James Wilson

George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean

New York

William Floyd

Philip Livingston

Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris

New Jersey

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple

Matthew

Thornton

Massachusetts

Samuel Adams

John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery

Connecticut

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

William Williams

Oliver Wolcott

L27–11