The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942 Page: 255

                                
MEMBERSHIP OF THE 1833
CONVENTION OF TEXAS
E. W. WINKLER
The second convention of delegates of the people of Texas
met at San Felipe de Austin on April 1, 1833. The journal of
the convention was not printed. About the time the convention
adjourned, cholera appeared at the mouth of the Brazos, and
D. W. Anthony, who operated the only printing press in Texas,
was one of its victims.' The manuscript records of the conven-
tion have been lost. Consequently the sources usually consulted
for the names of delegates are wanting.
John Henry Brown states that the names of only about fifteen
of the delegates had been published by former writers. "Through
the memoranda of one of its members, Major James Kerr,"
Brown continues, "I am enabled to give what is believed to be
a full list of the delegates."2 Here follows a list of fifty-six
names.
The work of the convention centered about a constitution for
the state of Texas separate from that of Coahuila. Sometime in
1833 this constitution was printed at the office of the Commercial
Bulletin in New Orleans in a pamphlet of fifteen pages, entitled
Constitution or Form of Government of the State of Texas.
Made in General Convention, in the town of San Felipe de
Austin, in the month of April, 1833. Copies of the pamphlet
are scarce, and have not been available to historians. The
earliest use of it was made by Eugene C. Barker.3 At the end
of this printed constitution appear the names of fifty-five dele-
gates. This list differs very much from Brown's. Whether it
comprises the names of the entire membership of the conven-
1"Epidemic Cholera in Texas, 1833-1834," by J. Villasana Haggard, in
Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XL, 220.
2History of Texas, by John Henry Brown, St. Louis, c1892, Volume I,
pages 227-229. Reprinted in Raines' Year Book for Texas, 1901, p. 84.
"The Life of Stephen F. Austin. By Eugene C. Barker, Dallas, 1925.
p. 418. Barker points out the discrepancies between the list in Brown and
that signed to the constitution, but does not print the latter.
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