History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 60
[7], iv-vii, [2], 10-826, [2] p., [56] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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60 HISTORY OF TEXA8.
, On the afternoon of the first day George C.
Childress offered the following resolution:
That the president appoint a committee of
five to draft a declaration of independence,
which was adopted, after an offered substitute
had been rejected. The president appointed
on this committee, George C. Childress,
of Milam, James Gaines of Sabine,
Edward Conrad, of Retugio, Collin Mc Kinney,
of Red river, and Bailey Hardeman, of
Matagorda.
On the second day, March 2, a committee
of one from each municipality was appointed
to draft a constitution for the (contemplated)
Republic of Texas, comprising Martin Palmer
(chairman), Robert Potter, Charles B. Stewart,
Edwin Waller, Jesse Grimes, Robert M.
Coleman, John Fisher, John W. Bunton,
James Gaines, Lorenzo de Zavala, Stephen
H. Everitt, Bailey Hardeman, Elijah Stapp,
William C. Crawford, Claiborne West, James
Power, Jose Antonio Navarro, Collin McKinney,
William Menefee, William Motley
and Michael B. Menard.
On the same day, March 2, Mr. Childress,
chairman of the committee, reported the draft
of a declaration of independence; Mr. Collingsworth
was called to the chair, while Mr.
Houston introduced the following resolution:
That the declaration of independence reported
by the committee be adopted, and that the
same be engrossed and signed by the delegates
of this convention. The question being put,
the resolution was unanimously adopted.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
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 interests
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 enemy 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 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 the
petitions and remonstrances being disregarded,
the agents who bear them are thrown
into dungeons, and mercenaries sent forth to
enforce a new government upon the point of
the bayonet; when, in consequence of such
acts of malfeasance and abduction on the part
of the government, anarchy prevails and civil
society is dissolved into its original elements.
in such a crisis the first law of nature, the
right of self-preservation, the inherent and
inalienable right of the people to appeal to the
first principles and take their political affairs
into -their own hands, in extreme cases, enjoins
it as a right toward themselves and a
sacred obligation to their prosperity, to abolish
such government and create another in
its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending
dangers, and to secure their welfare
and happiness.
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 justification of the hazardous but
unavoidable step now taken, of severing our
political connection with the Mexican people
and assuming an independent attitude among
the nations of the earth.
The Mexican government, by its colonisation
laws, having invited and induced the60
HISTOR Y' OP TEXAS.S
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History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. (Book)
Book containing a brief overview of the state of Texas and more specific focus on six specific counties, with extensive biographical sketches about persons related to the history of those places. An alphabetical index of persons who are included follows the table of contents at the front of the book.
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Lewis Publishing Company. History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties., book, 1893; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth29785/m1/64/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.