Texas Declaration of Independence

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. 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. … the first law of nature, the right of self preservation, the inherent and inalienable right of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves and a sacred obligation to their posterity to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to resuce them from impending dangers, and secure their wealth and happiness. … San Felipe de Austin: Baker & Bordens, [5-6 March 1836]



Printed broadside (15 x 12 ½ in.; 381 x 318 mm.)  1 1/2 inch trapezoidal tear in upper margin with loss of 6 letters in the word "Una[nimous]" which have been supplied in excellent facsimile,  several tears repaired from verso touching one letter in each of the next two lines of caption title, light marginal soiling.  In a blue half morocco folding-case.

Yale University — Edward Eberstadt and Sons (acquired from Yale as duplicate at the time the University purchased Streeter's Texas collection, ca. 1957)

Streeter, Texas 165 (ocating this copy at Yale); Taylor, Texfake, pp. 102–06, Census no. 4; Streeter sale 1:354; Streeter, Americana—Beginnings 60

The Texas Declaration of Independence announcing that "the people of Texas … do hereby resolve and declare, that our political connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas, do now constitute a Free, Sovereign, and Independent Republic." The Mexican army had been massing in San Antonio since 23 February. To the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Col. William Travis wrote: "Let the Convention go on and make a declaration of independence, and we will then understand, and the world will understand, what we are fighting for. If independence is not declared, I shall lay down my arms, and so will the men under my command" (Papers of the Texas Revolution, 4:504–5).

Closely modelled on Thomas Jefferson's federal Declaration of Independence, "[t]his is the outstanding state paper in Texas history. The Declaration of November, 1835, was of adherence to the Mexican Constitution of 1824 and to the concept that each state was a sovereign in a confederation of states. At that time Austin and many other leaders hoped for aid from Mexican liberals which would be lost if complete independence was asserted. Events showed this to be illusory and early in January, 1836, Austin finally came out strongly for total independence, and by the time the convention assembled in the little town of Washington, Texas, on March 1, 1836, the sentiment for this was practically unanimous" (Streeter).

Five manuscript copies of the Declaration, signed on 2 March, were dispatched to the Texas towns of Bexar, Goliad, Nacogdoches, Brazoria and San Felipe, with orders that the printer at San Felipe should print 1000 copies in broadside format. Printing of the first 100 copies was completed on the night of 5 March or possibly the 6th, when it was discovered that two of the names of the signers had been left off, including that of the document's principal author, George C. Childress. The missing names were inserted and the remaining 900 copies were printed 12 March, thus creating two issues. Of the twelve known copies, ten—including the present—represent the first issue, and two the second. (Taylor offers a plausible explanation for the disparity of the survival rates of the two issues: "the first one hundred were delivered immediately to the signers and others present at Washington, all of whom might be expected to care something about the document, preserving it, or sending it back east. … The second, much larger group was for general circulation, a process that never took place because of the chaos that prevailed in Texas between the fall of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, and the victory at San Jacinto on April 21," p. 16).

Taylor's census locates just twelve genuine copies of the Texas Declaration of Independence, of which this is one of only three still in a private collection.