The Making of a Declaration of Independence, A Nation is Born

The Republic of Texas Was Born Here

We are going to take a short hiatus from "Remembering the Alamo!" to concentrate for a day or so on the Texas Constitutional Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos. Delegates, which were elected by Texians in November, 1835 following the start of the Texas Revolution in the previous month at Gonzales, were meeting in what could only be described as a shack to hammer out a constitution for the would-be Republic of Texas. Forty-one men gathered to undertake this enormous task and after four days of debate, a final document was completed on March 2, 1836. It is here that Texas was born.

Here's a Cliff's Notes version of what was happening at the Consultation, "The Texas Revolution began October 2, 1835 with the Battle of Gonzales. The following month, previously elected delegates convened in a body known as the Consultation. These delegates served as a temporary governing body for Texas, as they struggled with the question of whether Texians were fighting for independence from Mexico or the reimplementation of the Mexican Constitution of 1824, which offered greater freedoms than the current dictatorship. Many Consultation members wished to defer independence until the United States was convinced to support their struggle.^[1] The Consultation quickly degenerated into near anarchy, with the interim legislature indicting the interim Governor, who promptly disbanded the legislature.^[2] By early February 1836 most of the members had gone home, and there were not enough delegates left for a quorum.^[3] A convention had been previously scheduled for March, and one Consultation member wrote to Sam Houston, "I sincerely hope that the Convention will remedy the existing evils and calm the Public mind. If not Texas must be lost." Thanks, Wikipedia! 

Five months to the date after the first shot of the Texas Revolution at Gonzales, Texas declared herself free of the dictatorship of Santa Anna. The Republic of Texas was a reality. However, there was still much bloodshed to come over the next six weeks, until independence was assured at the Battle of San Jacinto. We'll touch more on this tomorrow as the Revolution comes to its logical end. Until then, God bless Texas!

"We the people..." - A Reminder

This story was originally posted on Constitution Day, September 17. I wanted to run it again to remind us of what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote this document. We must stay vigilant lest we lose the freedoms guaranteed us in it. This is a great opportunity for you to re-read it or to read it for the first time. I'll put a link at the end of the post which will lead you to an online copy of the Constitution of the United States of America. God bless America.

This is America

On the heels of my 54th birthday yesterday, I had planned to get back to a regular blogging schedule. That is until Jerry Hunt reminded me on Facebook that today is Constitution Day. On this day in 1787, thirty-nine brave men signed what is, arguably, the most important piece of paper (other than biblical documents,etc) in the history of mankind. A document so powerful, that it changed the course of human history. The thirty-nine men who signed the Constitution had, like the signers of the Declaration of Independence, said in essence, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." Read these words and digest them for a moment : " We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.". When strung together, those fifty-one words have been the beacon of freedom, liberty and self-determination for literally billions of people throughout the world, people yearning to experience these most basic, yet most instinctual of human rights. It is ingrained by God in the soul of man that man live his life without government intervention into the minutiae of its citizens' daily lives. In reading the Constitution, I see nothing about the Federal Government being the National Daddy for the American people, yet our elected representatives time and again ram through/or try to ram through legislation that an overwhelming number or a clear majority of Americans oppose (Obama Care or amnesty for illegal aliens, anyone?) The Founding Fathers, I think, would be most unhappy about such things. Thomas Jefferson said, "A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government." But, that's an argument for another day. My whole point here is that we are a damn fine nation founded by some damn fine men, whose vision of their newly created country was, indeed, visionary. To those men, we owe nothing less than our " pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." God bless our founders and may God continue to bless America.

The Constitution of the United States - God bless America.