The Constitution of the Republic of Texas was the supreme law of Texas from 1836 to 1845.
On March 2, 1836, Texas declared itself an independent republic [1] because of a lack of support in the United States for the Texas Revolution. [2] The declaration of independence was written by George Childress [3] and modeled after the United States Constitution. Lorenzo de Zavala helped in the drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas by personally designing its flag and serving as vice president.
A copy of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas was included with the declaration of independence. The constitution borrowed language from the US Constitution and the constitutions of several southern states. [1] It formed a unitary republic, rather than the federal republic as defined in the US Constitution. [1] The President of the Republic of Texas had a three-year term and could not serve another consecutive term, which was based on provisions in the Mexican Constitution. [1] The Texas Constitution also protected the right to own slaves and prohibited "Indians" and "Africans" from living freely in the country or from becoming Texan citizens. [4]
A constitutional convention began after the declaration of independence, and an interim government was put into place. [5] The convention adopted a document on March 16, 1836 [1] and adjourned the next day. [3] Because of the defeat of Santa Anna at San Jacinto on April 22, 1836, war with Mexico was over. [6] When June came around, the Republic of Texas had de facto independence as it was unrecognized by Mexico, [7] but Mexico was unable to bring the Republic to an end. [7] Interim President Burnet, on July 23, 1836 called for elections to ratify the constitution and to decide if Texas should pursue annexation into the United States. The elections were to occur on the first Monday of September. [8] After the elections, the constitution was ratified, Sam Houston was elected president, and Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar became his vice-president, [1] and the seeking annexation was decided. [8]
On March 1, 1845, the United States enacted a congressional joint resolution to propose the annexation of Texas to the United States (Joint Resolution for annexing Texas to the United States, Joint Resolution 8, enacted March 1, 1845, 5 Stat. 797). On June 23, 1845, the Texan Congress accepted the US Congress joint resolution and consented to President Anson Jones's call for a convention to be held on July 4, 1845. [9] [10] A Texas convention debated the annexation offer and almost unanimously passed an ordinance assenting to it on July 4, 1845. [11] The convention debated until August 28 and adopted the Constitution of the State of Texas on August 27. [10] The citizens of Texas approved an annexation ordinance and a new constitution on October 13.[ citation needed ] On December 29, 1845, the United States admitted the State of Texas to the Union (Joint Resolution for the admission of the state of Texas into the Union, Joint Resolution 1, enacted December 29, 1845, 9 Stat. 108).
The Constitution of the Republic of Texas contains nine portions, six articles, a schedule, General Provisions, and a Declaration of Rights. [4]
Article I established the three branches of government, legislative, executive, and judicial. It contained sections that defined in greater detail the legislative branch, which is defined as a Senate and House of Representatives, which are to be called The Congress of the Republic of Texas. Members of the House are to be chosen on the first Monday of September and to hold their office for one year until other provisions are made. To hold a seat in the House, they need to be at least twenty-five, a citizen of the republic, and residing in the county or district represented for six months prior to the election. The House is not to consist of less than twenty-four or more than forty members until the population reaches one hundred thousand, and then it shall not be less than forty or more than one hundred members. [4] Senators were chosen by their districts equal in free white population. The number of senators is to never be less than one third or more than one half of that of representatives. Each district is to have one member. Senators are chosen for three years on the first Monday of September. They must be citizens of the republic, reside in the district they represent for at least one year before the election, and be at least thirty. The vice President was to be the president of the senate but could not vote unless there was a tie. [4] Each house was the judge of elections, qualifications, and returns of its own members. Two thirds of each House was needed for a quorum, but a smaller number could still adjourn and call those who are not in attendance. Houses were able to determine their own rules for proceedings and punishment. Vacancies that happen in either house were to be filled by the president. [4] The President was required to sign passed bills and can send them back in which case a two-thirds majority of both Houses can enact the law. [4]
Article II defined the powers of Congress and gave it the ability to tax and to borrow money, and it required congress to provide for the general welfare of the republic. It was given the power to regulate commerce. Congress could declare war and must provide and maintain a navy. [4]
The President was the chief magistrate of the Republic of Texas. The first elected president served two years and could not serve a succeeding term. Other presidents were elected for three years and also could not serve a succeeding term. [4]
Article IV established the judiciary and the Supreme Court and gave Congress the power to establish lower courts. There were to be no fewer than three and no more than eight judicial districts. After defining court structure, the article established counties and allowed new counties to be made. [4]
Article V required members of Congress or anyone else who enters office to take an oath. It also forbids ministers of the Gospel from holding office, as it would distract them from their Godly duties. [4]
Article VI built on Article III and defined the role and power of the president, who was required to be at least thirty-five and a citizen and to have lived in the republic for at least three years before election or to have lived there at the time of independence. On the second Monday of December after the election, the president was to enter office and was to be the commander-in-chief of the army and the navy but did not command them personally without the authorization by Congress. [4] It also defined voting qualifications and procedures. Any male citizen who was twenty-one and had been in Texas for six months could vote. Elections were to all be by ballot unless congress determines otherwise. [4]
The schedule deals with the formation of the interim government needed by a rule of the declaration of independence. [4]
This established the laws, duties, and rights that in the constitution. Convicted criminals could not hold office, vote, or be on juries. Congress was to establish and fund a system of education. Any white person who lives in the republic for at least six months can take an oath to become a citizen. [4]
"All free white persons who shall emigrate to this republic... shall be entitled to all the privileges of citizenship."
Slaves who were brought to Texas are to remain slaves of the one who brought them in. Their owner could not free them without the consent of Congress, which may not pass laws that either affect the slave trade or declare emancipation.
Congress shall pass no laws to prohibit emigrants from bringing their slaves into the republic with them, and holding them by the same tenure by which such slaves were held in the United States; nor shall congress have power to emancipate slaves; nor shall any slaveholder be allowed to emancipate his or her slave or slaves without the consent of congress, unless he or she shall send his or her slave or slaves without the limits of the republic. [4]
"Africans, the descendants of Africans, and Indians" shall not be considered citizens of the republic. [12]
The head of a family, except for "Africans, the descendants of Africans, and Indians", was entitled to one league and labor of land. Every man at least seventeen was entitled to one third of a league of land. Amendments to the constitution, to be ratified, must be passed to by a majority of each house and then be put to a vote by the people. [4]
The Declaration of Rights establishes how people were to be treated by the government and what freedoms they were allowed. All free, white men were to have equal rights. Political power was established to be held by the people, no preference by law was to be given to any religion; freedom of religion was established. Citizens were allowed full liberty of speech, which could be harmed by no laws. [4]
The Republic of Texas was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. It shared borders with Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, and the United States of America. Mexico considered it a rebellious province during its entire existence despite the Treaties of Velasco of May 1836. It was bordered by Mexico to the west and southwest, the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast, the two U.S. states of Louisiana and Arkansas to the east and northeast, and United States territories encompassing parts of the current U.S. states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico to the north and west. The Anglo residents of the area and of the republic became known as Texians.
The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and was formally signed the next day after mistakes were noted in the text.
A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, they can be appended to the constitution as supplemental additions, thus changing the frame of government without altering the existing text of the document.
The Texas annexation was the 1845 annexation of the Republic of Texas into the United States. Texas was admitted to the Union as the 28th state on December 29, 1845.
The Convention of 1836 was the meeting of elected delegates in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas in March 1836. The Texas Revolution had begun five months previously, and the interim government, known as the Consultation, had wavered over whether to declare independence from Mexico or pledge to uphold the repudiated Mexican Constitution of 1824. Unlike those of previous Texas councils, delegates to the Convention of 1836 were younger, more recent arrivals to Texas, and more adamant on the question of independence. As delegates prepared to convene, Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna led a large army into Texas to quell the revolt; the vanguard of this army arrived at San Antonio de Bexar on February 23.
Thomas Jefferson Rusk was an early political and military leader of the Republic of Texas, serving as its first Secretary of War as well as a general at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was later a US politician and served as a Senator from Texas from 1846 until his suicide. He served as the President pro tempore of the United States Senate in 1857.
The president of the Republic of Texas was the head of state and head of government while Texas was an independent republic between 1836 and 1845.
Mexican Texas is the historiographical name used to refer to the era of Texan history between 1821 and 1836, when it was part of Mexico. Mexico gained independence in 1821 after winning its war against Spain, which began in 1810. Initially, Mexican Texas operated similarly to Spanish Texas. Ratification of the 1824 Constitution of Mexico created a federal structure, and the province of Tejas was joined with the province of Coahuila to form the state of Coahuila y Tejas.
The Constitution of the State of Texas is the document that establishes the structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of Texas, and enumerates the basic rights of the citizens of Texas.
The Convention of 1832 was the first political gathering of colonists in Mexican Texas. Delegates sought reforms from the Mexican government and hoped to quell the widespread belief that settlers in Texas wished to secede from Mexico. The convention was the first in a series of unsuccessful attempts at political negotiation that eventually led to the Texas Revolution.
The Convention of 1833, a political gathering of settlers of Mexican Texas, was a successor to the Convention of 1832, whose requests had not been addressed by the Mexican government. Despite the political uncertainty succeeding from a recently-concluded civil war, 56 delegates met in San Felipe de Austin to draft a series of petitions to the Alamo. The volatile William H. Wharton presided over the meeting.
Samuel Price Carson was an American political leader and farmer in both North Carolina and Texas. He served as U.S. congressional representative from North Carolina. At the time of his death in 1838, he owned 44 slaves.
The Congress of the Republic of Texas was the national legislature of the Republic of Texas established by the Constitution of the Republic of Texas in 1836. It was a bicameral legislature based on the model of the United States Congress. It was transformed into the Texas Legislature upon annexation of Texas by the United States in 1846. A vestige of it remains in the name of Austin's main north–south street leading from the State Capitol, Congress Avenue, when it was founded as the intended national capital.
The legal status of Texas is the standing of Texas as a political entity. While Texas has been part of various political entities throughout its history, including 10 years during 1836–1846 as the independent Republic of Texas, the current legal status is as a state of the United States of America.
In the context of the United States, secession primarily refers to the voluntary withdrawal of one or more states from the Union that constitutes the United States; but may loosely refer to leaving a state or territory to form a separate territory or new state, or to the severing of an area from a city or county within a state. Advocates for secession are called disunionists by their contemporaries in various historical documents.
The Constitution of the Philippines is the constitution or the supreme law of the Republic of the Philippines. Its final draft was completed by the Constitutional Commission on October 12, 1986, and ratified by a nationwide plebiscite on February 2, 1987.
John Tyler was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig ticket with President William Henry Harrison, succeeding to the presidency following Harrison's death 31 days after assuming office. Tyler was a stalwart supporter and advocate of states' rights, including regarding slavery, and he adopted nationalistic policies as president only when they did not infringe on the states' powers. His unexpected rise to the presidency posed a threat to the presidential ambitions of Henry Clay and other Whig politicians and left Tyler estranged from both of the nation's major political parties at the time.
In 1845, the Republic of Texas was annexed to the United States of America, becoming the 28th U.S. state. Border disputes between the new state and Mexico, which had never recognized Texas independence and still considered the area a renegade Mexican state, led to the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). When the war concluded, Mexico relinquished its claim on Texas, as well as other regions in what is now the southwestern United States. Texas' annexation as a state that tolerated slavery had caused tension in the United States among slave states and those that did not allow slavery. The tension was partially defused with the Compromise of 1850, in which Texas ceded some of its territory to the federal government to become non-slave-owning areas but gained El Paso.
Republic of Texas–United States relations refers to the historical foreign relations between the now-defunct Republic of Texas and the United States of America. Relations started in 1836 after the Texas Revolution and ended in 1845 upon the annexation of Texas by the United States.
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas was the court of last resort for legal matters in the Republic of Texas from the Republic's independence from Mexico in 1836 until its annexation by the United States of America in 1846. The current Supreme Court of Texas was established that year.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .| Capitals |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Presidents | ||
| Vice Presidents |
| |
| Documents | ||
| Colonization | ||
| Presidential elections | ||
