Essays from West of 98: Noble-Minded Ideals
The date was February 28, 1836. Texas settlers were engaged in revolt against Mexico, engaging in several battles with government forces over the previous five months. Around 185 men, led by William B. Travis and James Bowie, were under siege at a mission in San Antonio called the Alamo. And at Washington-on-the-Brazos, near present-day Brenham, forty-one men arrived as delegates to a convention to discuss Texas independence.
The convention opened on March 1 and a committee was appointed to draft a Declaration of Independence. Things would move quickly. The U.S. Declaration of Independence was debated by the Continental Congress, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, and then revised over a period of months, prior to its adoption on July 4, 1776. In Texas, it was a different story. The convention opened on March 1 and a drafting committee produced a document literally overnight. Committee leader George Childress probably arrived at the convention with a pre-written rough draft, to make this possible.
On March 2, the convention adopted the declaration and declared Texas’ independence (the matter of independence would not practically be settled until Texas forces defeated Santa Anna’s army at San Jacinto on April 21). If you have never read the Texas Declaration, I encourage you to do so. It is a 185-year old document that is plainspoken and readable in a modern sense. It is clearly inspired by the U.S. Declaration but is also original. It lodges numerous complaints against the Mexican government, from the general to the very specific, some of which were rarely discussed in the province before the revolution.
Some historians view portions of the Declaration as a laundry list of dubious grievances, simply beefing up the independence cause. For example, the declaration complains that Mexico “has failed to establish any public system of education,” but schools were not a major priority at this point in the violent frontier province. I see it as more forward thinking. The delegates were not thinking only about the present, they were also thinking about the future and what Texas would need to develop and grow as a successful society. They knew that the despotic Santa Anna was unlikely to cooperate on those matters, leaving independence as the best recourse.
As we see public education constantly debated in the Texas Legislature, with many Texas elected leaders openly hostile to public education, this clause is particularly striking. Our revolutionary heroes saw public education, financed by “the public domain,” as a cornerstone of an ideal society. It was something worth fighting and dying for, along with national security, freedom of arms, absolute freedom of religion, and trial by jury.
The 60 men who signed the Declaration (and our other revolutionary heroes) have complicated personal stories. Only three (Lorenzo de Zavala, Jose Antonio Navarro, and Jose Francisco Ruiz), were native born within the borders of Texas. The rest were immigrants. Perhaps as many as 50 had entered Texas illegally, after the infamous Law of April 6, 1830 which barred Anglo immigration into Texas. Many had checkered pasts. Some would have inglorious futures. Several would die soon. Others would fail in business or were beset by bankruptcy, personal problems, or controversy. But this is the real world, not a Disney movie. Heroes are complicated humans, like you and me. It makes them heroes no less. A complicated, flawed hero rising to the challenge makes heroism more attainable to others, rather than suggesting it is limited only to the flawless few.
From 1836 to 2021, the story of Texas was, is, and will always be beautiful, ugly, complicated, and contradictory. We should not shy away from any of those dimensions. Instead, we should embrace them. Noble-minded people may struggle to live up to noble-minded ideals, but that doesn’t make the ideals any less valuable. We may not always succeed in living up to our ideals, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying.
Happy Texas Independence Day. May God bless Texas.
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the “West of 98” website and forthcoming podcast. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com.