This is the Hidden History of Texas Episode 25 (Chapter 7 – Audiobook 3) 1830-1861

Hello and welcome to the Hidden History of Texas.  Been away a while, needed to take a break and now I’m back.

This is chapter 7 of the audiobook and episode 25 of the podcast. By 1835 Texas is turning into a powder keg and as the year ends and 1836 starts things are getting ready to explode. In this chapter, I will talk about how Texas actually had two declarations of Independence. One passed in 1835 and the other in 1836. All of these events culminated in an eventual explosion and were part of the  events and circumstances that led up to the battle of the alamo.

The first declaration of independence was passed in 1835 is known as the Goliad Declaration of Independence.  This was the first and most formal regional declaration of Independence. It is often referred to as the "Mecklenburg of Texas." Remember a large number of early Texas settlers were from the south, so they would have been familiar with the events that took place before and during the revolutionary war.  [The Mecklenburg Declaration of May 1775 which came from a regional convention of North Carolinians in Mecklenburg, and it contained wording similar to that of the American Declaration of Independence of 1776. On December 20th in 1835 in Goliad a  meeting of 92 men, both members of Capt. Phillip Dimmit's troops and local citizens, produced the Goliad Declaration of Independence, drafted by Ira Ingram, and was read to the citizens of Goliad at Nuestra Señora de Loreto Presidio, The document was enthusiastically ratified and received ninety-one signatures, including Tejanos (those are Texans of Mexican descent) José Miguel Aldrete and José María Jesús Carbajal. Philip Dimmitt who was also a strong supporter and major participant in the process, along with many in his company of volunteers signed the declaration.

The enacting clause resolved that the former department of Texas ought to be a "free, sovereign, and independent State," and the signers pledged their lives, fortunes, and honor to sustain the declaration. Several copies of the document were prepared and sent to various parts of Texas, and the copy that reached Brazoria was printed and widely distributed.

A committee including John Dunn, William S. Brown, William G. Hill, and Benjamin J. White, carried the original copy to San Felipe and delivered it to the General Council on December 30, 1835. The council referred the declaration to the Committee on State and Judiciary; but the arrival of the document caused some embarrassment. There were negotiations with José Antonio Mexía and Julian Pedro Miracle already underway in San Felipe about whether the Texans true intentions were independence or cooperation with the Federalists in northern Mexico. Needless to say, members of the council warned the Goliad messengers not to circulate the declaration further, and the committee report on the declaration said that it hadn’t been carefully thought out before being adopted. They wanted the  document to remain in the files of the secretary without further action.

The declaration happened two days before Stephen F. Austin's announcement at Velasco that he was now in favor of  independence and it preceded the Texas Declaration of Independence by seventy-three days. The primary result of the Goliad Declaration was how it alienated the Federalists of northern Mexico.

The official  Texas Declaration of Independence was issued by the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos. As soon as the convention was organized a resolution was introduced for appointment of a committee to draw up a declaration of independence. Richard Ellis, president of the convention, appointed George C. Childress, James Gaines, Edward Conrad, Collin McKinney, and Bailey Hardeman to the committee. Childress was named chairman, and it is generally conceded that he wrote the instrument with little help from th...