USA > Texas > The bench and bar of Texas > Part 45
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568
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
196. It shall belong to the third hall : First, to decide the power of inferior judges; second, to determine appeals of nullity, interposed from executing judgments in first, second and third processes; third, to take cognizance in all compulsive appeals interposed from the ecclesiastical tribunals and authorities of the State; fourth, to examine the lists that shall be transmitted to the same monthly of causes pending in the first, second and third processes, communicate a copy thereof to the Governor, and provide for their publication through the press ; fifth, to hear doubts of law that occur to the two first halls and to the primary tribunals, and communicate them to Congress through the channel of the Governor, accompanied by the correspond- ing report.
197. Actions for transgressions in office entered against inferior judges, and also those formed for crimes of the same kind, and those in general against the deputies of Congress, the Governor and Vice-Governor, Councilors, Secretary of State, and members of the tribunal of jus- tice, shall be opened and closed in all their processes be- fore the said supreme tribunal. The law shall mark out the other powers of the same in its respective halls.
198. In case an action ought to be entered against the whole tribunal, or any of its halls, Congress shall appoint another special tribunal, composed of the corresponding halls, and the latter of the magistrate or magistrates con- sidered necessary.
199. The special tribunal appointed by Congress for these cases shall take cognizance of all appeals of nullity in ac- tions of the supreme tribunal of justice, in those of the individuals mentioned in the preceding article, and in sub- jects pertaining to the third hall.
200. To be a magistrate or fiscal it shall be required to be a citizen in the exercise of his rights, over twenty-five years of age, a native of the republic, and an upright and enlightened lawyer.
201. Both magistrates and fiscal shall be appointed by Congress on nomination by the executive. They shall re- ceive a competent salary, to be designated by law, and can
569
LEGISLATIVE DATA.
not be removed from office except for a legally established cause.
202. The members of the supreme tribunal of justice shall be responsible for all their proceedings in the discharge of their functions, and may be accused therefor before Con- gress by any individual of the people whatever.
TITLE IV.
SOLE SECTION - THE STATE REVENUE.
203. The taxes of the individuals composing the State shall form its public revenue.
204. Said taxes may be direct, general, or municipal ; but of whatever kind they are, they shall be proportionate to the expenditures they are intended to cover, and to the property of the citizens.
205. Taxes can not be levied except for paying the por- tion corresponding to the state of the general disbursements of the republic, and for covering the particular expenses of the State. The taxes for the latter object shall be fixed expressly, on the first term of session every year, and ac- cording to pre-estimate to be presented by the Governor and approved by Congress.
206. The present taxes shall continue until their repeal. be published, and said repeal can not be decreed except by Congress.
207. There shall be in the capital a general treasury for the receipt, custody, and distribution of the whole product of the State rents.
208. No disbursement that has not been for covering ex- pense approved by Congress, or special order of the Gov- ernor, shall be allowed the treasurer in account.
209. The business rooms of the State revenue shall be regulated by particular instructions.
210. Congress shall choose three individuals every year from within or without its own body, to examine the ac- counts of the State treasury, and afterwards to present or communicate the same, accompanied by their report to
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570
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
Congress for approval. Said approvai, or the resolution that should be adopted by Congress, shall be published and circulated to the Ayuntamientos, in order that they in turn may publish and circulate the same in their districts.
TITLE V.
SOLE SECTION - CIVIC MILITIA OF THE STATE.
211. Corps of civic militia shall be established in all the towns of the State, and the said corps shall compose the military force of the State.
212. The formation of said corps, their organization, discipline, and internal government, shall be regulated by Congress in conformity to the provision made on the sub- ject by the general laws of the Republic.
213. Congress shall regulate the service of said militia so that while it is adapted to the purposes of its institution and to the best interests of the State, it may be as little onerous as possible to the citizens.
214. No Coahuil-Texano can decline lending said service when required by law, and in the manner it provides.
TITLE VI.
SOLE SECTION - PUBLIC EDUCATION.
215. In all towns of the State a suitable number of primary schools shall be established, wherein shall be taught reading, writing, arithmetic, the catechism of the Christian religion, a brief and simple explanation of this Constitution, and that of the Republic, the rights and duties of man to society, and whatever else may conduce to the better education of youth.
216. The seminaries most required for affording the public the means of instruction in the sciences and arts useful to the State ; and wherein the aforementioned con- stitutions shall be fully explained, shall be established in suitable places, and in proportion as circumstances go ou permitting.
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571
LEGISLATIVE DATA.
217. The method of teaching shall be uniform throughout the State, and with this view, also to facilitate the same, Congress shall form a general plan of public education, and regulate by means of statutes and laws all that pertains to this most important object.
TITLE VII.
SOLE SECTION - OBSERVANCE OF THE CONSTITUTION.
218. The observance of the Constitution in all its parts shall be one of the first and most sacred duties of the in- habitants of the State of Coahuila and Texas, and neither Congress, or any other authority, can exempt them there- from; and every Coahuil-Texano may demand said obser- vance, making a representation with that view to Congress or the executive.
219. For any violation of the Constitution whatever, the person who committed it shall be personally responsible. In order to render said responsibility effective, Congress shall dictate the laws and decrees it thinks conducive to that end ; and furthermore, every year in its first sessions, take under deliberation the infringements manifested to the same by the permanent deputation and executive council, and adopt the proper resolution thereon.
220. The public functionaries of the State, of whatever class, shall make oath, on entering in possession of office, to observe, support, and defend the constitutive act, the Constitution of the Republic, and that of the State, and faithfully discharge the duties of their office.
221. Propositions upon amendment, alteration, or repeal of any one or more of its articles, shall be made in writing, and supported and signed by a third part of the deputies.
222. The Congress, in whose time any of the said propo- sitions are made, shall make no further provision during the two years of its sessions, than for the reading and printing of the same, with the original reasons with which they are supported.
223. The Congress following shall receive the proposi- tions for said discussion, and accept or reject them ; and if
572
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
accepted, they shall again be printed and circulated by the executive to be read in the immediate electoral juntas pre- vious to electing deputies to Congress.
224. The alterations, amendments or repeals proposed shall be discussed in the Congress that follows, and should they be approved, they shall be immediately published as constitutional articles.
225. For the amendments, alterations and repeals in- dicated, besides the rules prescribed in the foregoing arti- cles, all those provided for forming and repealing laws, shall be observed, with the exception of the right of mak- ing observations granted the Governor, which shall not in these cases be conceded.
SANTIAGO DEL VALLE, President. JUAN ANTONIO PADILLA, Secretary.
573
TEXAN INDEPENDENCE.
TEXAS INDEPENDENCE.
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THE CONSULTATION.
On the 15th of August, 1835, the citizens of Columbia, Texas, held a meeting, in which it was declared that a con- sultation of all Texas through her representatives was indispensable; and agreeably to this resolution the citizens of the several municipalities of the province elected dele- gates to meet in general consultation, at San Felipe de Austin on the 13th of October. A number of the dele- gates convened on the day specified, but a governor not having arrived, the meeting was adjourned to the 1st day of November, when after completing its organization in consultation on the 7th of November unanimously adopted the following : -
" Declaration of the people of Texas in general convention assembled
" Whereas, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and other military chieftains have by force of arms over- thrown the federal institutions of Mexico, and dissolved the social compact which existed between Texas and the other members of the Mexican confederacy; now the good people of Texas, availing themselves of their natural rights, solemnly declare : -
" Ist. That they have taken up arms in defense of their rights and liberties, which were threatened by the encroach- ments of military despots, and in defense of their repub- lican principles of the federal constitution of Mexico, of eighteen and twenty-four.
"2d. That Texas is no longer morally or civilly bound by the compact of union ; yet, stimulated by the generosity
574
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
and sympathy common to a free people, they offer their support and assistance to such of the members of the Mex- ican confederacy as will take up arms against military despotism.
"3d. That, they do not acknowledge that the present authorities of the nominal Mexican republic have the right to govern within the limits of Texas.
" 4th. That they will not cease to carry on war against the said authorities whilst their troops are within the limits of Texas.
" 5th. That they hold it to be their right during the dis- organization of the federal system, and the reign of despot- ism, to withdraw from the union to establish an independent government, or to adopt such measures as they may deem best calculated to protect their rights and liberties ; but that they will continue faithful to the Mexican government so long as that nation is governed by the constitution and laws that were formed for the government of the political association.
"6th. That Texas is responsible for the expenses of her armies now in the field.
" 7th. That the public faith of Texas is pledged for the payment of any debts contracted by her agents.
" 8th. That she will reward by donations in lands all who volunteer their services in her present struggle, and receive them as citizens.
These declarations we solemnly avow to the world, and call on God to witness their truth and sincerity, and invoke defeat and disgrace upon our heads, should we prove guilty of duplicity."
The consultation having thus established a provisional government adjourned on November 14th, to meet again on the 1st day of March, 1836, unless convoked sooner by the Governor and council. It reconvened on the 1st day of March at the town of Washington, on the Brazos, and proceeded immediately to appoint a committee to draft a declaration of independence which made its report on the next day.
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575
THE TEXAS DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
THE TEXAS DECLARATION OF INDE- PENDENCE.
MADE AT THE TOWN OF WASHINGTON, ON THE 2D OF MARCH, 1836
When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legiti- mate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted; and so far from being a guar- antee for their inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppres- sion ; when the federal republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their govern- ment has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted Federative Republic, composed of sovereign States, to a consolidated central military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the ever ready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants ; when, long after the spirit of the Constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the Constitution discontinued ; and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, ·
the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to enforce a new government upon them at the point of the bayonet.
When in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abduction on the part of the government, anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements - in such a crisis the first law of nature, the right of self-preser- vation, the inherent and inalienable right of the people to
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576
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
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 pos- terity, to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and secure their welfare and happiness.
Nations, as well as individuals, are amenable for their acts to the general opinion of mankind. A statement of a part of our grievances is therefore submitted to an im- partial world, in justification of the hazardous, but unavoid- able step now taken, of severing our political connection with the Mexican people, and assuming an independent atti- tude among the nations of the earth.
The Mexican government by its colonization laws invited and induced the Anglo-American population of Texas to colonize its wilderness under the pledged faith of a written Constitution, that they should continue to enjoy that con- stitutional liberty and Republican government to which they bad been habituated in the land of their birth, the United States of America.
In this expectation they have been cruelly disappointed, inasmuch as the Mexican nation has acquiesced in the late changes made in the government of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna who, having overturned the Constitution of his country, now offers to us the cruel alternatives, either to abandon our homes, acquired by so many privations, or sub- mit to the most intolerable of all tyranny, the combined despotism of the sword and the priesthood.
It hath sacrificed our welfare to the State of Coahuila, by which our interests have been continually depressed through a jealous and partial course of legislation, carried on at a far distant seat of government, by a hostile ma- jority, in an unknown tongue; and this, too, notwithstand- ing we have petitioned in the humblest terms for the establishment of a separate State government, and have in accordance with the provisions of the National Constitution, presented to the General Congress a republican Constitu- tion, which was without just cause contemptuously re- jected.
577
THE TEXAS DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a long time, one of our citizens, for no other cause, but a zealous endeavor to pro- cure the acceptance of our Constitution and the establish- ment of a State government.
It has failed and refused to secure on a firm basis the right of trial by jury, that palladium of civil liberty, and only safe guarantee for the life, liberty, and property of -
the citizen.
It has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources ( the pub- lic domain ), and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self-government.
It has suffered the military commandants, stationed among us, to exercise arbitrary acts of oppression and tyranny, thus trampling upon the most sacred rights of the citizen, and rendering the military superior to the civil power.
It has dissolved, by force of arms, the State Congress of Coahuila and Texas, and obliged our representatives to fly for their lives from the seat of government, thus depriving us of the fundamental political right of representation.
It has demanded the surrender of a number of our citi- zens, and ordered military detachments to seize and carry them into the interior for trial, in contempt of the civil authorities, and in defiance of the laws and the Constitution.
It has made piratical attacks upon our commerce by com- missioning foreign desperadoes, and authorizing them to seize our vessels, and convey the property of our citizens to far distant ports for confiscation.
It denies us the right of worshiping the Almighty accord- ing to the dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God.
It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defense - the rightful property of free- men - and formidable only to tyrannical governments.
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578
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
It has invaded our country both by sea and land with in- tent to lay waste our territory, and drive us from our homes ; and has now a large mercenary army advancing to carry on against us a war of extermination.
It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhab- itants of our defenseless frontiers.
It has been, during the whole time of our connection with it, the contemptible sport of successive military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt and tyrannical government.
These and other grievances were patiently borne by the people of Texas until they reached that point at which for- bearance ceases to be a virtue. We then took up arms in defense of the National Constitution. We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance ; our appeal has been made in vain ; though months have elapsed, no sympathetic re- sponse has yet been heard from the interior. We are, there- fore, forced to the melancholy conclusion that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of their liberty, and the substitution therefor of a military government.
The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation.
We, therefore, the delegates, with plenary powers, of the , people of Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid world, for the necessities of our condition, 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 Inde- pendent Republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fear- lessly and confidently commit the issue to the Supreme Arbiter of the destinies of nations.
579
THE TEXAS DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
SIGNER3 OF THE DECLARATION.
With a statement furnished by themselves during the Convention.
Name.
Age.
Nativity.
Former Residence.
Richard Ellis 54
Virginia.
. Alabama
C. B. Stewart
30
South Carolina. Louisiana
James Collinsworth
30
Tennessee.
Tennessee
Edwin Waller
35
Virginia.
Missouri
Asa Brigham 46
Massachusetts. . Louisiana
J. S. D. Byom.
33
Georgia
Florida
Frances Ruis
54
J. Antonio Navarro
41
29
North Carolina. Arkansas Ty
W. D. Lacy 28 Kentucky Tennessee
William Menifee 40
John Fisher
36
M. Coldwell.
38
Kentucky
Missouri
Virginia
Kentucky
W. Motley
24
. L. D. Zavala 47
Yucatan
Mexico
George W. Smyth 33
North Carolina. Alabama
New York.
. New York
Virginia
Missouri
Claiborne West.
36
Tennessee
Louisiana
Virginia
Kentucky
M. B. Menard 31 Canada Illinois
A. B. Hardin 38
Georgia
Tennessee
J. W. Bunton
28
Tennessee
Tennessee
New York.
. Louisiana
Thomas G. Gazeley 35
R. M. Coleman 37
B. Hardiman 41
Tennessee Tennessee
R. Potter.
36
North Carolina. N. Carolina
Thomas J. Rusk. 29
South Carolina. Georgia
Charles S. Taylor
28
England.
. New York
John S. Roberts
40
Virginia.
Louisiana
Scotland
N. Carolina
R. Hamilton 53
C. Mckinney.
. .
70
Texas.
J. B. Badyett
Texas
Tennessee
Alabama
Virginia
Virginia
S. H. Everett 29
E. Stapp.
53
W. B. Scates. 30
Kentucky
Kentucky
New Jersey.
. . Kentucky
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580
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS. .
SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION - Continued. 1
Name. Age. Nativity. Former Residence.
A. H. Lattimer 27
Tennessee Tennessee
James Power
48
Ireland
. Louisiana
Sam Houston
43
Virginia
Tennessee
David Thomas 35
Tennessee Tennessee
E. Conrad 26
Pennsylvania .. Pennsyl'nia
Martin Palmer 58
Virginia . Missouri
E. O. Legrand 33 North Carolina. Alabama
S. W. Blunt.
28
Georgia
Georgia
James Gaines. 60
Virginia. Louisiana
W. Clark, Jr. 37
North Carolina. Georgia
S. Pennington.
27
Kentucky . .
... Arkansas Ty
W. C. Crawford. 31 North Carolina. Alabama
John Turner 34 North Carolina. Tennessee
B. B. Goodrich. 37
Virginia . Alabama.
G. W. Barnett 43
South Carolina. Mississippi
J. G. Swisher 41
Tennessee .
Tennessee
Jessie Grimes. 48 North Carolina. Alabama
Thomas Barnett
South Carolina. Mississippi.
The following members were not present at the signing : S. C. Robertson, George C. Childers, S. Rhodes, Fisher, Samuel A. Maverick, John W. Bower, James D. Woods, Andrew Briscoe, John W. Moore ; and the following failed to reach the Convention in time: James Kerr, John J. Linn, and Juan Antonio Podilla.
581
. CONSTITUTION OF THE TEXAN REPUBLIC.
CONSTITUTION OF THE TEXAN REPUBLIC.
ADOPTED ON THE 17TH OF MARCH, 1836
We, the people of Texas, in order to form a government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense and general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do or- dain and establish this Constitution
ARTICLE I.
SECTION 1. The powers of this government shall be divided into three departments, viz. : Legislative, Exe- cutive and Judicial, which shall remain forever, separate and distinct.
SEC. 2. The Legislative power shall be vested in a Senate and House of Representatives, to be styled, the Congress of the Republic of Texas.
SEC. 3. The members of the House of Representatives shall be chosen annually, on the first Monday of September each year, until Congress shall otherwise provide by law, and shall hold their offices one year from the date of their election.
SEC. 4. No person shall be eligible to a seat in the House of Representatives until he shall have attained the age of twenty-five years, shall be a citizen of the Republic, and shall have resided in the county or district six months next preceding his election.
SEC. 5. The House of Representatives shall not consist of less than twenty-four, nor more than. forty members, until the population shall amount to one hundred thousand souls, after which time the whole number of representatives shall not be less than forty nor more than one hundred ,
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BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
provided, however, that each county shall be entitled to at least one representative.
SEC. 6. The House of Representatives shall choose their own speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment.
SEC. 7. The Senators shall be chosen by districts as nearly equal in free population (free negroes and Indians excepted ) as practicable, and the number of Senators shall never be less than one-third nor more than one-half the number of Representatives, and each district shall be en- titled to one member and no more.
SEC. 8. The Senators shall be chosen for the term of three years, on the first Monday in September - shall be citizens of the Republic, reside in the district for which they are respectively chosen at least one year before the election, and shall have attained the age of thirty years.
SEC. 9. At the first session of Congress after the adop- tion of this Constitution, the Senators shall be divided by lot into three classes, as nearly equal as practicable, the . seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the end of the first year, of the second class at the end of the second year, the third class at the end of the third year, in such a manner that one-third shall be chosen each year thereafter.
SEC. 10. The Vice-President of the Republic shall be President of the Senate, but shall not vote on any question unless the Senate be equally divided.
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