Texas Independence Day and Flag Day, March 2, 1836
March 2, 2015 - The William Carroll Crawford Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas is especially proud to celebrate the March Texas Honor Day known as Texas Independence Day. William Carroll Crawford came to Texas in 1835 and played a major role in the founding of the Republic of Texas as a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Mexico. To fully appreciate the hardships of these early settlers, one has only to read this document, available online as “Texas Declaration of Independence.”
With the threat of Mexican troops a constant fear and with many concerns about their wellbeing, the Convention of 1836 was convened and took several important steps to protect the rights of the citizens. The call for the convention to meet at Washington-on-the-Brazos was issued by the General Council of the provisional government in December 1835. The Delegates to the convention were elected on February 1, 1836, and met on March 1, 1836, in an unfinished building with forty-four delegates in attendance. Overall, there were fifty-nine delegates for at least portions of the convention.
The Texas Declaration of Independence was framed and issued by the Convention of 1836.The committee to draw up the declaration was appointed by Richard Ellis, president of the convention. There were five members of the group and George C. Childress was named chairman. It is rumored that the chairman actually had prepared a draft in advance that allowed the committee to complete the task early on March 2, 1836 (four days before the fall of the Alamo.) Had this not been the case, they probably could not have finished their work so quickly. Copies of the document were sent to Bexar, Goliad, Nacogdoches, Brazoria and San Felipe, the most populated areas of the Republic of Texas. The original document was deposited with the United States Department of State in Washington, D.C. and was not returned to Texas until after June 1896. It is now displayed at the capitol where it was unveiled on March 2, 1930.
On December 28, 1836 William H. Wharton introduced the bill to adopt the Texas Lone Star Flag to the Legislature of the Republic of Texas. The flag was formally adopted when the bill was signed into law by Mirabeau B. Lamar, President of the Republic of Texas, on January 25, 1839. When Texas became the 28th state of the United States all statutes not specifically renewed were repealed in 1879. Since the law was not explicitly renewed, the flag of the Republic of Texas did not become the official flag of Texas until the Texas State Legislature passed the flag code in 1933. The colors of our Texas flag are stated to be the same shades of red (for bravery), white (for purity) and blue (for loyalty) as the United States Flag. In practice and by tradition the Flag of Texas has remained the same from the period of the Republic of Texas through all the years of statehood.
