Grievances of the Texas Declaration of Independence

Transcription

1 Grievances of the Texas Declaration of Independence Learning Objectives: Students will: 1. Review the reasons Texas wanted to be independent of Mexico 2. Compare the colonization of Texas with that of the United States 3. Rank the grievances according to importance 4. Write a personal Declaration of Independence TEKS: SS 4.3 (A), 4.16 (A), 4.22 (B) Materials Needed: copies of Grievances of the Texas Declaration of Independence (attached), Ranking the Grievances (attached) Vocabulary: declaration, independence, rank, grievance, abolish, seize Teaching Strategy: 1. Review information on the relationship between Texas and Mexico, including facts surrounding the colonization of Texas and the attempts to have the blessing of Mexico for the establishment of settlements in Texas. 2. Compare the Texas colonization with that of the English settlers establishing colonies in America. What were the similarities and differences? 3. Refer to the Grievances of the Texas Declaration of Independence, attached. Read the original text aloud and have students read the simplified version. Check for understanding, asking if student perceive each grievance to be grave enough to cause the need for separation. Ask Was Texas justified in declaring their independence from Mexico? 4. Students will rank the thirteen grievances on the attached sheet according to the severity of the problem caused. Create a bar graph with responses from the ranking. 5. Discuss the need for a change or independence, and that this is the way change is initiated, forming new countries. 6. Begin a discussion of personal freedoms, telling the students from what you might declare your independence, if it were possible, such as grading papers, washing dishes, etc. Ask them to respond

2 accordingly about what they might like to be free of, such as chores or homework. 7. Pair each student with a partner. Each pair will create their own declaration of independence, listing who/what they are declaring their independence from and three to five grievances that cause them to need to be independent of a certain task or entity. 8. Allow students to read their Declarations of Independence aloud. Discuss what the results/consequences would be if that change were made. G/T Extension: Students may compare the grievances in the US Declaration of Independence with the Texas Declaration of Independence.

3 Ranking the Grievances The Texas Declaration of Independence has 13 grievances or complaints against the Mexican government and their military. Some are worse than others. Read the grievances and put them in order of how bad you think each complaint was. Number 1 is in your opinion the worse thing the Mexican government or military was doing, and number 13 is the least important objection

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5 Grievances of the Texas Declaration of Independence 1. It has 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 majority, in an unknown tongue, and this too, notwithstanding 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 constitution, which was, without just cause, contemptuously rejected. The Mexican government will not allow us to have a separate state government. 2. It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a long time, one of our citizens, for no other cause but a zealous endeavor to procure the acceptance of our constitution, and the establishment of a state government. The Mexican government has imprisoned one of our citizens just because the person tried to get the Mexican government to let us establish our own state government. 3. 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. Our citizens are not allowed to have a fair trial, with a jury. 4. It has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources, (the public 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. The Mexican government has failed to establish a public school system.

6 5. 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 citizens, and rendering the military superior to the civil power. The soldiers that are stationed among us are cruel and will not allow us to make our own laws. 6. 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. The Mexican government abolished our Congress and forced our congressmen to run away; therefore we are not represented in any government. 7. It has demanded the surrender of a number of our citizens, 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. A number of our citizens were seized and taken into Mexico for trial, which is against the law. 8. It has made piratical attacks upon our commerce, by commissioning foreign desperadoes, and authorizing them to seize our vessels, and convey the property of our citizens to far distant ports for confiscation. The Mexican government has stolen our ships and taken the goods of our citizens to distant ports. 9. It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according 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. The Mexican government won t let us worship God as we choose to.

7 10. It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defence, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments. The Mexican government won t let us keep our guns. 11. It has invaded our country both by sea and by land, with intent 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. The Mexican army has invaded our lands and intends to force us to leave. 12. It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenseless frontiers. The Mexican government has sent people to make the Indians mad, so now they are attacking us. 13. It hath been, during the whole time of our connection with it, the contemptible sport and victim of successive military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt, and tyrranical government. The Mexican government is weak, dishonest, and forces citizens to do whatever they say.