Texas Tales - Texas' First Declaration of Independence

History teaches many lessons, including one often overlooked: Few changes are instantaneous.

Texas' "Fourth of July" is a good example. The 59 signatures on Texas' Declaration of Independence did not change things overnight. Nor were those signatures even affixed on the day we celebrate. March 2 is observed as Texas Independence Day, but the holiday could as easily be March 3. Or, by not too much of a stretch, December 20 could be the day Texans remember as the date when Texas separatists slapped Mexico's face with the figurative gauntlet of a document asserting independence.

A delegation of aggrieved Texans-though only two of them had actually been born in Texas-gathered at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 1, 1836 to ponder what to do about Mexico's repressive government.

The Republic of Mexico, of course, had already decided what to do about its Texas problem: Kill anyone involved in what the Mexican government correctly-from its viewpoint-saw as open rebellion. As the delegates gathered in Washington-on-the-Brazos, soldiers under General Antonio de Lopez de Santa Anna already surrounded the Alamo in San Antonio. In barely five days, they would storm it and kill every male combatant inside.

Meanwhile, back on the Brazos, the delegates adopted a declaration of independence on March 2. But it is quite clear that the document was not actually signed until the following day. Technically, then, March 3 is the true Texas Independence Day.

One of the signers was Sam Houston, whose ego was as big as Texas. His birthday happened to be March 2. So, since the document was approved on March 2, and on Houston's birthday, it was March 2, not March 3, that evolved into the Texas holiday. (Austin cartoonist Roger T. Moore, who produces an annual Texas history calendar, believes March 2 should be regarded as Texas' New Year's Day. And that's the way his calendar starts.)

However, Moore and other Texans could as well celebrate the state's independence on December 20.