Meanwhile, over in East Texas....
As the Consultation of 1835 and the interim Texas Government, pushing for the restoration of the Mexican Constitution while remaining part of Mexico as it did, fell apart in January of '36, those expelled from that contentious gathering for favoring full independence were already setting up voting for delegates to attend the Convention of 1836 wherein the Republic of Texas would be created.
Widespread voting to appoint delegates commenced on February 1st, 1836. Of course, since folks were basically making all this up as they went along, the election of these delegates was fraught with difficulty. In particular, volunteers who had only just arrived from the States to fight and even some guys actually leaving Texas insisted on electing and sending their own delegates, much to the chagrin of those Texians already established here.
Another bone of contention was whether Tejanos would be allowed to vote. In some areas they could, in others not. IIRC as it turned out three Tejano delegates signed the Declaration of Texas Independence. Fifty-nine delegates would eventually show up at the brand new hall in the still-forming village of Washington-on-the-Brazos where for seventeen days they would essentially camp out given the lack of lodging in the area.
The election of delegates began on February 1st, the Convention itself convened on March 1st, 1836, by which time forty-eight delegates were present. Despite the Spartan nature of the surroundings, the miserably cold and wet weather, the garrulous nature of the gathering, and the apparently large quantities of alcohol consumed by many, things proceeded with remarkable speed.
A Declaration of Independence was drawn up and issued in just 48 hours, independence being formally declared on March 3rd, incredible in that age of laborious pen and ink. Clearly the author, George Childress, had drawn up the document in advance. Of course both this Declaration and the new Constitution issued two weeks later drew freely on the US originals.
The new government would be in exile almost as soon as the ink was dry on the constitution, fleeing to Galveston Island ahead of Santa Anna's advance, but the government would stick anyway, unchallenged. It looked like America, and was the form of government almost everyone pouring into Texas wanted.
Nobody since then seems to have bragged on these two new Texian documents much, the way they did on events like the Alamo and San Jacinto. One thing is they weren't exactly politically correct, even by old-time standards.
I always get slammed on these threads for daring to suggest slavery was important to the South, but at that time in Texas, plantation agriculture was by common perception about the only game in town when it came to accumulating a fortune, and most of the delegates were men who either already were of the planter class or who held that aspiration. The new Texas Constitution reflected the values and interests of those delegates, plantation agriculture was based upon the concept of an enslaved work force.
In the new constitution Texas citizenship was barred for anyone of "Indian or African ancestry" (IIRC as it was in the United States proper at that time). Not only could one not free one's slaves without specific permission from the Texas Congress, it required a similar Act of Congress before a free Black was even allowed to MOVE here. How well either of these provisions were actually observed during the nine years of the Texas Republic was likely another matter entirely.
Then as now, Hispanics occupied a sort of racial and ethnic gray area. Despite opposition from some delegates, they were extended citizenship and the right to vote. In one of the last acts of the brand new government before it pulled up stakes and fled, Tejanos, like White residents, were subject to a military draft, loss of Texas citizenship being a consequence of refusal. However this subscription act specified that Hispanics would serve in separate units.
Of course all of this occurred before the practically miraculous turnaround at the Battle of San Jacinto, I am not aware that this military draft was ever put into place.
Birdwatcher
