The Texas Revolution Was a War for Independence
The rebellion that transformed the Mexican region of Tejas into the Republic of Texas is a study in incongruity. The commonly accepted designations—the Texas Revolution or the Texas War of Independence—are deceptive. If “revolution” is “a fundamental change in political organization; especially, the overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed,” the conflict failed to meet this definition. The rebellion began as part of a Mexican civil war, in which both Texians and Tejanos supported the federalist cause. Unlike the French in 1789 or the Russians in 1917, the Texians never sought to reweave the fabric of Mexican society. Nor was this action initially a bid for complete separation from Mexico.
Texians made that plain in the preamble to a declaration issued on November 7, 1835:
Whereas, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, and other military chieftains, have, by force of arms, overthrown the Federal Institutions of Mexico, and dissolved the social compact which existed between Texas and the other members of the Mexican Confederacy; the good People of Texas, availing themselves of their natural right, SOLEMNLY DECLARE . . .
The following eight articles delineated their intentions and principles—but never mentioned the word “independence.” Notwithstanding all the war party agitation, most Texians maintained their moderate instincts: they fought to restore the federalist Constitution of 1824 and for the right to manage their own affairs without central government interference. Far from seeking “fundamental change,” most Texians yearned to reestablish the status quo.
Why then did Texians declare independence from Mexico just three months later? Texas leaders understood that they could not win the war alone. If Mexican federalists would not lend a hand, they must enlist assistance from the United States. Texians claimed thousands of acres of disposable land but they were cash poor. To win this war they first had to fight it. That required troops, weapons, and provender and all those items cost money—lots of it. U.S. President Andrew Jackson was unlikely to risk an international incident by openly supporting the Texas rebels against Mexico. Texians sought instead the support of individual Americans who championed their cause. The ad interim government dispatched Stephen F. Austin as an agent to the United States. Once in the “old states” the empresario appealed to supporters to provide volunteers, funds, and supplies. He and other Texas agents visited American banks to secure loans for the rebel effort.
There, however, they encountered a dilemma. Banks in the north would not consider supporting a cause that might ultimately bring another slave state into the union. Southern bankers, while more sympathetic, refused to lend their money so long as the war remained a Mexican domestic dispute. They might be interested if—and only if—Texians declared their complete separation from Mexico.
Why this southern support for Texas independence? Southerners―and signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence too― anticipated that an independent Texas would remain independent for, say, six months before entering the union as a slave state. In 1836, the United States had an equal number of free and slave states. Since both free and slave states voted as a block, it created a legislative gridlock with neither side being able to gain advantage. Southerners believed that adding Texas to the list of slave states would tip the congressional balance of power in their favor.
By March 2, 1836, nearly all the delegates at Washington-on-the Brazos believed that their best hope for the future rested on complete parting from Mexico. Consequently, declaring independence was not so much an act of political conviction as it was an exercise in expedience. Textbooks may call it the War for Texas Independence, but the irony is that the delegates at Washington-on-the Brazos never viewed their declaration as anything more than a contrivance on the road to U.S. annexation.