March 2 1836

Forty-one delegates from all over Texas arrived in Washington-on-the-Brazos on February 28, 1836. The weather being unusually cold, accommodations were extremely uncomfortable. The convention convened on March 1 in an unpainted frame building with no glass for the windows, Richard Ellis presiding.

George Childress was assigned to lead a committee of five to draft a Declaration of Independence. Childress, the nephew of empresario Sterling C. Robertson, had been elected to the Convention just three weeks after his arrival in Texas. The committee submitted its draft within a mere 24 hours, leading historians to speculate that Childress had written much of it before his arrival at the Convention.

The declaration was approved on March 2 with no debate. Based primarily on the writings of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson, the declaration proclaimed that the Mexican government "ceased to protect the lives, liberty, and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived" and complained about "arbitrary acts of oppression and tyranny".

The declaration officially established the Republic of Texas.