Texas Constitutions with links to originals

Back to Basics: Constitutional Revision in Texas

Click the dates below for longer accounts of each revision episode from The Handbook of Texas Online. Click the constitution cover for the full constitutional text and images of the original documents from the Tarlton Law Library.

Year and Description
	1824-27 Following the Mexican War of Independence, the new Republic of Mexico in convention adopted the Constitution of 1824. It provided that each state in the Republic write its own constitution. The Legislature of the combined state of Coahuila and Texas published its Constitution in 1827.
	1833 Misgovernment in Texas and civil war in Mexico led to a push for a new constitution for a separate state of Texas. Drafted by the Convention of 1833, the proposal was modeled on the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution. The Mexican government rejected the proposal and jailed Stephen F. Austin, who had carried it to Mexico City.
	1836 Sparked by the Battle of Gonzales in 1835, the Texas Revolution organized in the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos. It issued the Texas Declaration of Independence March 2, 1836, adopted the Constitution of the Republic of Texas fifteen days later, and appointed Sam Houston to head the Texas army.
	1845 The Constitution of 1845 accompanied the petition of Texas for statehood in the United States. It drew on the Louisiana Constitution, the Constitution drafted in 1833, and the Constitution of the Republic. The United States accepted it on Dec. 29, 1845.
	1861 The Secession Convention took a conservative approach to rewriting the Texas Constitution to ease the transition of Texas into the Confederacy. It adopted the Constitution of 1845, amended slightly to forbid freeing slaves, to require officials to swear loyalty to the Confederacy, and to make amendment easier.
	1866 In compliance with presidential Reconstruction after the Civil War, the Convention of 1866 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution to increase the number, power, and salaries of government officials. It also provided for many public improvements. Because of popular opposition to increases in officials' salaries, the changes passed with just 54.6 percent support.
	1868-69 The Constitutional Convention of 1868-69 was called to comply with the Congressional Reconstruction Acts of 1867, but disbanded before completing a constitution. Military authorities published what it had produced as the Constitution of 1869. Though ratified by voters, the Constitution sparked factional controversy in Texas since the Convention had met under federal pressure.
	1876 A joint legislative committee drafted a new constitution in 1874. To forestall political concerns, the Legislature called a convention in 1875. It was dominated by Democrats determined to replace the unpopular 1869 Constitution and prevent the return of autocratic, centralized government symbolized by the Reconstruction administration of Governor E. J. Davis. The resulting Constitution, adopted by voters Feb. 15, 1876, remains the basic law of Texas.
	1974 Attempts at comprehensive revision of Texas's long and outdated Constitution came to a head in 1971 when the Legislature created a Constitutional Revision Commission and agreed to convene itself as a constitutional convention. This special legislative convention met in 1973-74. It drafted a constitution but disbanded in disagreement over the proposed revisions. In 1975 the Legislature approved a new constitution as eight amendments requiring voter approval. Voters defeated them all.

Source: Historical information is from the Handbook of Texas Online at http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/. Constitutional texts, convention journals, and bibliographic information regarding most of these revision attempts are available from the Texas Constitutions Digitization Project at http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/constitutions.html.

Highlights of other significant revision attempts between 1876 and 1974 include:

1919: The question of calling a constitutional convention is submitted to voters who overwhelming reject the plan with only 23,549 in favor to 71,376 opposed.
1949: Governor Beauford Jester created a Citizens Committee on the Constitution to promote revision. It disbanded after it failed to persuade the Legislature to act.
1957: The League of Women Voters and others urged the Legislature to take up revision. The Legislature directed the Legislative Council to study the matter. An interim report issued in 1959 found need for simplification and substantial changes. But under pressure the final report in 1960 concluded that the Constitution was sound and required only pruning of dead wood and non-functioning provisions.
1967: Governor John Connally urged the Legislature to submit a call for a constitutional convention to voters. Instead, it reluctantly created a Constitutional Revision Commission to study the matter. The Legislature did not act on the Commission's work except to pass a clean-up amendment ratified by voters in 1969 who simultaneously rejected a proposed legislative pay raise.

For more on these and other minor revision attempts since 1876 see the following:

Bebout, John E., and Janice C. May. 1971. "The Texas Constitution: Problems and Prospects for Revision." Papers prepared for the Texas Urban Development Commission.
Smith, Dick. 1969. "Constitutional Revision: Attempts to Unshackle Texas." Public Affairs Comment 15(6).
Smith, Dick. 1961. "Constitutional Revision, 1876-1961." Public Affairs Comment 7(5).

Keywords: Constitution