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Benefits Of Texas Constitution Of 1876

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One who does not have common knowledge of the Texas Constitution of 1876 would probably be amazed to find out that it is actually the sixth constitution by which the state of Texas has been governed since its independence from Mexico in 1836. It is a very lengthy and some would even say gawky document which describes the structure and function of the government of Texas. On February 15th, 1876 the constitution took effect. In all of the states in America, this constitution rivals to be one of the longest. The constitution is highly restrictive which is why it has so many amendments that have been added to it. An amendment by definition is are changes submitted to the voters by consent of two-thirds of the members of each house of the legislature and approved by a majority of those voting. From 1876 until the year of 2015 the legislature has proposed approximately 673 constitutional amendments; however, only 491 have been approved. That sounds in theory like a ton of amendments but it doesn’t compare to the 800 amendment changes made to the Alabama constitution. …show more content…

This document has many benefits to the citizens of Texas, such as, forbidding religious tests for different offices. Other highlights of the constitution is that a person cannot be imprisoned for debit, and it assures the freedom of speech and press. This constitution is also fair to public affairs in the sense of if someone is accused of a crime then they have the right to obtain bail and be tried by a jury. Essentially saying that one is innocent until proven

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The new constitution made it so that it limited the government’s debt capacity while also diminishing their power to tax. Another way they saved money was decentralizing public education, thus making it not mandatory anymore (Harpham, Champagne 82). The last principle in the Constitution of 1876 was that they put an emphasis on agrarian interest, since agriculture was such a huge part of the Texas economy. They did this by putting in place provisions to protect farmers from bank, railroads, etc. (Harpham, Champagne 82).

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The Texas Constitution was a product of the Reconstruction era, the tumultuous period that preceded the Civil War. The document reflects the fears and hopes of its framers. They were fearful of an oppressive state after living under the oppressive scrutiny of the Reconstruction Era. They hoped to prevent that from happening again by putting strong restraints on the government. Most of those restraints have followed Texas into the modern era.

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Texas Annexed to the United States On February 19, 1846, Texas was annexed to the United States of America. After many years of never-ending negotiations, Texas was finally admitted into the Union. Despite gaining independence, Texas would continue to face several problems. Texas, at this time, did not have enough forces to defend itself, which meant that they could be vulnerable to an attack from Mexico.

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and Texas Constitutions are similar documents. They both represent the principles of representative democratic government, in which power originated from the people. Both contain a bill of rights that protects civil liberties from government infringement, both provide for two branches of legislature with a House of Representatives and a Senate and both request a system of checks and balances and separation of powers between legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. They also both divide government power between upper and lower levels of government. In the U.S. Constitution the states are subordinate to the federal government, and in the Texas Constitution the counties are subordinate to the state government.

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Although the Texas Constitution and US Constitution are similar in many ways, an important difference between the two is that he US Constitution was written to be a permanent document that was created purposely to make it difficult to amend. The US Constitution was written where it has certain powers and gives each state the power over issues not included in it. The Texas Constitution has had more frequent changes compared to the U.S. Constitution because Texas created its constitution based on self-government and this gave the people of Texas the opportunity to decide by voting. Texas’ seventh and current constitution was written with the intent for people to have the power which allows amendments to be passed through a four-stage process,

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According to the Texas Secretary of State website, “Article III, Section 28, of the Texas Constitution requires the Texas Legislature to redistrict both houses (the Texas House of Representatives and Texas State Senate) at its first regular session after publication of the federal decennial census.” (https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/faqcensus.shtml) The Texas Tribune describes the purpose of redistricting as equalizing the population in state and congressional districts after the census is published, and ensuring that minority populations are represented. (7) Gerrymandering is re-drawing these geographical boundaries to give a particular political party a numeric advantage over an opposing party. Texas history is rich with examples

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An amendment to the Constitution is an improvement, a correction or a revision to the original Constitution which was made in 1788. Today, 27 Amendments have been approved, many have been disapproved and thousands have been discussed. Amending the constitution can be a hard and sometimes very long process. There are three basic steps to amend the Constitution, that are explained to be easy, but completing them is a really difficult process. First, the Congress or States pass a bill proposing a change in the Constitution.

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Texas has had multiple constitutions over the course of its history, starting with the constitution of Coahuila y Tejas in 1827. Texas, at the time, had very few residents and was combined with the state of Coahuila after Mexico gained independence from Spain. Legislative power under this constitution was unicameral with 12 elected deputies, 2 of them from Texas. A governor and vice-governor held executive power, and judicial powers were in the courts. This constitution “formally guaranteed citizens the right to liberty, security, property, and equality” and established Catholicism as the state religion (Champagne & Harpham, 2015, p. 45).

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In Texas history, there have been some remarkable changes in the way the state was run, on the contrary, there has also been some not so remarkable political changes that play a major roll on Texas as we know it. All the changes made been recorded on to a document known as “The Constitution”. This is a legal document that establishes legal power and limitations to the state, without it there would be no structure nor authority. This document has been a constant debate, a fight for power, and life changer for the citizen of the state. Till this day Little has changed.

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Amending to the United States Constitution serves to be politically arduous within the contemporary generation today, as the stakes are low regarding which amendment will succeed through the amendment process. The Constitution ratified in the year 1788 serves to be a creed laid out by the Founding Fathers of America in the hope of establishing a country based on independent grounds capable of serving political and social values. The framers established the constitution within the grounds of law and order as it is composed of 27 amendments that mark political and social rights held by every individual. For example, the first ten amendments serve to be specific rights ratified in order to protect individual liberties (Sidlow and Henschen 42-43).

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