Bill of Rights and Bill of Rights and Constitution… The Constitution… The United State’s and United State’s and

Texas’!Texas’!Comparing and Contrasting

TexasTexas Bill of Rights Bill of Rights

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/SOTWDocs/CN/htm/CN.1.htm

Go to the above website to see the Texas Bill of Rights.

U.S. U.S. Bill of RightsBill of Rights

http://www.thirty-thousand.org/pages/BoR_image_repro.htm

Go to the above website to see a roll-over map of the U.S. Bill of Rights

Compare and ContrastCompare and Contrast

The Bill of Rights for both Texas and the United States are not actually their own documents. The Texas Bill of Rights is actually

article one of their constitution. The United States Bill of Rights is a group of later amendments from the Constitution in order to make it

“better”. These are just basic facts about these Bill of Rights, and there are many more things to learn in this essay. Like how the countries had to

deal with their military, or with religion, it’s all here in these next few paragraphs. Let’s see what these countries gave their people and why.

Texas, much like the United States, was very sensitive towards religion. There are three sections of the (Texas) document talking

about religion. Considering they just gained independence from Spain and Mexico where they had to become catholic, and worship a certain way,

they were ready to move on and let people worship how they please, without any sanctions. The U.S. Bill of Rights gives us the freedom of

religion, but in my opinion, they don’t get as sensitive and protective about as Texas did/does. The United States though says that there can not be

a law going against any religion where the closest thing Texas gets to that is saying that no one will be punished in court because of their religion.

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Military for these countries were in two completely situations, so you can already probably tell that the rights given to the two

militaries are going to be different. Both Bill of Rights talk about stationing soldiers in homes and they both say that it will not happen unless

under law. They both also talk about the right to bear arms, but in the Texas Bill of Rights there are many more sanctions toward it. The one

thing that is different between the two Bill of Rights is that the United States says no soldier should be stationed anywhere during time of

peace. The Texas Bill of Rights says nothing of that and it says that the military will always be of less importance to the citizens and that they

can not be over-powering to the citizens of Texas. This is not saying that they hate their military, it’s just saying that still isn’t a lot of peace in

Texas. Both these new nations had just gained independence but Texas hadn’t gained independence from a far-away land, they gained form

their next-door neighbor, in a land of wild warriors. See Texas still had Comanche and Apache attacks so they almost always had to have some

form of a military guarding the city. However, the military also had to make sure they did not “boss” the citizens around and stay loyal to

Texas.

Both of these “countries” Bill of Rights give their citizens reasonable rights to help them live their lives easily. The difference is

that Texas was in a completely different situation compared to the United States. Texas was much smaller compared to the United States when

they gained their independence. Texas also had problems with the natives attacking and they had to base their government around that. This

means there are going to be some differences in the Bill of Rights, but the differences are only logical.

TexasTexas Constitution Constitution

http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/text/1836cindex.html

Go to the above website to see the Texas’ Constitution

U.S. U.S. ConstitutionConstitution

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/Go to the above website to see the U.S.

Constitution

Compare and ContrastCompare and Contrast

American or Texan: Which Constitution is Which?

It is March 1, 1836 and Texas delegates such as Sam Houston, Thomas Barnett, and Lorenzo de Zavala sit around a worn-

out table at Washington-on-the-Brazos and work to compose the first constitution of the republic of Texas. Fifteen days later, they accept

the constitution and in September of that year, the Republic of Texas’s first constitution was ratified by a vote of the people. Looking

back today and comparing this historical document to the American Constitution shows many similarities between the two documents.

The American Constitution and the republic of Texas Constitution of 1836 are very similar. Like the American

Constitution, the Texas version was short, (as Constitutions go) for it contained less than 6,500 words. Both Constitution's have a rather

short preamble as well as separation of powers, a Bill of Rights, a way to make Amendments to the Constitution, and a legislative

branch that was bicameral, or had two different houses. The houses of the Texas legislative branch were, like the United States, called

the Senate and the House of Representatives. Texas’s executive branch closely resembled the American version and the courts were both

separated into four different sections, justice, county, district, and supreme court, while district was considered the most important of the

four.

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However, the two constitutions did have their differences. One key difference between the two constitutions is that the

Texas version did not separate its courts into distinct courts of law and equity. Many of Texas’s ideas reflected where most of the

delegates had come from. For example, 14 delegates came from Tennessee and laws such as imprisonment for debt being abolished

and the terms were generally very short. They ranged anywhere from 1 year for a representative to 4 years for a judge, and annual

voting was required. Texas also adapted its constitution from the Spanish-Mexican law by having similar laws on community

property, homestead exemptions and protections, and debtor relief.

Texas had its reason to take much of its constitution from the American Constitution. While the Texan delegates were

trying to form the Constitution of the Republic of Texas, the Mexican Army was threatening to attack; therefore the delegates were

forced to take bits and pieces from the American Constitution as well as some of the surrounding states because of their lack of time

and inability to focus solely on the constitution. Texans also wanted many Anglo-American’s to come and settle in the new republic

of Texas. These settlers did not want to change the laws that governed them. Lastly, The American Constitution had successfully

kept the United States going for almost 40 years, and Texans wanted their country to be as prosperous as their neighbors to the east.

CitationsCitations

"Texas Constitution." Texas Constitution. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/SOTWDocs/CN/htm/CN.1.htm>. (tags: none | edit tags)

"The Constitution of the State of Texas (1876)." Tarlton Law Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/text/1876index.html>. (tags: none | edit tags)

"U.S. Constitution | U.S. Constitution | LII / Legal Information Institute." LII | LII / Legal Information Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/>. (tags: none | edit tags)

"thirty-thousand.org -- The Zoomable Bill of Rights (reproduction)." Thirty-Thousand.org - Return the House of Representatives to the People (Home Page). N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <http://www.thirty-thousand.org/pages/BoR_image_repro.htm>. (tags: none | edit tags)

"Jamail Center for Legal Research Tarlton Law Library The University of Texas School of Law." The Constitution of the Republic of Texas (1836). Tarlton Law Library, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. <http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/text/ccRights.html>.