Very rare: this loyalty oath is recorded in just two other copies.
On 2 March, 1836, the Republic of Texas declared itself an independent, sovereign state. Delegates to the 1836 convention quickly drafted a Constitution which “ruled that citizenship would be granted to all free white persons who arrived in the Republic, swore an oath of allegiance, and established residence for at least six months. Slavery was declared to be perpetual; and no law could be passed that prohibited immigrants from the United States from bringing their slaves with them” (Narrett). Both Black and Native Americans were excluded from citizenship. This is an excellent example of these oaths.
Section 10 of the Constitution clarifies that land grants would be received “in like manner as colonists … every head of a family shall be entitled to one league and labor of land, and every single man of the age of seventeen and upwards, shall be entitled to the third part of one league of land.” Any citizen who left the Republic “for the purpose of evading a participation in the present struggle” would forfeit his rights of citizenship and land. This language is echoed in the present document. The convention also required their male citizens ages 17 to 50 to serve in the military, offering land bounties of 320 to 1280 acres as incentives.
Indeed, this loyalty oath couldn’t be any clearer. Edward Wallis swears that “I was a resident citizen of Texas, at the date of the Declaration of Independence, that I did not leave the country during the campaign of the Spring of 1836 to avoid a participation in the struggle, that I did not refuse to participate in the War, that I did not aid or assist the enemy …”
The remaining text continues in this manner requiring the swearer to confirm that “I have not previously received a title for my quantum of land, and I conceive myself to be just entitled under the Constitution and laws, to the quanitits of land for which I now apply.” Wallis has signed the oath, it was witnessed by G.V. Lusk, Chief Justice and Notary Public of the county. The verso is additionally signed by Wm. Daniel, F.L. Green, and Jordan Smith.
At this time, Houston was the capital of the Republic and it’s likely that these oaths were printed there and distributed for completion locally. The Republic of Texas lasted for almost a decade, with annexation by the US being almost inevitable. The United States admitted Texas as a state on 29 December, 1845, and the First Legislature convened on 19 February, 1846.
OCLC locates two copies - at Texas A&M (completed at San Augustine) and Yale (completed at Nacogdoches).
Narrett, D.E., “A Choice of Destiny: Immigration Policy, Slavery, and the Annexation of Texas” in The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 100, No. 3 (Jan., 1997), p.280.
