Journal of the Senate of the Legislature of the State of Texas: bi-annual, (irregular, with occasional multiple sessions), title varies, var. state
printers, 1847–, series continues. Prior to becoming part of the United States, the area comprising present-day Texas was governed successively by
France, Spain and Mexico. The Texans began their breakaway from Mexico with the formation of a provisional government on November 13, 1835. This
government had no legislative body, but its delegates, meeting in a “consultation,” or convention, adopted the English common law, established trial by jury,
and enacted measures to secure individuals in their land titles. On 2 March 1836, a convention of delegates declared independence from Mexico under the
rubric of the Republic of Texas. Actual independence was achieved as the result of the Battle of San Jacinto on 21 April 1836. The first Congress of
the Republic of Texas met in October of 1836. From the beginning Texans sought annexation by the United States, but this was held off for a decade by
anti-slavery forces in the existing union that didn’t want another slave state. After several unsuccessful attempts, Texas formally accepted
annexation by the United States in July of 1945, an act that was the immediate cause of the Mexican-American War. Final annexation became effective 29 December
1845. Texas at that time comprised a much larger area containing parts of present-day New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma; all of
which areas were severed off as the entities named became states in their own time. The first session of the Texas statehood legislature was in February
1846. (Records that were part of the Early State Records collection were digitized from a microfilm copy of titles originally held by the University
of Texas Library at Austin, Texas State Library, Texas State Archives, Library of Congress, and Duke University Library).
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