"The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America... these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do."The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
What they read past
A self-determination document
The famous line is the opening. The conclusion is the work. In its last paragraph, thirteen colonies declared themselves free and independent States and cut every tie to a distant crown.
Read it to the end and the real claim is right there: the right of a people to govern themselves, written down and signed. Self-determination. The most American idea there is.
Not radical. Foundational.
The same right that made Texas
The natural law that justified breaking from Britain in 1776 is the same law that made Texas a republic in 1836. It did not expire. When a government rules without the consent of the governed, that consent can be withdrawn.
Texas knows this better than anyone. On March 2, 1836, Texans signed their own Declaration of Independence. In October 1845, they voted to join the United States, county by county, on the record. The consent was real. Consent given can be reconsidered.
The Texas Constitution still guarantees the people the right "to alter, reform or abolish their government."
How it happens
A vote, not a war
Not chaos. Not rebellion. A peaceful, democratic vote. Scotland held one in 2014. Quebec held two. The question is simple, and it is the one Texans never get asked: who should decide Texas's future?
Two hundred fifty years after the Declaration, the answer has not changed. We should.
Texas is not alone
A right the whole world claims
Catalans have asked it. Kurds have asked it. People who share a history and a homeland keep choosing to govern themselves rather than be ruled from far away. There is nothing strange about Texas asking the same. Self-government is the principle the modern world runs on.
Texas belongs in that company, not as rebels, but as a nation reclaiming what was always its own.
Don't take our word for it
"I saw a lot of Thomas Jefferson in what you're trying to do."Dr. M. Andrew Holowchak, one of the most published living authorities on Thomas Jefferson
Holowchak edits The Journal of Thomas Jefferson and His Time and has written more than thirty books on Jefferson. He met Daniel Miller at the Abbeville Institute's 2026 conference on the Declaration, heard the case for Texas, and said it is what Jefferson himself would have advocated for.