Rights of the Texas Declaration of Independence and Texas Constitution
Comparison Chart

The first thing to do is to read the Texas Declaration of Independence and Article I of the Texas
Constitution – both are attached to this assignment. Your chart will have three columns. The first column
is for the specific right mentioned in the documents. The other columns are the following: One for the
Texas Declaration of Independence, Texas Bill of Rights (Article I of the Texas Constitution). For each
right mentioned or implied, list the sentence in which it appears in your chart under the proper
document. Write as much of the sentence as required to make clear what the right is. If the same right is
listed in another document, list it in the same row

Read the documents carefully and choose at least five “rights” to list and compare. To be eligible, the right
must appear in both documents. Don’t pick a right that only appears in one document. I have given you
one example—you may not use this as part of your five.

RIGHT
Texas

Declaration of
Independence

Texas
Constitution,

Article I (Texas
Bill of Rights)

Right to Jury
Trials

It has failed and
refused to

secure, on a firm
basis, the right
of trial by jury

The right of trial
by jury shall

remain
inviolate. (Art I.

Sec. 15)

So to explain the example: The authors of the Texas Declaration complain that the Mexican government
has refused to secure the right of trial by jury (paragraph 5). This right is then guaranteed in the Texas
Bill of Rights (section 10). In the first column, I put the right in question (right to jury trials), in the
second column I put where in the Texas Declaration it says that Mexico violated that right, and in the
third column I put the reference to the right to jury trial as it appears in the Texas Bill of Rights.

Now you find five others on your own!!! Think about the various rights claimed in these documents and
pick from the following list: right to consent, right to vote, right to bear arms, right to security, right to life,
right to liberty, right to property, right to education, right to equality, right of conscience, right to free
speech, right to publish, right to an attorney, right to a writ of habeas corpus, right to just punishment,
right not to be tried for the same crime twice, right to privacy, right to protest, right to petition, right to a
warrant upon being searched.

Be sure whatever right you pick is referenced (in some way) in the Texas Declaration of Independence
and the Texas Bill of Rights.