--- title: Texas Secession: State Has a Long History of Trying to Leave description: A new debate over Texas secession is far from the first. Secession has been a part of Texas history for longer than the state has existed. canonical: https://time.com/4329364/texas-secede-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-13T17:25:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:32:17.166Z article:section: History og:title: Texas Secession: State Has a Long History of Trying to Leave og:description: A current debate over Texas secession is far from the first—and nor is it likely to be the last og:url: https://time.com/4329364/texas-secede-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdba06b1588a36e24/698893232dce0196cd9e911a/texas.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Texas og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Texas Secession: State Has a Long History of Trying to Leave twitter:description: A current debate over Texas secession is far from the first—and nor is it likely to be the last twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdba06b1588a36e24/698893232dce0196cd9e911a/texas.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Texas Secession Is Not a New Idea > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 13, 2016 5:25 PM UTC  An illustration of the Texas State Flag waving over The Alamo, San Antonio. Engraving from "Harper's Weekly," 1861. An illustration of the Texas State Flag waving over The Alamo, San Antonio. Engraving from "Harper's Weekly," 1861.PHAS/UIG/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 13, 2016 5:25 PM UTC As Texas Republicans meet for their [state convention](https://www.texasgop.org/2016-convention/) this week, one item on the table would invalidate the very name of the meeting itself: after a run of local resolutions supporting the Texas independence, the party [will vote](http://time.com/4329172/texas-republicans-vote-secede-secession-texas-nationalist-movement/?xid=homepage) on the question of Texas seceding from the Union. The measure is unlikely to pass, but—if history is any indication—that’s not likely to put an end to the question. Secession has been a part of Texas history for longer than the state has even existed. After all, the state got its start by leaving the nation that had controlled it, in a [revolution](http://texasourtexas.texaspbs.org/the-eras-of-texas/revolution-and-republic/) against Mexico. The Texas Declaration of Independence was signed in 1836 and the Texas Republic ratified its own constitution shortly after. In 1837, the U.S. formally recognized Texas as a nation, but the new country struggled economically without any of the resources of its larger neighbors, leading [most (but not all)](http://time.com/vault/issue/1928-02-13/page/30/) residents to welcome statehood by the time it came through in 1845\. Only a little more than a decade passed, however, before the state tried to secede from its national government again, joining with the Confederacy in 1861. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) After the Civil War, in 1869, Texas was at the center of the Supreme Court ruling that determined that the states that seceded during the war never actually had the ability to leave the Union. In [_Texas v. White_](https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/74/700)_—_a case that hinged on whether the federal government still had jurisdiction over Texas during the Civil War, in the period during which the state claimed to be part of a different nation—it was declared that the Confederate states were in rebellion against their rightful federal government, not a separate nation fighting its neighbor. (Hence, the “civil” in Civil War.) “When, therefore, Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation,” the decision stated. “The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration, or revocation, except through revolution, or through consent of the States.” So, even if every elected official in Texas declared that the state was not part of the U.S., that didn’t matter. Only an agreement by all of the other states—or victory in the Civil War—could have made that decision mean anything. In the 1990s, Texas’ unique history was nearly cause for another[ violent conflict,](http://time.com/vault/issue/1997-05-12/page/47/) when the “self-declared ‘ambassador, consul-general and chief foreign legal officer’ of the separatist Republic of Texas,” a man named Rick McLaren, led a week-long standoff against state authorities, as TIME reported. McLaren and his followers believed that when Texas became a state in 1845, that was really a hostile takeover of a separate sovereign nation, which meant that the Republic of Texas still existed. The current push toward secession has been associated with a different group, the Texas Nationalist Movement. **MORE:** [The Man Who Would Be King…of Texas](http://time.com/3645685/texas-statehood/) Texas is far from the only state to make noise about its own secession in modern history. For example, the moment that TIME [identified](http://time.com/vault/issue/1933-01-30/page/17/) as “the first time since the Civil War Secession was publicly proposed in a State Legislature” came in Depression-saddled 1933, in North Dakota when an 83-year-old State Senator proposed that all the rest of the country secede from the financial oligarchs of New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. “Be it resolved,” the proposal read, “that the remaining 39 States secede from the Union, carrying with us the Star-Spangled Banner and leaving them the Stripes which they richly deserved.” (That didn’t happen, obviously.) And it’s not just states: New York City has many times[ talked abou](http://time.com/vault/issue/1971-06-21/page/16/)t seceding from New York to become the 51st state, as the city’s residents often feel that the legislature in Albany doesn’t understand its needs. 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