HCR91 - Commemorating the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

  89R16405 KSM-D     By: Lowe H.C.R. No. 91       CONCURRENT RESOLUTION          WHEREAS, July 4, 2026, marks the 250th anniversary of the   adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second   Continental Congress, which was convened in Philadelphia in 1776;   and          WHEREAS, Beginning in the 1760s, Great Britain's taxation and   frontier policies became increasingly onerous to residents of its   13 North American colonies; their vigorous protests were met with   declaration of martial law in Massachusetts and the closing of the   port of Boston; delegates from colonial governments met in a   Continental Congress to organize a boycott of British goods; as   fighting broke out between colonists and British troops in   Massachusetts, the Continental Congress coordinated resistance   efforts; and          WHEREAS, The prospect of reconciliation with Britain grew   increasingly unlikely; on December 22, 1775, the British Parliament   prohibited trade with the colonies, and the Continental Congress   responded the following April by opening colonial ports; Thomas   Paine championed the cause of independence in a widely-distributed   pamphlet, Common Sense , and on June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee   introduced a motion in the Continental Congress to declare   independence; although not all members were ready to make this   break, the Continental Congress formed a committee to write such a   declaration, composed of five delegates: Thomas Jefferson, John   Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Benjamin Franklin; and          WHEREAS, Mr. Jefferson, a junior delegate from Virginia, was   assigned to write the initial draft; drawing on George Mason's   Virginia Declaration of Rights, as well as Mr. Jefferson's own   drafts of the Virginia Constitution and Summary View of the Rights   of British Americans , Mr. Jefferson produced a rough draft in a   matter of days; Mr. Adams and Mr. Franklin made revisions, followed   by the full committee, which then presented the final version to the   full Continental Congress on June 28; and          WHEREAS, After voting for independence on July 2, 1776, the   Continental Congress made 39 additional revisions to the committee   draft; on the morning of July 4, the Declaration of Independence was   adopted, a defining moment in the American Revolution; and          WHEREAS, The Declaration of Independence consists of 27   grievances against England's King George III in which the colonists   outline the complaints that "impel them to the separation" from the   "mother country"; among the most familiar and enduring protests has   been against the oft-repeated "taxation without representation"--a   refrain that continues in use today in various contexts; and          WHEREAS, Additionally, the Declaration of Independence   asserts "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" to which a people are   "entitle[d]," including the belief that "all men are created equal,   that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable   Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of   Happiness"; and          WHEREAS, The Declaration of Independence provided a firm and   enduring foundation for our liberty, and over the course of nearly   two and a half centuries, this pivotal document has been a source of   inspiration to people the world over; now, therefore, be it          RESOLVED, That the 89th Legislature of the State of Texas   hereby commemorate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the   Declaration of Independence, which founded the United States of   America on July 4, 1776.