#Republic's Backers aim at Texas' "illegal" Government
Jim Kennemur
Republic's Backers aim at Texas' "illegal" Government
Richard Stewart of the Houston Chronicle, October 6, 1996
What if Texas had never become a state?
What if the Lone Star State were the Lone Star Nation?
Would we need passports to go over to Louisiana for Mardi Gras?
Would we have become a southern version of Canada, supplying troops
to help our allies in World Wars I and II?
Or would we have become an American Switzerland, fiercely neutral,
with duty-free shopping malls at every major border crossing and
banks full of numbered accounts from all over the hemisphere?
The idea of Texas being an independent nation has caught on with
a growing number of people who have become members of a movement
called the Republic of Texas. As many as 2,500 people may be active
participants in the movement, but leaders claim anybody who has
been a resident of Texas for the past six months is already a citizen
of the new republic.
Certainly Texas is big enough to be a nation. It covers more land
area than France and has more citizens than Australia.
A young George Bush might have renounced his American citizenship
to move to Texas to seek his fortune in the oil business. But if
he had, he certainly never could have become president of the United
States. If he hadn't, his son probably wouldn't be Texas' chief
executive.
For believers in the Republic of Texas, the question about George
W. Bush is an easy one--he's not the governor because the Republic
of Texas doesn't have a governor. It has a president and right
now that president is Archie Huel Lowe.
Lowe is an affable, bearded, lanky 55-year-old former professional
musician and electronics hardware designer who describes himself
as "an old hippie" and a "patriot."
He lives in the country near the northeast Texas town of Rice and
travels around the state in a well-worn Mazda. He appears in his
"Texas tuxedo"--dark jacket, white shirt, tie, blue jeans and
cowboy boots --before groups of the faithful who are trying to
rebuild the Republic of Texas government.
Unlike Bush, he usually drives himself and spends his own money
-- about $1,000 a month--in the unpaid job.
Never mind that Texas already has a government, with an often-amended
constitution, lots of elected officials, (even more appointed ones),
office buildings filled with agencies and an almost $80 billion
biennial budget.
The state government has absolutely no standing, Lowe and his
compatriots claim, because way back in 1845 Texas joined the union
illegally. The deed was done, not by treaty, but through joint
resolutions in the U.S. and Texas congresses. Neither country's
constitution allowed Texas to join the union through joint
resolutions, they claim.
If republic leaders consider state officials to have no legal
standing,the feeling is mutual.
"They have no more authority than the Moose Lodge," said Ron Dusek,
a spokesman for Texas Attorney General Dan Morales' office.
"If people want to believe the United States illegally annexed
the Republic of Texas 150 years ago, they are free to do so," Morales
said. "But they are not free to break the law. And they are not
free to intimidate, coerce and harass law-abiding Texans."
Morales has put together a group of prosecutors and investigators
who are keeping tabs on the Republic to make sure members don't
step over the line and violate state laws. Although many of the
leaders of the new republic have been members of right-wing militia
groups in the past, there is no direct connection between the republic
and any of the other groups and no indication that the Republic
has conducted or plans any violent activities, officials said.
But state officials said advocates of the republic have filed dozens
of frivolous liens against businesses and individuals they disagree
with.
One Republic of Texas leader spent a month in jail and a state
district judge has issued an arrest warrant for another member.
The shelves of books of laws and court rulings that now regulate
the way Texas operates have no standing whatever, advocates of
the Republic say.
For now they're operating their government under the constitutions
of 1836 and 1845--with a few amendments. Slavery, rigorously
enforced in 1845, is outlawed. Women have the vote and full legal
and political rights.
The reborn republic has formed a cabinet, adopted a flag and insignias
and sent letters to the United Nations proclaiming its independence.
The new Texans are working now to set up county and regional districts
to elect delegates to a constitutional convention to be held on
July 4, 1997. Just where the convention will be hasn't been decided
yet. Meanwhile provisional officers and a council run the would-
be government.
What kind of constitution the July 4 convention will draft isn't
known yet, but the current leaders of the republic clearly envision
a minimal government.
If they have their way, the Republic of Texas would sell off most
of the office space now used by the State of Texas so that what's
left would probably easily fit on one floor of the Capitol.
Members are still debating just how much government will be necessary,
said Richard McLaren, an ambassador at large, who is generally
considered the founder of the new republic. "There's a lot of
discussion as to just how little government we can get by with."
While members differ on the details, they do agree that there wouldn't
be many laws in the republic.
"It will all operate under common law," McLaren said. Juries in
the republic would have power not only to decide what the facts
are in a case, but what the law should be as well.
As Lowe explains it, there would be few specific laws and citizens
would be free to do almost anything, so long as they didn't harm
another person or another person's property.
There'd be no speed limits on highways and drivers wouldn't need
driver's licenses, he said. Little matters like car registration
would be optional.
McLaren acknowledges that a Texas driver on an international trip,
say to Oklahoma, would need some sort of credentials. "We will
issue certificates of competency indicating that a person does
know how to drive," he said.
A reckless driver who causes an accident could be in a lot of trouble,
however, and would have to pay restitution to anyone he injured.
Victims could sue him, but there wouldn't be any lawyers. The new
republic outlaws bar associations.
There wouldn't be any need for the dozens of boards and commissions
that now regulate everything from birthing centers to funeral homes
in Texas. "This is true personal freedom," Lowe said.
Banking and finance would also be drastically different. All money
would be based on gold and silver. "United States currency isn't
backed up by anything," Lowe said. "It's just specie. We would
have real money."
Lowe and many others in the movement also advocate adoption of
the old biblical practice of jubilee. Every 50 years all outstanding
debts would be forgiven.
Lending institutions might be reluctant to issue loans in the last
years of the 50-year jubilee cycle, Lowe admits, but "people would
now no longer be lifelong slaves to debt."
The group has announced it wants to establish 100 banks, and that
the new financial order will wipe out all farm and homeowner debt
within the next few years.
There also wouldn't be many taxes in the republic--no income
tax, no property tax, no sales tax. There probably wouldn't be
taxes on gasoline, beer or most other things produced within Texas.
"We'll have import and export taxes," Lowe said. Those are the
only taxes that will be legal. Since there won't be much bureaucracy,
there won't be as much need for taxes.
There would also be a certain amount of income from stamp collectors
around the world who would want to collect the Republic's colorful
postage stamps, he said.
If Lowe has his way, the state wouldn't even pay for education.
Schools would be operated strictly on a local basis or as home
schools, he said, adding: "We will privatize the state universities."
Sure, the cost of education would increase, but Lowe claims people
will have more income to spend on their children's educations.
The military would be fashioned after Switzerland's, with members
of every household keeping weapons on hand and joining in training
in case they're called out for national defense.
There wouldn't be much need for policemen, Lowe said, only a few
"peace officers, keeping the public peace." The group has re-formed
its own brand of the Texas Rangers. One of the few current offices
they recognize is that of the county sheriff.
When the republic sent notices to the state's 254 sheriffs that
they'd all be welcome to stay in office, as long as they'd swear
allegiance to the Republic, most sheriffs ignored the letter.
Nacogdoches County Sheriff Joe Evans was an exception.
"We had a little rebellion here in Nacogdoches about 10 years before
the Texas Revolution and the Republic of Texas," he said. A group
of locals got upset with Mexican rule, took over a local trading
center called the Old Stone Fort and declared the Fredonian Republic.
Their revolution was short-lived.
"Some friends and I promptly went out and declared a second Fredonian
rebellion and declared the second Fredonian Republic,"Evans said.
"It was all just a joke."
Not everything is a joking matter, however. The Republic of Texas
has set up its own district courts in Lubbock and Arlington. The
Lubbock court recently indicted a local justice of the peace after
he scheduled a trial of a republic member who refused to carry
a Texas driver's license.
"The common law courts of the Republic of Texas or any other similar
body have no legal existence, except in the minds of the partisans
of these movements,"Morales said. "No one is above the law."
So far the republic courts haven't tried to have anyone arrested.
To do so would probably be considered kidnapping, state officials
said.
What republic members have tried to do is ruin the financial affairs
of their opponents by filing liens, often during disputes over
land titles.
It was a dispute over land titles at his vineyard near Fort Davis
that led McLaren to come up with the idea of the republic in the
first place.
In 1994 he founded the Fort Davis Land Commission as a local
governmental entity to try to deal with his complaints. While looking
at historical records, he said, he discovered the Republic of Texas
never became a state.
Word of the movement began to spread, mainly through right-wing
talk radio shows. Lowe said he and some local friends who had been
associated with a militia group would often gather to talk politics
and listen to such shows on short-wave radio.
It was through those shows that he learned of a convention the
group held last year to re-establish the republic. Lowe went and
was appointed Secretary of Defense.
Like the original Republic of Texas, the new group often has
differences of opinion within its ranks. In 1835 the Republic's
provisional government impeached Gov. Henry Smith. Last March the new
republic's council impeached President John C. VanKirk, claiming that
he was issuing illegal executive orders. Lowe was appointed to replace
him in June.
When McLaren started filing liens in West Texas courts, a title
company took him to federal court. U.S. District Judge Lucius D.
Bunton III ordered him to spend 35 days in jail until he agreed
to stop filing the liens.
Morales sent a warning to county and district clerks around the
state to stop accepting bogus liens filed by republic advocates,
warning that the action was merely intended to cloud land titles
or ruin the financial records of opponents.
For now Lowe, McLaren and the rest of the council are spending
most of their time going around the state holding a series of meetings
designed not only to conduct the Republic's business but to give
citizens a chance to learn about the movement.
The council is scheduled to meet Oct. 26 at the Holiday Inn Hobby
in Houston at 10 a.m. Sheriff Evans will get a chance to meet the
group when they gather at Nacogdoches' Fredonia Hotel on Dec. 28.
A growing number of believers are starting to take other actions
to assert their independence. Chris Leonard of Wolfforth, who heads
up part of the republic's defense forces in the Lubbock area, said
he's "scraped all the tags off my car,"and vows: "I'm not going
to sign any tickets they try to give me."
So far, he said, the police haven't pulled him over.
"We're not trying to start a war here," Leonard said. "We're not
trying to start the Civil War again."Nevertheless, he insists he's
"willing to fight and die for Texas."
Certainly there has been fighting and dying before. The last time
Texas seriously tried to withdraw from the United States, back
in 1861, there were about 110,000 white males of military age in
the state, said historian Ralph Wooster, author of two books about
Texas in the Civil War. Of those, about 85,000 saw military service
and 20,000 died.
As Don Carleton, director of the Center of American History at
the University of Texas, puts it, "The Civil War put an end to
any question as to who was in the United States or not."
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"I think it's vital that we establish as a Congress
our commitment to public that report and to release
those documents so the country can judge whether or
not the man second in line to be president --- the
speaker of the House --- should be in that position."
Newt Gingrich, March 2, 1989
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