The Consultation of 1835 was a provisional assembly convened at San Felipe de Austin from November 3 to 14, 1835, in the midst of a constitutional breakdown in Mexico. It represented a coordinated attempt by Texan communities to establish a political authority and to define their stance toward the Mexican nation.
The assembly began just weeks after the first clashes between Anglo-Texan settlers and Mexican troops, which took place at Gonzales and Goliad in October 1835. It also coincided with the efforts by Tejano leaders — including Juan Seguin, Plácido Benavides, Manuel Leal, and Salvador Flores — to raise volunteer companies in San Antonio, Victoria, and Nacogdoches in support of the federalist cause against the centralist regime that had come to power in Mexico.
Stephen F. Austin, the founder of the largest Anglo-American colony in Texas and a leading politician among the settlers, played a role in organizing the Consultation but did not attend. Instead, Austin chose to remain in San Antonio, where he was commanding American militia then sieging the town alongside Tejano federalist troops under Juan Seguín.
The first delegates began arriving in San Felipe (present-day Austin County, west of Houston) in October and reached a quorum in early November. The Consultation thus began midway through the two-month siege of San Antonio, in an atmosphere charged with military urgency, political uncertainty, and revolutionary passions.
The Consultation created a provisional government that endured through the winter of 1835–1836. It elected a Provisional Governor, Henry Smith, and a General Council made up of one member from each municipality of the state. The Consultation also appointed Sam Houston as a major general and the highest-ranking officer of the Texian Army, also called the Revolutionary Army and the Army of the People.
These nascent institutions—General Council, Provisional Governor, and Revolutionary Army—marked the beginning of a transition from Mexican sovereignty to Texan independence. Together they became the revolutionary political authority that claimed to govern Texas until the formation of the Republic of Texas in March 1836.
However, the provisional government suffered from serious internal divisions, limited public support and legitimacy, and lack of resources. This contributed to disunity and disorganization among the revolutionary troops.
From January to February 1836, the provisional government largely dispersed and ceased to function as Santa Anna’s army gathered in northern Mexico and marched into Texas. Militarily, however, the revolutionary struggle continued, with fighting at the Alamo marking a turning point in the battle for independence and the eventual Texan victory over the Mexican Army.
Background
The origins of the Consultation lay in the breakdown of Mexico’s constitutional order. The Constitution of 1824 had established a federal system in which states enjoyed broad autonomy, each with its own legislature and militia. Anglo-American colonists in Texas, together with Tejano leaders, had looked to that framework when they petitioned for recognition of Texas as a separate state within the Mexican federation. The Conventions of 1832 and 1833 drafted petitions and even a proposed state constitution, but failed to secure approval. Stephen F. Austin, sent to Mexico City to present the demands, was imprisoned in 1834 after expressing support for the creation of a separate Texan state government.
By 1835 Santa Anna had decisively shifted from federalism to centralism. He dissolved state legislatures, curtailed local autonomy, and ordered the disarming of state militias. Resistance flared across Mexico, most dramatically in Zacatecas, where the state militia rose against centralist troops and was bloodily suppressed. For Texians, this episode illustrated both the danger of military force from Mexico City and the reality that provincial self-government was no longer secure within the national framework.
Local clashes in Texas added urgency. In June 1835 William B. Travis and other settlers forced the surrender of the Mexican commander at Anahuac. In October, Texan militia resisted the attempt of Mexican troops to seize a cannon at Gonzales, the opening skirmish of what became the Texas Revolution. The combination of Mexican constitutional collapse and local armed conflict led to calls for an assembly to discuss the way forward.
The Consultation of 1835
Delegates and Factions
Fifty-eight delegates gathered at San Felipe. Representation came from the Anglo municipalities of east and central Texas, but also included Tejano leaders José Antonio Navarro and José Francisco Ruiz, and Lorenzo de Zavala, a prominent Mexican federalist who had arrived in Texas as a political exile. Their participation broadened the assembly beyond the American settlers, though these constituted the majority.
Delegates divided into two major factions. The federalist party, aligned with Austin, insisted that Texas should continue to profess loyalty to Mexico so long as the federal Constitution of 1824 remained a touchstone. They wanted to make common cause with other Mexican states that were in rebellion against the centralist regime—not alienate them and provoke a nationalist Mexican response by declaring independence.
The other faction, the separatists, led by men like William H. Wharton and Henry Smith, argued that Santa Anna’s centralism had permanently destroyed the federal system and that Texans must prepare openly for independence. The outcome was a compromise: the Consultation avoided an outright declaration of independence but created a provisional government with powers that, in practice, amounted to sovereign authority.
Despite their differing political outlooks, the two factions were united in their resistance to Santa Anna and they fought side-by-side before and after the Consultation. At the later Battle of the Alamo, the defenders included many men supportive of Texan independence, yet they flew the Mexican flag emblazoned with the numbers “1824,” symbolizing their opposition to centralism and the abrogation of the Mexican Constitution of 1824.
Leadership Appointments
Austin preferred Zavala to lead the Consultation, but the delegates instead chose Branch T. Archer. He belonged to the more militant faction, but he was seen as somebody who would maintain procedural integrity. The assembly chose Henry Smith as governor of the provisional authority, a choice that gave executive power to a staunch independence supporter.
For diplomacy, the Consultation appointed Stephen F. Austin, Archer, and Wharton as commissioners to the United States to solicit volunteers, loans, and U.S. diplomatic recognition. This step—authorizing negotiations with a foreign power—revealed the sovereign ambitions of the new government even as it claimed loyalty to Mexico.
The inclusion of Zavala, Navarro, and Ruiz was especially significant. Zavala’s defection from Santa Anna’s camp lent international weight, while Navarro and Ruiz demonstrated Tejano participation. The presence of these leaders countered perceptions that the revolt was exclusively Anglo in origin.
Military command was entrusted to Sam Houston, newly arrived in Texas but well-known nationally as a former governor of Tennessee. His appointment marked the first step toward centralized military authority, though neither the Provisional Government nor its successor, the Republic of Texas, ever succeeded in professionalizing the Texan forces and centralizing control, until long after the war was over.
Structure of the Provisional Government
The Consultation created a governor and a General Council to act as executive and legislative branches, respectively. Together they were to form the civil government of Texas until a more permanent arrangement could be made. The assembly adjourned on November 14, having established the framework of what contemporaries called the provisional government, and what historians have come to regard as the first revolutionary regime in Texas.
The General Council
Composition and Powers
The General Council became the functioning legislative body after the Consultation adjourned. Each municipality was entitled to a representative, linking the Council’s legitimacy to established local institutions. The Council was empowered to pass ordinances, appropriate funds, raise troops, and advise or restrain the governor.
In practice, it became the most visible organ of the provisional government. While Smith claimed broad executive authority, the Council met regularly, issued public documents, and acted as the deliberative forum through which Texian municipalities remained connected to the revolutionary government.
Conflicts with the Governor
From the outset, conflict defined the relationship between Governor Smith and the Council. Smith pressed for bold measures and interpreted his office expansively. The Council, with members drawn from both moderate and militant factions, attempted to limit him. Disputes over military appointments, fiscal policy, and executive authority escalated into open rupture.
By early 1836 Smith attempted to dissolve the Council, while the Council declared him removed from office. Texas thus entered 1836 with two rival authorities, each claiming to embody the provisional regime. This institutional paralysis was only resolved when the Convention of 1836 met in March, declared independence, and created the Republic of Texas.
Sovereignty and Legitimacy
Neither the Consultation nor the General Council explicitly declared Texas sovereign during this period. Both continued to profess loyalty to the Mexican Constitution of 1824, styling themselves as provisional authorities until federalism could be restored. Their actions were framed as those of a sovereign Mexican state within a confederal Mexican system.
If the Mexican national authorities had dealt with the Provisional Government diplomatically, they might have restored peace and avoided a military disaster. But Santa Anna was determined to crush his opponents militarily, whether they were federalists in Zacatecas or separatists in Texas. He gathered his army in northern Mexico in January 1836 and launched a sweeping invasion of Texas in February. His reliance on military solutions rather than political ones, and his brutal treatment of captured Americans radicalized the Texians and solidified support for independence, even in the face of seeming impossible military odds.
Revolutionary Authority in Practice
Diplomacy
The commissioners to the United States—Austin, Archer, and Wharton—traveled east to secure loans, arms, and volunteers. Their mission underscored the Consultation’s recognition that Texas could not succeed without external support.
Santa Anna’s invasion galvanized support for the Texan cause within the United States. Though the U.S. government itself remained neutral, hundreds of American volunteers took up arms and traveled in Texas in support of the American colonists. Additionally, American merchants and banks in New Orleans played a key role in bankrolling the revolution and supplying the revolutionary army.
Military Affairs
Although Houston’s appointment as commander-in-chief established the principle of centralized military authority, most Texian fighters remained under the command of locally chosen officers. Volunteer companies continued to operate semi-independently during the Siege of Béxar, which concluded in December 1835 with the Texian capture of San Antonio. The victory enhanced the credibility of the revolutionary regime, even as its internal conflicts deepened. Fresh volunteers arrived from the United States throughout early 1836, most famously the Tennessee riflemen led by frontiersman Davy Crockett.
These men placed themselves in the service of the Texian Army but in reality there was no single “Texian Army,” institutionally speaking—there were no uniforms, few officers, no pay, no equipment, and no agreed plan for how to wage the war.
For several months, there wasn’t even a single recognized commander-in-chief. Though Houston had been appointed to this role, the Provisional Government undermined him by dispatching him to East Texas on a mission to negotiate a treaty of neutrality with the Cherokee, while also appointing new commanders for a mission to invade Matamoros, Mexico.
Legislative-Executive Struggles
The General Council issued ordinances and attempted to direct the war effort, but Governor Smith refused to recognize many of its acts. The resulting paralysis left Texian forces short of funds and coordination. Nevertheless, the very existence of a legislature and governor marked a step beyond the ad hoc committees and militias of earlier years.
From Revolution to Republic
The provisional authority created by the Consultation of 1835 was brief and unstable, but it represented a decisive shift. For the first time, Texans had a central authority empowered to govern, legislate, conduct diplomacy, and commission an army.
By early 1836, the settlers’ professions of loyalty to Mexico could no longer be sustained. Santa Anna advanced into Texas with a large army, and the Texan separatists clamored for a definitive break. The moderates were no longer in control—or no longer feeling so moderate. The Convention of 1836, meeting at Washington-on-the-Brazos in March—just as the Battle of the Alamo reached its dramatic climax—declared independence and established the Republic of Texas with a permanent constitution.