The Republic of Texas Says They Were Never a Part of the US to Begin With

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The Republic of Texas Says They Were Never a Part of the US to Begin With

And they're fighting back with some angry letters.

Photo of the Alamo courtesy of Wikicommons

The second-largest state in the US was officially welcomed into the Union in 1845 under the eye of President James Polk, but the Republic of Texas is calling bullshit. Today, the New York Times reported on the group, who claims that Texas was never legally integrated into the US and is, in fact, a separate nation. In 1997, the Republic abducted a West Texas couple and held them hostage under the leadership of former group-head Richard L. McLaren. There was a week-long standoff with police, resulting in one death, but these days the Republic has been trying to assert their independence is more innocuous ways.

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The Republic now relies mostly on firmly-worded letters to government members demanding they stand trial for crimes against their sovereign Texas nation. The present-day Republic is made up of retirees, chiropractors, and construction workers, and when they're not penning letters to judges and governors, they're holding eight-hour congressional sessions in buffets and minting their own gold coins.

The Republic seems harmless these days, but the Times article reports that the FBI raided a meeting last month after the group issued a subpoenia to a lawyer and a judge to stand trial in their court for foreclosing on a member of the Republic's house.

The raid didn't result in any arrests, but it did rally the Republic of Texas to step up their efforts and start churning out even more letters—one of which demanded $3 million in gold from the sheriff's lead investigator for the raid's "trespass upon liberty."

Margaret Mead famously said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world." In this case, there are some doubts.

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