The Republic of Texas
The latest ultraright
rumbling comes from remote West Texas, where a militia-allied group has
proclaimed itself the lawful government of the independent Republic of Texas.
ROT members have declared war on both the federal government and the state of
Texas, which they view as illegitimate "occupiers" of their nation. An armed
ROT faction made headlines on April 27 by kidnapping two people and holding
them on the grounds of the ROT "embassy," an attached trailer and shed outside
the town of Ft. Davis (population 1,200). Police surrounded the compound and
avoided violence by exchanging a jailed ROT member for the hostages.
The ROT
is the brainchild of Richard McLaren, 43, a Missouri-born automobile-manual
author and insurance salesman. McLaren, a vociferous opponent of all taxation,
declared in 1995 his unique finding that the United States has never legally
annexed Texas. He says that the state, which won its independence from Mexico
in 1836, joined the union illegally in 1845. Under McLaren's reading of
international law, a treaty must be struck between sovereign nations prior to
annexation. No such Texas/U.S. treaty was passed, nor does it appear that any
such treaty could have passed in 1845. Treaties require a two-thirds
vote of the U.S. Senate, and a bare majority of senators approved the state's
admission into the union.
McLaren maintains that because Texas was illegally annexed,
Texans are not U.S. citizens, have no obligation to obey federal laws, and are
owed war reparations by the federal government. In December 1995, he and 50
other radical anti-tax activists, mainly from West Texas, declared their
intention to re-establish the usurped authority of the ROT.
Historians dismiss McLaren's
argument: 1) His citation of the international law of annexation is vague. 2)
If his international-law objection is valid, why didn't anti-slavery senators
who opposed admission of another slaveholding state raise it at the time? 3) A
majority of Texans voted in favor of annexation in an 1845 plebiscite. 4) And
even if the 1845 annexation was illegal, the argument is moot: Texas and the
other secessionist states rejoined the union after their defeat in the Civil
War.
According
to the liberal watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of armed
militias has grown since the Oklahoma City bombing two years ago, and now
exceeds 380. ROT members employ rhetoric similar to that of the militias,
condemning taxation and lax protection of property rights.
And they employ similar tactics. Like the
Freemen, the Montana militia group that held federal authorities at bay for 81
days, the ROT has filed scores of liens on property owned by their foes, a
tactic members call "paper warfare." A blizzard of liens has fallen on state
property, which the ROT considers illegally confiscated. Other bogus liens have
been filed across the state on private property targeted at random. By clogging
state courts and tying up real-estate sales, the ROT says it hopes to garner
political attention. Like their soul mates in Montana, ROT members have also
issued $3 million worth of bad checks, purchasing weapons, computers, and
provisions.
As ROT
ambassador, McLaren issues passports. He also campaigns for United Nations
recognition of his "republic," believing that the United States scuttled U.N.
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's campaign for a second term last year
because he was sympathetic to the ROT.
Internal dissension has reduced the group's numbers in
recent months. From the start, the sect purged members, including its founding
president, who failed to toe a militant line. In March, the ROT split into two
factions--the smaller one, led by McLaren, advocated an alignment with militias
and plotted a violent strategy to remove the federal government from Texas, the
other eschewed violence and dissociated itself from McLaren. On its Web site, the
nonviolent faction says McLaren has "gone completely off the deep end."
McLaren's
confrontation with law enforcement has been months in the making. After a judge
ordered him to cease filing bogus liens, he continued and was found in contempt
of court. Wanted on charges of burglary, McLaren holed up in Ft. Davis, where
armed guards kept round-the-clock watch. Because McLaren's neighbors spotted
armed men arriving in trucks with Idaho license plates, it is believed that
some of the 12 men and women currently residing in the "embassy" may belong to
other rightist groups.
The standoff was sparked April 27 when police
arrested two ROT members--one because he refused to display license plates on
his vehicle. McLaren's followers retaliated by taking as hostages two neighbors
who had long clamored for the leader's arrest. After the hostage exchange,
talks continued but have been unsuccessful, while McLaren's rhetoric has grown
increasingly apocalyptic.
Fear of repeating the deadly
clash between federal agents and Branch Davidian cult members has deterred
police from raiding the compound. Also, police take seriously McLaren's claim
that he coordinated with militias throughout Texas, who will react violently in
response to a police assault. On Wednesday, April 30, police in Pecos, 80 miles
from Ft. Davis, arrested seven men who were carrying explosives and guns and
admitted they were headed to join McLaren.
Secessionists in Hawaii and
Alaska argue that the federal government failed to consult natives before
annexing these territories. The Alaska movement, like the Texas one, stems from
a libertarian aversion to the federal government. The Hawaiians hope to restore
the monarchy ousted by U.S. forces in 1893. Hawaiians voted in favor of
secession in a nonbinding referendum last year, but few expect the movement to
succeed.
