USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 2 > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
. .
385
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
powerful party in the country, excepting the united Democ- racy, had come to be known as the Republican party, which was considered by the southern States as strictly sectional in all that pertained to slavery and the territories. This party nominated for President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois (a Ken- tuckian by birth), and for Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. Hence in this singular issue was conducted the most exciting contest ever known in the Union. In Texas but two tickets were run, those representing Breckenridge and Bell. In this State during the summer, excitement and sectional antipathy were greatly stimulated by what was regarded as incendiary acts in the almost simultaneous burn- ing of several small towns, cotton gins, mills, etc. The most conspicuous of these fires occurred in Dallas, Texas, causing the people to organize for mutual protection and the detection, if possible, of the emissaries. It was charged and believed that the crimes were incited by emissaries, chiefly professed ministers of the gospel from the northern and west- ern States, by whom the negro population, in some localities, were excited to evil deeds, for which a few of them ( notably three in Dallas) were executed. Such was the condition of the public mind in this State when Mr. Lincoln was elected president. Up to that time he was little known out of his own State, and necessarily had to bear whatever of opprobrium was brought upon his party by its extreme or abolition wing - a judgment which time, freedom from excitment, and Mr. Lin- coln's character as illustrated by his official acts, would reverse.
Popular excitement became intense, public meetings were rapidly held throughout the country, in which it was substan- tiatly held, by a great majority of the people, notwithstand- ing the fact that Mr. Lincoln had been elected by a decided minority of the Union, that Texas had but the alternative of withdrawing from the Union or awaiting the destruction of her domestic institutions by direct and indirect assaults upon them. This was the popular impression at the time. Gov-
25
386
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
ernor Houston sought by every legitimate means within his power to stay this tide and preserve the Union.
In his message of January 13, 1860, already quoted, he said :
" I cannot refrain from congratulating the legislature upon the triumph of conservatism as seen in the many evidences of the determination of the masses of the people of the north to abide by the constitution and the Union, and to put down the fanatical efforts of misguided abolitionists, who would endan- ger the safety of the Union to advance their vapid schemes. That their efforts will so operate upon the impending struggle as to stay the hand of slavery agitators, is to be hoped. This outspeaking of the people should be received in our midst as the evidence, that, notwithstanding the ravages of deluded zealots, or the impious threats of fanatical disunionists, the love of our common country still burns with the fire of the olden times in the hearts of the American people. Nowhere does that fire burn with more fervor than in the hearts of the con- servative people of Texas. Satisfied that the men whom they elected at the ballot box to represent them in Congress will bear their rights safely through the present crisis, they feel no uneasiness as to the result. Texas will maintain the constitu- tion and stand by the Union. It is all that can save us as a nation. Destroy it and anarchy awaits us."
So wrote Governor Houston January 13th, 1860, but this was ten months before the election of Mr. Lincoln as President.
CHAPTER XXXV.
SECESSION ACCOMPLISHED.
In a number of the southern States conventions were held by order of the constituted authorities, and during December, 1860, and January, 1861, six of the southern States formally seceded from the Union and provided for an assemblage of delegates at Montgomery, Alabama, for the formation of a new Confederate Union. Governor Houston declined to join in a call for such a convention in Texas, but issued a procla- mation convening the legislature on the 21st of January, 1861. A call was then issued, signed by the lieutenant-gov- ernor, numerous judicial officers, other public functionaries, and many distinguished citizens, requesting the people in all the legislative counties and districts to assemble on the 5th of January to elect delegates to a plenary convention, to assem- ble in Austin on the 28th of January (the basis of represen- tation being two delegates for every member of the House of Representatives), clothed with authority to determine the future course of Texas on the grave question then before the country.
When the legislature met, in called session on the 21st of January, Governor Houston transmitted a message, detailing the condition of the State, in regard to its frontier, financial, and Federal relations, reciting, as has been already shown, the calling into service of Captain Dalrymple and the com- mand of five companies under Col. M. T. Johnson; also other companies under Captains A. B. Burleson and E. W. Rogers, which, on reaching the frontier, were placed under command of Col. W. C. Dalrymple, aide-de-camp of the
(387 )
388
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Governor. Johnson's men, as has been stated, were dis- banded after a short campaign, but those last mentioned were in service until the frontier posts of the United States were surrendered to the troops of Texas.
In this message Governor Houston said: " The Executive feels as deeply as any of your Honorable Body the necessity of such action on the part of the slave-holding States as to secure to the fullest extent every right they possess. Self- preservation, if not a manly love of liberty, inspired by our past history, prompts this determination.
" But he cannot feel that these dictate hasty and uncon- certed action, nor can he reconcile to his mind the idea that our safety demands an immediate separation from the govern- ment, ere we have stated our grievances or demanded redress. A high resolve to maintain our constitutional rights, and, failing to obtain them, to risk the perils of revolution, even as our fathers risked it, should, in my opinion, actuate every citizen of Texas ; but we should remember that we owe duties and obligations to States having rights in common with us ; and whose institutions are the same as ours.
" No aggression can come upon us which will not be visited upon them; and, whatever our action may be, it should be of that character which will bear us blameless to posterity, should the step be fatal to the interests of those States.
" While deploring the election of Messrs. Lincoln and Hamlin, the Executive yet has seen in it no cause for the immediate and separate secession of Texas. Believing, how- ever, that the time had come when the southern States should co-operate and counsel together to devise means for the maintenance of their constitutional rights and, to demand redress for the grievances they have been suffering at the hands of many of the northern States, he has directed his efforts to that end. Believing that a convention of the character contemplated by the joint resolution of February 16th, 1858, should be held, and desiring that the people of
389
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Texas should be represented in the same, and have full opportunity to elect delegates reflecting their will, he ordered an election to be held for that purpose on the first Monday in February next. Although since that time four of the southern States have declared themselves no longer members of the Union, yet he confidently looks forward to the assemblage of such a body.
" A majority of the southern States have as yet taken no action, and the efforts of our brethren of the border are now directed towards securing unity of the entire south.
" The interests of Texas are closely identified with the remaining States; and if, by joining her counsels with theirs, such assurances can be obtained of a determination on the part of the northern States to regard our constitutional rights as will induce the States which have declared themselves out of the Union, to rescind their action, the end attained will silence whatever reproaches the rash and inconsiderate may heap upon us. Texas, although identified by her institutions with the States which have declared themselves out of the Union, cannot forget her relation to the border States. Pressed for years by the whole weight of abolition influence, these States have stood as barriers against its approach. Those who ask Texas to desert them now should remember that in our days of gloom, when doubt hung over the fortunes of our little army, and the cry for help went out, while some who seek to induce us to follow their precipitous lead looked coldly on us, these men sent men and money to our aid. Their best blood was shed here in our defense and, if we are to be influenced by considerations other than our own safety, the fact that these States still seem determined to maintain their ground and fight the battle of the Constitution within the Union, should have equal weight with us as those States which have no higher claim upon us, and, without cause on our part, have sundered the ties which made us one.
" Whatever may be the course of Texas the ambition of her
39 0
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
people should be that she should take no step except after calm deliberation. A past history in which wisdom and cour- age and patriotism, united to found a Republic and a State, is in our keeping. Let the record of no rash action blur its pages.
" If, after passing through two revolutions, another is upon us, let the same prudence mark its course as when we merged from an independent nation into one of the States of the Union. Holding ourselves above the influences which appeal to our passions and our prejudices, if we must be masters of our own destiny, let us act like men, who feel all the respon- sibilities of the position they assume, and are ready to answer to the civilized world, to God, and to posterity. The time has come when, in my opinion, it is necessary to invoke the sovereign will for the solution of this question affecting our relations with the Federal government. The people, as the source of all power, can alone declare the course that Texas shall pursue, and, in the opinion of the Executive, they demand that the legislature shall provide a legal means by which they shall express their will, as free men at the ballot- box. They have stood aloof from revolutionary schemes, and now await the action of your honorable body, that they may, in a legitimate manner, speak through the ballot-box. As one of the special objects for which you were convened, the Executive would press this upon your attention, and would urge that such action be as prompt as possible.
* * * * * *
" Be their voice as it may, we shall be united ; and whether our future be prosperous or gloomy, a common faith and hope will actuate us.
* * *
" We have gone through one revolution in Texas a united people. We can be united again, and will be, if the people are intrusted with the control of their destinies."
The Secession Convention assembled at Austin, on the 28th of January, 1861, and found the legislature in session.
391
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Oran M. Roberts, one of the judges of the Supreme Court, was elected its president. The necessary committees were appointed and the convention proceeded with all due solem- nity to the consideration of the grave question whose consideration had brought them together. The legislature promptly passed an act, recognizing it as a plenary body, representing the sovereignty of the people of Texas. On February 1st it passed an ordinance dissolving the relations of the State of Texas to the Federal government, and declar- ing that Texas resumed her position as an independent gov- ernment. Following this step, - feeling that the ordinance did not fully express the grounds for this action, on motion duly adopted a committee of five was appointed to pre- pare a declaration of causes which impelled the action of Texas. That committee consisted of John Henry Brown of Bell, as chairman, Pryor Lea of Goliad, Malcolm D. Gra- ham of Rusk, George Flournoy of Travis, and A. P. Wiley of Walker. The committee on the 2d day of February reported and the convention enthusiastically adopted the following :
A DECLARATION OF THE CAUSES WHICH IMPEL THE STATE OF TEXAS TO SECEDE FROM THE FEDERAL UNION.
The Government of the United States, by certain Joint Resolutions, bearing date on the first day of March, in the year A. D. 1845, proposed to the Republic of Texas, then a FREE, SOVEREIGN and INDEPENDENT NATION, the annexation of the latter to the former as one of the co-equal States thereof.
The people of Texas, by deputies in convention assembled, on the fourth day of July of the same year, assented to and accepted said proposals, and formed a constitution for the proposed State, upon which, on the twenty-ninth day of De-
392
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
cember, of the same year, said State was formally received into the confederated Union.
Texas abandoned her separate national existence and con- sented to become one of the confederated States, to promote her welfare, insure domestic tranquility and secure more sub- stantially the blessings of liberty and peace to her people. She was received into the confederacy, with her own consti- tution, under the guarantees of the Federal constitution and the compact of annexation, that she should enjoy these blessings. She was received as a commonwealth, holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery - the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits - a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should continue to exist in all future time. Her institutions and geographical position established the strongest ties between her and the other slaveholding States of the Confederacy. These ties have been strengthened by the association. But what has been the course of the govern- ment of the United States, and of the people and authorities of the non-slaveholding States, since our connection with them?
The controlling majority of the Federal Government, under various pretenses and disguises, has so administered the same as to exclude the citizens of the southern States, unless under odious and unconstitutional restrictions, from all the immense territory owned in common by all the States, on the Pacific ocean, for the avowed purpose of acquiring sufficient power in the common government, to use it as a means of destroy- ing the institutions of Texas and her sister slaveholding States.
By the disloyalty of the northern States and their citizens, and the imbecility of the Federal Government, infamous com- binations of incendiaries and outlaws have been permitted in those States and the common territory of Kansas, to trample
-
-
393
-
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
upon the Federal laws, to war upon the lives and property of southern citizens in that territory, and, finally, by violence and mob law, to usurp the possession of the same, as ex- clusively the property of the northern States.
The Federal Government, while but partially under the control of these our unnatural and sectional enemies, has, for years, almost entirely failed to protect the lives and property of the people of Texas against the Indian savages on our bor- ders; and, more recently, against the murderous forays of banditti from the neighboring territory of Mexico, and when our State Government has expended large amounts for such purposes, the Federal Government has refused re-imbursement therefor - thus rendering our condition more insecure and harassing than it was during the existence of the Republic of Texas.
These and other wrongs we have patiently borne, in the vain hope that a returning sense of justice and humanity would induce a different course of administration.
When we advert to the course of individual non-slavehold- ing States and that of a majority of their citizens, our grievances assume far greater magnitude.
The States of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecti- cut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa, by solemn legislative enactments, have deliberately, directly, or indirectly, violated the third clause of the second section of the fourth article of the Federal constitution, and laws passed in pursuance thereof; thereby annulling a material provision of the com- pact, designed by its framers to perpetuate amity between the members of the Confederacy, and to secure the rights of the slaveholding States in their domestic institutions - a pro- vision founded in justice and wisdom, and without the en- forcement of which the compact fails to accomplish the object of its creation. Some of those States have imposed high fines and degrading penalties upon any of their citizens or
394
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
officers who may carry out in good faith that provision of the compact, or the Federal laws enacted in accordance therewith.
In all of the non-slaveholding States, in violation of that good faith and comity which should exist even between entirely distinct nations, the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party, now strong enough in numbers to control the affairs of each of those States, based upon the unnatural feeling of hostility to these southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery -- proclaiming the debasing doctrine of the equality of men, irrespective of race or color -- a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of the divine law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy - the recognition of political equality between the white and negro races - and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States.
For years past this abolition organization has been actively sowing the seeds of discord through the Union, and has ren- dered the Federal Congress the arena for spreading firebrands and hatred between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States.
By consolidating their strength, they have placed the slaveholding States in a hopeless minority in the Federal Congress and rendered representation of no avail in protect- ing southern rights against their exactions and encroach- ments.
They have proclaimed, and at the ballot box sustained, the revolutionary doctrine that there is a " higher law " than the constitution and laws of our Federal Union, and virtually, that they will disregard their oaths and trample upon our rights.
They have, for years past, encouraged and sustained law- less organizations to steal our slaves and prevent their recap-
395
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
ture, and have repeatedly murdered southern citizens while lawfully seeking their rendition.
They have invaded southern soil and murdered unoffending citizens, and through the press, their leading men and a fanatical pulpit, have bestowed praise upon the actors and assassins in these crimes - while the Governors of several of their States have refused to deliver parties implicated and indicted for participation in such offenses, upon the legal demands of the States aggrieved.
They have, through the mails and hired emissaries, sent seditious pamphlets and papers among us to stir up servile insurrection and bring blood and carnage to our firesides.
They have sent hired emissaries among us to burn our towns and distribute arms and poison to our slaves, for the same purpose.
They have impoverished the slaveholding States by unequal and partial legislation, thereby enriching themselves by drain- ing our substance.
They have refused to vote appropriations for protecting Texas against ruthless savages, for the sole reason that she is a slaveholding State.
And, finally, by the combined sectional vote of the seven- teen non-slaveholding States, they have elected as President and Vice-President of the whole Confederacy, two men whose chief claims to such high positions, are their approval of these long continued wrongs, and their pledge to continue them to the final consummation of these schemes for the ruin of the slaveholding States.
In view of these and many other facts, it is meet that our views should be distinctly proclaimed.
We hold, as undeniable truths, that the governments of the various States, and of the Confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their pos- terity ; that the African race had no agency in their establish-
396
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
ment ; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tol- erable :
That, in this free government, ALL WHITE MEN ARE, AND OF RIGHT OUGHT TO BE, ENTITLED TO EQUAL CIVIL AND POLIT- ICAL RIGHTS; that the servitude of the African race, as exist- ing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations ; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advanced by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both, and desolation upon the fifteen slave- holding States :
By the secession of six of the slaveholding States, and the certainty that others will speedily do likewise, Texas has no alternative but to remain in isolated connection with the north, or unite her destinies with the south.
For these and other reasons - solemnly asserting that the Federal constitution has been violated and virtually abrogated by the several States named ; seeing that the Federal govern- ment is now passing under the control of our sectional ene- mies, to be diverted from the exalted objects of its creation, to those of oppression and wrong; and realizing that our State can no longer look for protection, but to God and her own sons: We, the delegates of the people of Texas, in convention assembled, have passed an ordinance dissolving all political connection with the government of the United States of America, and the people thereof - and confidently appeal to the intelligence and patriotism of the freemen of Texas to ratify the same at the ballot-box, on the 23rd day of the present month.
Adopted in convention, on the second day of February, in
397
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- one, and of the independence of Texas the twenty-fifth.
Edwin Waller,
L. A. Abercrombie,
Lewis W. Moore,
W. A. Allen,
Wm. McCraven,
Jas. M. Anderson,
Wm. McIntosh,
T. S. Anderson,
Gilchrist Mckay, Thos. M. McCraw,
Jas. R. Armstrong,
Richard L. Askew,
Wm. Goodloe Miller,
Albert N. Mills,
W. S. J. Adams, Wm. C. Batte, S. W. Beasley, John Box,
Thos. Moore,
Thos. C. Moore,
Charles de Montel,
H. Newton Durditt, Jas. M. Burroughs, John I. Burton, S. E. Black, W. T. Blythe, Amzi Bradshaw,
B. F. Moss, John Muller, Thos. J. Nash,
A. Nauendorf,
T. C. Neel,
Allison Nelson,
James F. Newsom,
N. B. Charlton,
Geo. W. Chilton,
Isham Chisum, Wm. Clark, Jr.,
J. A. Clayton,
Chas. L. Cleveland,
A. G. Clopton,
Richard Coke, James E. Cook,
Jno. W. Dancy,
A. H. Davidson, C. Deen, Thos. J. Devine, Thos. G. Davenport,
R. Weakley Brahan, A. S. Broaddus, John Henry Brown, Robert C. Campbell, Lewis F. Casey, Wm. Chambers, T. J. Chambers,
John Green Chambers, John Littleton, M. F. Locke, Oliver Lofton,
Thos. S. Lubbock, P. N. Luckett, Henry A. Maltby, Jesse Marshall,
O. M. ROBERTS, President, James M. Maxey,
398
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Jas. J. Diamond,
William Diamond, Jno. Donelson, Jos. H. Durham, Edward Dougherty, H. H. Edwards, Elbert Early, Jno. N. Fall,
Malcom D. Graham, Peter W. Gray, Jno. A. Green, Jno. Gregg, Wm. P. Hardeman,
Jno. R. Hayes, Philemon T. Herbert,
A. W. O. Hicks,
Drury Field,
Thos. B. J. Hill,
Jno. H. Feeney,
Alfred M. Hobby,
Geo. Flournoy,
Joseph L. Hogg,
Spencer Ford,
J. J. Holt,
Jno. S. Ford,
W. M. Neyland,
Thos. C. Frost,
E. B. Nichols,
Amos. P. Galloway.
A. J. Nicholson,
Chas. Ganahl,
E. P. Nicholson,
Charles Stewart,
James M. Norris,
F. S. Stockdale,
Alfred T. Obenchain,
Wm. H. Stewart,
W. B. Ochiltree,
Pleasant Taylor,
W. S. Oldham,
B. F. Terry,
R. J. Palmer,
Nathaniel Terry,
W. M. Payne,
James Hooker,
W. K. Payne,
Edward R. Hord,
William M. Peck,
Russell Howard,
W. R. Poag,
A. Clark Hoyl.
Alexandria Pope,
Thos. P. Hughes,
David Y. Portis,
J. W. Hutcheson, Jno. Ireland,
Walter F. Preston,
Thos. J. Jennings,
F. P. Price,
F. Jones,
A. T. Rainey,
W. C. Kelly,
John H. Reagan,
T. Koester,
C. M. Lesueur,
Robt. Graham,
C. Rector,
P. G. Rhome,
E. S. C. Robertson,
D. M. Prendergast,
399
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
J. C. Bobertson,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.