The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 18, July 1914 - April, 1915 Page: 69
438 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Beginnings of Secession Movement in Texas
tain the constitution and stand by the Union. It is all that can
save us as a nation. Destroy it and anarchy awaits us.58
7. The Legislature on the South Carolina Resolutions
Soon after this Houston received the South Carolina resolutions
on federal relations. These expressed the sentiment of South
Carolina on the loss of Kansas to slavery and on the Virginia raid
by John Brown. In the preamble the right of secession was
affirmed. The resolutions recommended immediate and united
action by the Southern states, and requested them to appoint
deputies and adopt measures to promote a Southern convention.59
On the receipt of these resolutions, Governor Houston sent them,
together with a special message, to the legislature. The whole
message was devoted to the exposure of the fallacy of the doctrines
of nullification and secession. He maintained that the action
of South Carolina was without just cause; that even if there were
no constitutional objections to the course suggested by the reso-
lutions, no advantages could be gained by the Southern states
in seceding from the Union; that the same evils would remain,
and there would be no federal government, able and willing, to
maintain the rights of the state; that the ungenerous assaults by
the North upon slavery would exist from like passions and like
feelings under any form of government; that the only hope for
the country was in the constitution and the Union; and he made
a passionate plea for these against the fanatics in the North and the
scheming, designing, and misguided politicians in the South. He
recommended that resolutions be adopted dissenting from the as-
sertion of the abstract right of secession and refusing to send
delegates for any existing cause, and finally urged upon all the
people, North and South, the necessity of cultivating brotherly
feeling, observing justice and attending to their own affairs.60
Although no final action was taken by the legislature upon the
South Carolina resolutions and the governor's recommendations,
majority and minority reports were submitted by the committees
to which they ha.d been referred. These reports show that the leg-
"IbZid. 65.
"Journal of the Senate, 1859-60, 342.
Iolbid., 1859-60, 354.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 18, July 1914 - April, 1915, periodical, 1915; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101064/m1/75/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.