The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 171
672 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Under the Secessionists
will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian na-
tions; while the destruction of the existing relations between the
two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring
inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen
slaveholding States."10
The convention adjourned on February 4 to await the vote.
On election day the ordinance passed by an impressive margin,
46,129 to 14,697, and the convention reassembled on March 2 to
announce the returns and to pass an ordinance uniting Texas to
the newly-formed Confederate States of America.1"
In almost every town across the state Texans cheered and
danced in the streets; militia units paraded noisily; cannon
boomed. The sovereign state of Texas was once again free of
tyranny and everywhere there was a feeling of buoyant optimism.
Few thought violence would come. The Republicans surely would
not risk a fight with the "blood-and-thunder men of the South."
Most felt that Northerners were cowards anyway; and one man
suggested facetiously that Southerners should "set out an immense
trotline, bait the fish hooks with postage stamps, and 'catch all
the Yankees.' "12 To Texans that stormy winter, war was distant,
war was unreal.
While citizens were rejoicing, the reassembled convention was
busily setting up the political machinery for Confederate Texas.
On March 14, the delegates adopted an ordinance maintaining
the present state government whose officials, to stay in office, must
declare their allegiance to the Confederacy.'" Governor Houston
who believed secession was treason refused to take the oath. A
Presbyterian minister, present at the convention, recalled that
"the officer of the gathering up stairs summoned the old man
three times to come forward and take the oath of allegiance. ...
I remember as yesterday the call thrice repeated-'Sam Houston!
Sam Houston! Sam Houston!' but the man sat silent, immovable,
in his chair below, whittling steadily on."'14 Still, because he loved
lolbid., 61-66. See also Anna Irene Sandbo, "First Session of the Secession Con-
vention in Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XVIII, 162-194.
11Winkler, Journal of the Secession Convention, 88-97.
12Ford, Rip Ford's Texas, 316.
1sWinkler, Journal of the Secession Convention, 178-179.
14William Mumford Baker, "A Pivotal Point," Lippincott's Magazine, XXVI, 566.171
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964, periodical, 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101197/m1/211/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.