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"Let me tell you what is coming---your fathers and husbands, your
sons and brothers, will be herded at the point of bayonets---You may,
after the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds
of thousands of lives, as a bare possibility, win Southern independence
...but I doubt it. I will tell you that, while I believe with you in
the doctrine of States Rights, the North is determined to preserve this
Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live
in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they
move with the steady momentum and perserverance of a mighty avalanche."
Sam Houston --- Governor of Texas |
Houston Refuses to Take the Oath of Loyalty to the Confederacy
When on account of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States, I was urged to call the Legislature, I refused to do so until such time as I believed the public interests required it. To all I said, that if the people desired the Legislature to be called, I would not stand in their way. When satisfied that the necessity existed, I called it together, and upon the assembling urged upon it the importance of immediate action in reference to your relations with the United States and with respect to the Frontier and the Treasury. In the meantime, the Convention had been called, which assembled on the 28th of January. That convention besides being revolutionary in its character, did not receive the sanction of a majority of the people. As the representative of a minority, however large, it could not claim the right to speak for the people. It was without the pale of the Constitution, and was unknown to the laws which I had sworn to support. While sworn to support the Constitution, it was my duty to stand aloof from all revolutionary schemes calculated to subvert the Constitution. The people who were free from such solemn obligations, might revolutionize and absolve me from mine, my oath only having reference to my acts in the capacity of their Chief Executive; but as a sworn officer, my duty was too plain to be misunderstood. Because others more lightly regarded the bond they made with Heaven, furnished me no excuse, if my conscience condemned the act. If I had believed that the time had come for revolution, I should have thrown off the burden of an official oath, resigned my office, and as one of the people, a free and independent citizen, have aided to arouse my countrymen to action. I believed the Constitution and laws would provide a remedy and therefore I was not ready for revolution. The Constitution has deprived the people of a right to know its doing by holding its sessions in secret. It has appointed military officers and agents under its assumed authority. It has declared by ordinance that the people of Texas ratify the Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States, and has changed the State Constitution and established a TEST OATH of allegiance to the Confederate States, requiring all persons now in office to take the same, or suffer the penalty of removal from office; and actuated by a spirit of petty tyranny, requiring the Executive and a portion of the other officers at the seat of Government to appear at its bar at a certain hour and take the same. It has assumed to create organic laws and put the same in execution. It has overthrown the theory of free government, by combining in itself all the Departments of Government, and exercising the powers belonging to each. Our fathers have taught us that freedom requires that these powers shall not be all lodged in, and exercised by any one body. Whenever it is so, the people suffer under despotism. Fellow Citizens, I have refused to recognize this Convention. I believe that it has derived none of the powers which it has assued either from the people or from the Legislature. I believe in guilty of an usurpation and degradation. I have declared my determination to stand by Texas in whatever the position she assumes. Her people have declared in favor of a separation from the Union. I have followed her banners before, when an exile from the land of my fathers. I went back into the Union with the people of Texas. I go out from the Union with them; and though I see only gloom before me, I shall follow the "Lone Star" with the same devotion as of yore. You have withdrawn Texas from her connection with the United States. Your act changes the character of the obligation I assumed at the time of my inauguration. As Your Chief Executive, I am no longer bound to support the Constitution of the United States. I love Texas too well to bring civil strife and bloodshed upon her. To avert this calamity, I shall make no endeavor to maintain my authority as Chief Executive of this State, except by the peaceful exercise of my functions. When I can no longer do this, I shall calmly withdraw from the scene, leaving the Government in the hands of those who have usurped its authority; but still claiming that I am its Chief Executive. I protest in the name of the people of Texas against all the acts and doings of this convention, AND I DECLARE THEM NULL AND VOID! I solemnly protest against the act of its members who are bound by no other than themselves, in declaring my office vacant, and I refuse to appear before it and take the oath prescribed.
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JAC - 2005