Episode 56 – Texas Votes and it’s War

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Remember from the last episode that those who wanted to leave the union forced the state to call a special convention. In that election the separatists pushed through their agenda and quite frankly ignored any semblance of legitimacy. The procedures they followed were not even remotely close to having any type of standards.  Many delegates were elected by a simple voice vote at a public meeting, and since there was so much fervor for secession, those who supported the union often didn’t even attend.

The delegates they selected were much like the folks around them. They averaged 40 years old, and virtually every one  of them had originated from one of the states in the south where slavery was accepted. Some of them had more money than most Texans, but you can’t say the extremely wealthy dominated things. However, about 40 percent of them were lawyers and about 70 percent of them were slaveholders.

The convention opened on Monday afternoon, January 28, and the presiding officer offered these words, “All political power is inherent in the people. That power, I assert, you now represent.” The next day, January 29 John A. Wharton made a motion “that without determining now the manner in which this result should be effected, it is the deliberate sense of this Convention that the State of Texas should separately secede.” His motion was seconded by George M. Flournoy, and needless to say it passed 152 to 6.

Over the next 2 days, the delegates wrote out the formal ordinance of secession, which called for a popular vote. This was different from the lower southern  states, who simply passed a resolution and declared they had seceded. Of course, there was opposition to having a popular vote, but that motion was easily defeated, 145 to 29. Since Texans had held a referendum before they joined the union, most of the delegates insisted that the same procedure should be followed if they were to leave the union.

Because he knew the significance of what was taking place Governor Houston and other members of the legislature asked for a referendum. They believed that a popular vote would end all doubt and questions over the legality of secession. The final vote was taken in the morning of February 1^st. It was a roll-call vote taken in alphabetical order. The final vote was 166 for secession and 8 against.

One of the first steps the convention took after the vote was to form the Civil War Committees of Public Safety. They also sent delegates to Montgomery, Alabama, who took part in officially establishing the Confederate States of America. On February 4^th, they adjourned.

Before the popular vote took place, the Committee on Public Safety, using power it had been given by the convention authorized the seizure of all federal property in Texas. This included the arsenal at San Antonio, which would later become the headquarters for the H.E.B. grocery chain and that sits on the bank of the San Antonio River.

This order resulted in the evacuation of almost 3,000 federal troops from Texas. These actions essentially made the secession referendum itself an afterthought. However, there were some people and counties in the state that did not consider the referendum to be insignificant. Those opposed to secession were primarily situated along the northern border of the state and in the counties that surrounded Austin.

Some leaders such as Throckmorton and Benjamin H. Epperson in North Texas and Elisha M. Pease, Svante Palm, and George Paschal of Austin led the local fights against secession. Sam Houston continued to question whether it was necessity or wise to leave the Union. Federal United States representative Andrew J. Hamilton, who was also a resident of Austin, campaigned against secession.

What were some of the common features of those opposed to secession? The areas it was most prominent in were culturally, geographically, and economically unlike the lower South. They also had a significant number of leaders who encouraged those nervous or who just didn’t really care to vote against secession. Finally, in each of those areas those in favor of staying in the union were ex-Democratic party members who had left the party in the late 1850s or who had never belonged to that party.

On the other hand, where in those one in four counties who had more than 95 percent of the voters in favor of secession had strong links to the lower South. They had few if any leaders who were outspoken critics of secession. There was also a very strong Democratic party organization in the county that made it easy for the people to support secession.

The referendum took place on February 23^rd 1861. The results weren’t unexpected, 46,153 voted for and 14,747 against. There were 122 counties casting votes and of those, only eighteen voted  against secession. Only eleven counties had even a 40 percent vote against. And needless to say, almost every one of these twenty-nine counties were in the two areas where the campaign to remain in the union had been in the open and the leaders were held in high status and they had a good organization in place.

Displaying a flair for the dramatic, the state’s secession was declared official on the original Texas Independence Day of March 2. Three days later, the Secession Convention gathered again and took the additional steps needed in order to join the Confederacy. One of the major steps they needed to do, was to write a new state constitution.

While this Constitution of 1861 contained few differences from the original Constitution of 1845, it did clearly deal with slavery. It made it illegal to free any slave in Texas. All state officials who held office at that time, were forced to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.

This was also the end of Sam Houston’s legendary political career. Not only was he opposed to secession, but he also believed that the drafting of a new constitution and the act of joining the confederacy to be unconstitutional. Even though he refused to take the oath of loyalty to the confederacy, he did eventually support the South during the war.

With Houston’s resignation, the convention delegates named Lieutenant Governor Edward Clark Governor. After the convention adjourned on March 26^th, it was over. Texas had seceded from the union and the stage was set for them to fight in and support the losing side during a bloody civil war. 

That’s going to do it for today. Please subscribe to the podcast. If you want more information on Texas History, visit the website of the Texas State Historical Association. I also have four audiobooks on the Hidden History of Texas, The Spanish Bump Into Texas 1530s to 1820s,  Here Come The Anglos 1820s to 1830s, Years of Revolution 1830 to 1836. And A Failing Republic Becomes a State 1836-1850. You can find the books pretty much wherever you download or listen to audiobooks. Just do a search for the Hidden History of Texas by Hank Wilson and they’ll pop right up. Or visit my website https://arctx.org. By the way if you like audiobooks, visit my publisher’s website there’s an incredible selection of audiobooks there. In addition to mine you’ll find the classics, horror, science fiction, mental-health, and much more. Check it out visit https://ashbynavis.com Thanks for listening