The Texas Secession (Article 38)

“Do not join these others and secede from the United States. They welcomed us in 1845 and protected us from invasion, and to separate now is dishonorable.”

Despite this plea from Governor Sam Houston in January 1861, Texas soon joined other southern states to form the Confederate States of America.

After Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860, and before he took office in March 1861, there was little doubt that 8 or 9 southern states would secede; however, many in the north still held a slim hope that Virginia and Texas might decide to remain in the Union.  Virginia was a Border State which had many economic ties to the Union, and Sam Houston, the popular Governor of Texas had recently been re-elected and was expressly pro-union. Most observers in the north, including Lincoln, thought Texas might “sit out the war,” but they did not understand the political winds in this bastion of independence. There were three major factions at work in Texas.

The first was led by the Governor, Sam Houston, who was instrumental in Texas winning independence from Mexico. When Texas issued its “Declaration of Independence” in 1836, the Mexican army was sent to put down the uprising and regain control of the break-away territory. While Mexico had initial success at the battle of the Alamo, General Houston soon led the Texas Army to victory at the battle of San Jacinto and negotiated a treaty under which Mexico eventually relinquished claims to Texas.  Houston subsequently became the President of the sovereign nation of Texas, and in 1845, he led the movement for Texas to join the United States; in part because he feared a new government in Mexico might try to invade Texas. He next became a U.S. Senator from the state of Texas, then its Governor, and was a staunch Unionist.

The second faction was a group of early settlers to Texas, mostly ranchers, who originally aligned with Sam Houston, but who had opposed giving up their hard won sovereignty as an independent nation when Texas sought to join the United States in 1845. They believed Texas could thrive as a small nation trading both with the United States and Mexico and were concerned that their unique Anglo-Mexican heritage could be lost within the larger United States population.  This group viewed that a new alignment with the proposed Confederacy would offer greater autonomy for their state; and since the new Confederate Constitution provided a method for states to legally secede, some thought that Texas might later leave the Confederacy and once again be an independent nation.

The third faction was comprised of many transplants from other deep southern states and included most of the slave-holders in Texas, who were planters concentrated in the prime agricultural areas along the eastern border with Louisiana and the nearby gulf coast. This group was disappointed in the outcome of the Mexican War of 1847, when they thought that the United States should have annexed even more Mexican territory to create future states in which slavery would be authorized. Many in this faction had already discussed the possibility of secession from the United States during the Congressional debates in 1850 and 1854 over the expansion of slavery. They believed that the Confederate States of America would protect their right to own slaves.

Governor Houston warned these two opposition factions, saying (in part): “Let me tell you what is coming. Your fathers and husbands, your sons and brothers, will be herded at the point of the bayonet. You may, after the sacrifice of countless millions in treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, as a bare possibility, win Southern Independence. But I doubt it. The North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, but when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche. And what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South…. and Texas with it.”

In December 1860, the second and third factions, which disagreed on almost all other issues, except secession, formed a fractured coalition long enough to demand that Governor Houston convene a special session of the Texas legislature to debate and vote on secession from the United States. At first, Houston simply ignored the request, but within weeks, the momentum within the state shifted dramatically and other government officials, who were part of the new coalition, by-passed the Governor and declared an immediate statewide election for delegates to a Secession Convention to be held on January 28, 1861. These officials then held a series of “unauthorized” delegate elections, most simply by voice votes, in small towns around the state. To counter this internal rebellion, Houston decided to call a special session of the legislature which he expected would invalidate the Secession Convention and the related delegate elections.

Sam Houston’s expectations could not have been more wrong.

Instead, the legislature approved the establishment of the Convention by a vote of 140-28 and, when Houston vetoed the action, quickly over-rode his veto. However, the Governor still had enough friends in the legislature to pass a motion which required a vote of the people to confirm (or reject) the Convention’s decision; and Houston had at least some expectation that he might be able to rally voters to keep Texas in the Union.   

On February 1, 1861, the Secession Convention delegates voted 166-7 to recommend secession. Now, it was left to the voters of Texas to decide.

Texas had a total population of over 421,000 free citizens and 161,000 slaves. On February 23rd, amid threats of violence at polling places from all three factions, only 61,000 Texans voted out of the probable 100,000 “adult men of substance” who were eligible to cast ballots. Of those, 46,000 voted to secede from the United States; so, while 75% of those voting chose to leave the United States, the matter was decided by less than 50% of eligible voters. But, it passed!

Houston’s expectation that the voters would choose to remain in the Union, was again, wrong.

He now accepted the fact that Texas would secede from the Union. However, his patriotism to Texas (or stubbornness as others thought) led him to ask that the state legislature reject membership in the Confederacy and revert Texas back to its former status as an independent nation. Then, as a sovereign country, Texas could remain neutral in the looming Civil War.

But, Houston’s latest expectation (by now probably only a hope) was, again, wrong.

Texas officially joined the Confederate States of America on March 4, 1861; and, for Governor Houston, the situation soon became even worse.

The secessionist legislature quickly passed laws which required that any Texan who held office, political appointment, military commission, or wanted to vote, must sign a loyalty pledge to the Confederacy. When Houston refused to sign the oath, the legislature declared the position of Governor “vacant” and, after thirty years of service, Houston was a private citizen.

On March 5th, newly inaugurated President Lincoln, through an emissary, offered assistance to Houston if he chose to form a separate opposition government in Texas. While he gave some consideration to Lincoln’s offer, Houston decided that he would not be the cause of increased divisions within his home state.

Before his death in 1863, Sam Houston contacted many who had stood by him in opposition to secession and wrote: “There comes a time (when) a man’s section is his country. I stand with mine. I was a conservative citizen of the United States. I am now a conservative citizen of the Southern Confederacy.” However, he could still not bring himself to sign the oath.

During the first two years of the Civil War, Texas thrived as a primary supplier of cotton, food crops, cattle, and horses to the rest of the South. Texas also provided over 60,000 men into the war (about 3,000 for the Union) and, tragically, over 21,000 did not come home. And, by late 1863, the Mississippi River and many gulf ports came under Union control, and Texas commerce gradually ground to a halt. As the war came to a close, the agricultural economy in the eastern part of the state was further decimated when the slaves were emancipated; and when the market for Texas cattle collapsed, the state’s entire economy went into a deep depression from which it would not recover for nearly twenty years.

During the War, and for several years thereafter, the two surviving political factions could not agree on even basic political or economic policies, so the state’s government was usually chaotic. Further, since one group hoped for greater autonomy for Texas (or even independence), and the other group wanted preservation of slavery and more control over Mexican territory, neither group ever achieved their very different objectives.

And, Houston’s worst scenario had been realized. He had said, “You may, after the sacrifice of countless millions in treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives…. win Southern Independence. But I doubt it. And what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South…. and Texas with it.”

So, after all was said and done, and despite being wrong several other times, Sam Houston’s most dire expectation, was right.

Contact the author at  gadorris2@gmail.com