Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

The Revolutionary Convention assembled in the Hall of the House of Representatives, at Austin, on the 28th of January. One of the chief managers was John H. Reagan, a judge, who afterward became the “Postmaster-general” of the so-called “Confederate States of America.” McQueen, a commissioner from South Carolina, was there to assist in working the machinery. It was easily managed, for it was so well constructed that there was but little friction. Of the one hundred and twenty-two counties in the State, not one-half were represented. The whole affair was a stupendous fraud upon the people. But what cared the representatives of the Oligarchy for the rights and privileges of the people? Their — whole movement in the Slave-labor States, since the Presidential election, had been in contravention of those rights.

On the 1st of February the Convention, by an almost unanimous vote, passed an Ordinance of Secession. There were one hundred and sixty-six voices for it, and only seven against it. It declared that the National Government had failed “to accomplish the purpose of the compact of Union between the States,” falsely charging that it had not furnished the inhabitants of Texas with protection against Indian depredations on its frontiers, when a large portion of the Army had been, and then was, actually employed in that very work. They charged that the National Government would no longer uphold the slave system. This was their chief grievance, and therefore they abrogated, in the name of the people of Texas, the Ordinance of Annexation adopted on the 4th of July, 1845. They talked of a “resumption of sovereign powers” with some propriety, for Texas is the only State of the Union that ever really possessed them, as an absolutely independent Commonwealth. They also did what the politicians in the other “Seceding States” refused to do, namely, decreed that the ordinance should be submitted to a vote of the people. But the merit of this seeming concession to the popular will was counterbalanced by the most outrageous usurpation and practical denial of the rights of the people. They appointed a day for the delivery of the popular verdict so early (February 23) that there could be no opportunity for a public discussion of the Ordinance. This, however, was a slight affront compared to two others, namely, the appointment of a “Committee of safety,” and of delegates to the Montgomery Convention.

The Committee of safety was simply a powerful revolutionary machine for the purpose of carrying on effectually a system of terrorism already begun. That Committee at once appointed two of its number (Devine and Maverick) commissioners to treat with General Twiggs, then in command of the National troops in Texas, for the surrender of his army and the public property under his control. The Committee also managed the voting on the Ordinance of Secession, on the 23d of February, so adroitly, by means of misrepresentations and the arguments of the rope and fire-brand, that the voice of a really loyal people appeared in favor of secession by an alleged majority of over twenty-three thousand.

Having completed the preliminary work of treason, the Convention adjourned to meet again on the 2d day of March. In the mean time General Twiggs, as we shall observe presently, had fully performed his allotted part