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| Samuel Houston. |
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in the conspiracy, and given the State over to the absolute rule of the Secessionists; and when the Convention again assembled, its work was easy.
The votes of the people on secession were counted on the 5th, and when the result was announced by the President there was great cheering, and he proceeded to declare Texas to be an independent State.
On the following day the Convention instructed its delegates at Montgomery to ask for the admission of their State into the “Southern Confederacy,” and appointed a committee to inform Governor Houston of the new political relations of the Commonwealth.
To these communications the Governor replied, in substance, that the Convention had transcended its powers and that, its acts were usurpations.
He promised to lay the whole matter before the Legislature, which was to assemble on the 18th, until which time he should consider it his duty to perform the functions of his office regardless of all alleged changes.
The reply of the Governor produced great excitement in the Convention, and it was believed that he had issued orders for assembling the militia of the State to resist the action of that body.
By an ordinance passed on the 8th, it defied his authority, and then he appealed to the people in a stirring address, which strengthened the hearts of the Union men of the State.
He recounted his services and his difficulties, and complained bitterly of the usurpations of the Convention, which had “transferred the people, like sheep, from the shambles,” from the Union to an unlawful league.
He loved Texas too well, he said, to do aught that should kindle civil war on its soil, and he should not attempt, under the circumstances, to exercise his authority as Governor, nor would he take the oath of allegiance to the “Southern Confederacy.”
1
1 “ My worst anticipations,” said the Governor,
as to the assumption of power by this Convention, have been realized. To enumerate all its usurpations would be impossible, as a great portion of its proceedings have been in secret. This much has been revealed:-- It has elected delegates to the provisional council of the Confederate States, at Montgomery, before Texas had withdrawn from the Union, and who, on the 2d day of March, annexed Texas to the Confederate States, and constituted themselves members of Congress, when it was not officially known by the Convention until the 4th of March that a majority of the people had voted in favor of secession. While a portion of these delegates were representing Texas in the Congress of the Confederate States, two of them, still claiming to be United States Senators, have continued to represent Texas in the United States Senate, under the administration of Mr. Lincoln, an administration that the people of Texas have declared odious and not to be borne. Yet Texas has been exposed to obloquy, and forced to occupy the ridiculous attitude, before the world, of attempting to maintain her position as one of the United States, and at the same time claim to be one of the Confederate States. It has created a Committee of Safety, a portion of whom have assumed the executive powers of the Government, and to supplant the executive authority, have entered into negotiations with Federal officers. This committee, and commissioners acting under it, have caused the Federal troops to be removed from posts in the country exposed to Indian depredations, and had them located with their arms and field-batteries on the coast, where, if their desire is to maintain a position in the country, they can not only do so successfully, but destroy the commerce of the State. They have usurped the power to draw these troops from the frontier; but though in possession of ample stores, munitions of war, and transportation, have failed to supply troops in the place of those removed. As a consequence, the wail of women and children is heard upon the border. Devastation and ruin has thus come upon the people; and though the Convention, with all the means in its power, has been in session two weeks, no succor has been sent to a devastated frontier. The Committee of Safety has brought danger instead of safety, It has involved the State in an enormous expense for an army, where no army was needed, and left unprotected those who needed protection. It has; exposed the State to ridicule, and wounded the chivalry and historic pride of the people, by sending an army of over a thousand men to attack a single post upon the Rio Grande, which has been permitted to defy them, until such time as its commander saw fit to withdraw. It has assumed to appoint agents to foreign States, and created offices, military and civil, unknown to the laws, at its will, keeping secret its proceedings. This Convention has deprived the people of a right to know its doings, 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, has required 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 to 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, one body. Whenever it is so, the people suffer under a despotism. Fellow-citizens, I have refused to recognize this Convention. I believe it has derived none of the powers which it has assumed, either from the people or the Legislature. I believe it guilty of an usurpation, which the people cannot suffer tamely, and preserve their liberties. I am ready to lay down my life to maintain the rights and liberties of the people of Texas. I am ready to lay down office rather than yield to usurpation and degradation.
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