TEXAS. 



687 





capital assembled ; a pole ninety feet high 

 was raised, from which streamed the Stars 

 and Stripes. The masses came from the hills 

 and mountains. Men, women, and children 

 marched in procession to the capital, where 

 they were addressed by distinguished citizens. 

 Patriotic resolutions were pacd amidst enthu- 

 siastic cheers for the Union. "Hail Columbia," 

 and other patriotic airs were played by the 

 German band and sung by the ladies. The 

 crowd would not disperse, but at night formed 

 a torchlight and transparency procession, and 

 marched through the principal streets. 



The Governor had thus far withstood all 

 efforts to induce him to call a session of the 

 Legislature. He was well known to the coun- 

 try for his public services during a long series 

 of years. A Southern man by birth, he had 

 shed his blood on more than one Southern 

 battle field. About this time he issued an ad- 

 dress to the people of the State, expressing the 

 reasons why he did not call an extra session of 

 the Legislature. In this address he declared 

 that he had no intention or desire to thwart 

 the wishes of the people, and believed that the 

 time had come for the South to make a firm 

 stand for its rights ; but he believed that 

 the precipitate action of two or three extreme 

 Southern States would involve the Border 

 States in destruction, drive slavery from them 

 at once, and ruin their citizens. They had long 

 stood the bulwark against abolitionism, and 

 they had a right, now in their time of trouble, 

 to expect their sister States to stand by them. 

 They claimed, and with reason, that the South 

 can maintain its rights in the Union. He there- 

 fore would not abandon them, but would coun- 

 sel with them as to the wrongs of the South 

 and the remedy therefor, and endeavor to bring 

 the Xorth to a sense of justice. With this ob- 

 ject in view, he. had transmitted to the Gov- 

 ernor of each Southern State the Texan legis- 

 lative resolutions providing for the election of 

 seven delegates to meet delegates from other 

 slaveholding States to confer upon measures for 

 preserving the rights of the South in the Union. 

 He had also taken measures for the election of 

 such delegates in Texas. This, he thought, was 

 sufficient, as but few counties had petitioned 

 for an extra session of the Legislature, to hold 

 which would involve an expense of a hundred 

 thousand dollars, at a time when the treasury 

 was nearly exhausted and a debt accumulating 

 upon the State. Let the people at the ballot- 

 box select men to reflect their sentiments in a 

 : Convention of Southern States, and no one 

 could complain. In closing, Governor Houston 

 said : " The question now is, will Texas act a 

 discreet part and unite with the other Southern 

 States in a Convention which shall take into 

 consideration the grievances we suffer through 

 the passage of unconstitutional laws in some of 

 the Northern States, calculated to defeat the 

 execution of the fugitive slave law, and all 

 other causes which have disturbed the har- 

 mony which should exist between the two sec- 



tions of the Union ? When such a Convention 

 assembles, the sagacious statesmen of the South 

 will be in its councils. They will look at the 

 questions presented for their consideration like 

 men who owe duties to themselves, their con- 

 stituents, and posterity ; and I trust that 

 through the influence of their deliberations 

 those States which, prompted by indignant 

 feelings at the triumph of our sectional oppo- 

 nents, have resolved to precipitate the entire 

 South into revolution, will hesitate to take 

 such a step, but will make common cause 

 with all the Southern States in the endeavor 

 to preserve the equal rights of such States in 

 the Union." 



In his correspondence with the Commis- 

 sioner, J. M. Calhoun, sent to Texas by the 

 State Convention of Alabama, Governor Hous- 

 ton said that " secession will involve civil war 

 and the ruin of our institutions, if not of lib- 

 erty itself." He further expressed the opin- 

 ion that Texas could not " rely for protection 

 on an alliance with the Gulf States alone," 

 and he therefore desired a consultation with 

 the Border Slave States. He said further, that 

 " Texas has views of expansion not common to 

 many of her sister States," and he foreshadowed 

 his policy of making a conquest of Mexico by 

 the prowess of Texas alone, &c. The Governor 

 said that he could not make up his mind to 

 desert the true men in the North, and such 

 he believed was the sentiment of the State, 

 until at least one more effort was made to 

 preserve her constitutional rights within the 

 Union. 



On the 3d of January, the oflSce of the li Wo- 

 chentliche Union," a German newspaper printed 

 at Galveston, was sacked by a mob, because the 

 " Union " had admitted articles against the 

 secession movement. The editor had been for 

 nineteen years a citizen of the State, and was a 

 slaveholder. 



The call for the Convention in Texas was 

 revolutionary. It was signed by sixty-one in- 

 dividuals. Upon this call delegates were elected. 



About the same time one of the members of 

 the Legislature took the responsibility of issuing 

 a call for the meeting of that body in extra ses- 

 sion. To avoid a conflict between the State 

 authorities and the revolutionists, Governor 

 Houston convened the Legislature in extra ses- 

 sion at Austin on January 22 J. 



The following is the proclamation issued by 

 the Governor : 



Wliereas there has been and yet is great excitement 

 existing in the public mind," arising from various 

 causes, touching our relations with the Federal Gov- 

 ernment and many of the States, and a portion of the 

 people have expressed a desire that the Legislature 

 should be convened in extra session ; and whereat 

 the Executive desires that such measures should be 

 adopted as will secure a free expression of the popular 

 will through the ballot-box upon the question at issue, 

 involving their peace, security, and happiness, and 

 the action of the whole people made known in relation 

 to the course which it may be proper and necessary 

 for Texas, as one of the States of the Union, to pursue, 

 in order to maintain, if possible, her rights in the 



