Historic Walker County

I need not assure you that whenever the time
shall come, when we must choose between a loss
of our Constitutional rights and revolution, I
shall choose the latter; but if I, who have led the
people of Texas in stormy times of danger,
hesitate to plunge into revolution now, it is not
because I am ready to submit to Black
Republican rule, but because I regard the
Constitution of my country, and am determined
to stand by it. Mr. Lincoln has been
constitutionally elected and, much as I deprecate
his success, no alternative is left me but to yield
to the Constitution. The moment that
instrument is violated by him, I will be foremost
in demanding redress and the last to abandon
my ground. 31
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Above: Governor Sam Houston
in 1859.
COURTESY OF THE SAM HOUSTON
MEMORIAL MUSEUM.
Below: The Steamboat House where
Sam Houston died on July 26, 1863.
COURTESY OF THE SAM HOUSTON
MEMORIAL MUSEUM.
Despite Houston’s call for patience, it soon
became clear that Lincoln’s election had thrust
secessionist forces into power across the South.
Beginning in December 1860, South Carolina
seceded from the Union, and in short order five
other states followed suit. The question was
whether Houston could stand his ground and
keep Texas in the Union, or if his state would
join its neighbors in the parade of Southern
secessionism. Houston initially had the upper
hand, since the Texas legislature was not in
session, but soon a group of secessionist-minded
politicians drew up a decree calling for the
election of delegates to a secession convention
separate from the state legislature. Amid debate
as to the legality of this action, delegates were
elected and a convention date of January 28,
1861, was established. With few options
remaining, Houston recalled the legislature in
hopes that it would denounce the secession
convention, but legislators approved the meeting
by an overwhelming vote of 55-15. John H.
Reagan, an elected delegate to the convention,
then made a last effort to pull Houston to the
side of secession, but the governor would not be
moved. In a prophetic statement to Reagan,
Houston said, “Our people are going to war to
perpetuate slavery, and the first gun fired in the
war will be the [death] knell of slavery.” 32
In spite of Houston’s warning, delegates to
the secession convention—including attorneys
Leonard Abercrombie and A.P. Wiley from
1 6 ✦ H I S T O R I C W A L K E R C O U N T Y