Texas Secession

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Texas Secession

• Essential Questions
• Define characteristics of the Civil War
  Reconstruction Era.
• Explain the significance of 1861.
• Explain reasons for the involvement of Texas in
  the Civil War such as states rights, slavery,
  sectionalism, tariffs, and secession.
• Main Idea Abraham Lincoln was elected president
  in 1860. In 1861, Southern states, including
  Texas, formed the Confederate States of America.

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Many Issues Divide the Country

• Tariffs taxes on trade
• 1828 Tariff of Abominations (a high tax)
• South hated it
• Forced to sell cotton _at_ low prices to be
  competitive
• Pay high prices for North manufactured goods
• Nullification Crisis Results
• South Carolina believed that states had the right
  to nullify a federal law it considered
  unconstitutional.
• South Carolina threatened to secede but a
  compromise ended the threat. This issue continued
  to brew until 1861.

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Many Issues Divide the Country

• Sectionalism loyalty to the interests of one's
  own region or section of the country, rather than
  the nation as a whole
• Many Texans came from southern states and grew
  the chief cash crop, which was cotton.
• Texas resembled the economy, social structure,
  customs, and political values of the South which
  concentrated on plantation agriculture, slave
  labor, and the Democratic Party.

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Many Issues Divide the Country

• States Rights Texans believed that states
  should be able to make their own political,
  economic, and social decisions.
• Slavery Texans believed that slavery was vital
  to the economy opposed Republican Party b/c most
  members did NOT want to see slavery spread to new
  territories

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Southern Society in 1850s
Upper Class Slave Elite
Middle class Few Slaves
Lower Middle Class 1 or 2 Slaves
Lower Class No Slaves
Slaves
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Southern States Vow to Secede

• During the 1860 presidential campaign,
  Southerners warned that they would secede if the
  Republicans won.
• Lincoln was Republican candidate that won the
  election
• Secession Southerners argued that sovereignty
  rested with the states, saying the states entered
  the Union voluntarily and could likewise leave.

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The Convention Votes on Secession

• Governor Sam Houston opposed secession by
  declaring that Texas could be better protect its
  interest by staying in the Union.
• South cant win the war
• Texans favoring secession called a convention.
  The Texas Secession Convention met in Austin in
  January 1861.
• They adopted the Ordinance of Secession, which
  declared that the U.S. abused its power to
  strike down the interest and prosperity of the
  people of Texas.

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Sam Houston Quote 1

• Let me tell you what is coming. After the
  sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and
  hundreds of thousands of lives you may 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, for
  they live in colder climates. But when they begin
  to love in a given direction, the move with the
  steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty
  avalanche.

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The Convention Votes on Secession

• On February 23, 1861 the people of Texas approved
  secession by a wide margin.
• Texas became the seventh state of eleven to
  secede from the U.S. and form a new country in
  the South.

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The Confederacy is Formed

• The 7 seceded states met at a convention in
  Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a new nation
  called the Confederate States of America (C.S.A.)
  and drew up a constitution.
• The states were given more power, the federal
  government less, and the constitution guaranteed
  the protection of slavery.
• The document replaced references to the U.S. with
  references to the Confederacy.

First Confederacy Flag
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Houston is Removed

• When the Texas Secession Convention ordered all
  states officials to take an oath of allegiance to
  the Confederacy, Houston refused and was removed
  as governor.
• President Lincoln offered Houston the use of
  federal troops if he would oppose the convention
  that voted for secession, but, unwilling to cause
  a civil war in Texas, Houston refused.

Governor Sam Houston
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Sam Houston Quote 2

• Would you be willing to deluge flood the
  capital of Texas with the blood of Texans, merely
  to keep one poor old man in a position for a few
  days longer, in a position that belongs to the
  people? No! . . . Go tell my deluded friends that
  I am proud of their friendship, of their love and
  loyalty, . . . but to go to their homes and to
  conceal from the world that they would have been
  guilty of such an act.

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The War Begins

• President Lincoln believed the C.S.A. had no
  right to leave the Union. He vowed to preserve
  the nation and carry out the law of the land in
  all states.
• A perpetual Union
• On April 12, 1861, Confederate troops opened fire
  on U.S. troops at Fort Sumter in Charleston,
  South Carolina, starting the Civil War.

Battle of Fort Sumter