Following a statewide election in which the people of Texas voted 3 to 1 to secede, Texas joined the rest of the Confederate States on March 2nd 1861. Governor Sam Houston called this act illegal. But the politicians that brought the vote about, were powerful enough to have Houston replaced by his Lieutenant Governor Edward Clark. Houston chose not to take the Oath of Loyalty to the Confederacy, and was evicted from his office on March 16th. President Abraham Lincoln sent United States Colonel Frederick W Lander to offer Fifty thousand troop in order to hold Texas, but Houston turned him down, saying "I love Texas too well to bring civil strife and bloodshed upon her. To avert this calamity, I shall make no endeavor to maintain my authority as Chief Executive of this State.”
[Interestingly to this date, Sam Houston was born on March 2 1793 on his families plantation near Timber Ridge Church, Lexington , Rockbridge, VA.]
No comments:
Post a Comment