The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898 Page: 198
334 p. : ill., ports., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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198 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
creed. But i feel that on this occasion it is proper that I should,
and that I am fully authorized to say, that (Gen. Henderson was
not a disunionist, in the offensive sense which that term is some-
times made to assume. He believed that true conservatism con-
sisted in never yielding a right principle; hence he was generally
opposed to all the so-called compromises on questions affecting the
rights and interests of the South with regard to negro slavery.
He believed the Southern States to be equal, not inferior, members
of our great confederacy. He thought that our citizens had a right
to go with their slaves to any of the common territories of the
Union, and he was not willing to say or do anything, to make
any agreement which would, to the slightest extent, compromit or
jeopardize this right. He believed that if the South could be
united and firm in the maintenance of her rights, and would ex-
hibit a determination to resist if trampled upon, the North never
would perpetrate the great wrong of depriving us of equality
in the Union; of preventing the voluntary expansion of our insti-
tutions; or worse, of dispossessing us violently of our property, in-
herited to a great extent from Northern ancestors. In the last let-
ter I ever received from him, but a short time before his death,
he expresses in strong terms the earnest and burning desire of his
heart to see the Southern States for once united in sentiment, feel-
ing and action.
I say that Henderson was not a disunionist--that he believed the
North would not oppress the South, or palpably violate the Con-
stitution if she saw we were united and resolved to resist such
wrong; bul if she did, he could see no fancied sanctity in the word
Union, when its objects and purposes were forgotten and aband-
oned. He could not see that we of the South were bound in per-
petual feality to uphold it if it should ever be made the instru-
ment of our oppression and subjugation. He hoped and most
fervently prayed, as must every patriot, that it might never be
made so. But to say that he desired a dissolution of the Union for
the mere sake of its destruction, is a foul misrepresentation of his
political opinions, as it is also of those of any man of ordinary
intelligence. Putting patriotic considerations entirely aside, no
man who is not stupid wants to see the Union separated for the
mere sake of breaking up the government. But there are many,
very many, who believe that the South is not the inferior section
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898, periodical, 1897/1898; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101009/m1/220/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.