The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 343

Diamond's Account of the Great Hanging 343
midst, and very wisely determined to adopt the necessary meas-
ures to avert the mischief designed to be inflicted upon them.
EFFECTS UPON THE PEOPLE
In pursuance of a general understanding to watch their move-
ments, nothing was said or done on either side to disturb quiet
and peaceable relations between the two parties. The "Order"
had committed no acts of violence, or made any demonstrations
indicating its objects, aims & future policy of its operations. Thus
matters rested, each party watching and suspicious of the other,
until the final disruption of the Union and war had become
a reality.
Many of the states had seceded from the General Government
and declared themselves free and sovereign in their own right.
And it will be remembered by Texans that after many of the
states had passed ordinances of Secession, and secession had be-
come a fixed fact, Texas, through her delegates in Convention
assembled, submitted a like ordinance for the ratification by the
people of the state;" and that simultaneously with the discussion
upon the subject, and before the day selected for the vote on the
ordinance, a proposition emanated from some of the North
Western counties, through a Sherman newspaper" strongly favor-
'The Secession Convention of Texas met in Austin on January 28, 1861, and
two days later submitted an ordinance to repeal the annexation ordinance of
1845 for approval or rejection by the voters of Texas. The statewide election was
set for February 23, 1861, the ordinance to become effective on March 2, if the
referendum was favorable to it. E. W. Winkler (ed.), Journal of the Secession
Convention of Texas, x86i (Austin, 1911).
OThe Sherman Patriot was the principal Whig newspaper in North Texas during
the 185o's, with the exception of Charles DeMorse's Northern Standard at Clarks-
ville. It strongly opposed the secession of Texas. Graham Landrum, Grayson County,
An Illustrated History of Grayson County, Texas (Fort Worth, 1960), 24-25.
No copy of any detailed "proposition" to organize a separate state in North
Texas is extant, although such action was foreshadowed in a document dated
January 15, 1861, at Austin on the eve of the Secession Convention of Texas. Said
to have been issued from "the Unionist ring at Austin," that document was
widely circulated in Collin and other North Texas counties and published in the
Southern Intelligencer (Austin), January 31, 1861. It served notice that if the
then approaching state convention should disregard "the wishes of the Conserva-
tive Union men of the State of Texas, and especially the Northern portion of the
state," by declaring the State of Texas out of the Union "without submitting
their action to the people of Texas for ratification at the ballot box," Union men
were resolved "as a dernier resort to make an effort to unite a sufficient number of