A Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Texas Page: 52
vii, 908 p. : ill., ports. ; 26 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSOIV, ANDERSON,
powers, and stated that he would lay the
whole matter before the Legislature, which
was to assemble on the 18th, whereupon
the convention defied his authority and
passed an ordinance requiring all State
officers to take the oath of allegiance to
the new government. Houston and E.W.
Cave, Secretary of State, refused to take the
oath; they were both deposed by a decree
of the convention, and Edward Clark, the
Lieutenant-Governor, was installed as the
executive. Houston then appealed to the
people, and, when the Legislature met,
sent in a message protesting against his
removal, at the same time stating that he
could but wait their action and that of the
people. If driven at last into retirement,
in spite of the constitution of the State, he
would not desert his country, but his prayers
for its peace and prosperity would be offered
up with the same sincerity and devotion
with which services had been rendered
while occupying public station.
In his address to the public two days
previously, he denounced the usurpations
of the convention. Nevertheless he was
far from wishing that his deposal should
be the cause for bloodshed. " I love Texas,"
he declared, " 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 the
State, except by the peaceful exercise of
my functions. When I can no longer do
-this I shall calmly withdraw from the
scene, leaving the government in the hands
of those who have usurped its authority,
but still claiming that I am its chief
executive."The legislature, however, in face of
appeal, protest and message, sanctioned
the proceedings of the convention, and
Clark, who had already been sworn in on
the 16th, assumed the functions of provisional
governor on the 21st. Houston
soon after left the capital and retired to
private life. In connection with the general
unsettled feeling in the State, Texas was
harassed during 1859 and 1860 by depredations
on her frontiers, both by the Indians
and Mexicans. In the course of these,
many brave volunteers and innocent persons
were killed and much property
destroyed.
By proclamation of April 15, 1861,
President Lincoln declared the States of
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida,
Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas in rebellion,
called out 75,000 of the militia and
summoned Congress to assemble on the
4th of July following. On the 11th of
that month Senators Hemphill and Wigfall,
of Texas, having failed to take their seats,
were declared expelled from the Senate of
the United States, together with certain
members from Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas,
by a vote of 32 yeas against 10 nays.
The great Civil war began, and fortunate
it was for Texas that her geographical position
placed her outside the cyclone of that
Titanic strife. While 'the whirlwind of
destruction and death swept for years over
the unhappy South, she was disturbed only
by the commotion raised on the edge of
the dreadful storm. Her territory in all
its length and breadth did not become a
battle-field, and agriculture met not with
the same destruction as in some other sec-
52
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Lewis Publishing Company. A Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Texas, book, 1893; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth46827/m1/54/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Palestine Public Library.