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Wn:T1Ncs oF SAM HousToN, 1861
declared by ordinance, that the people of Texas ratify the Con- stitution of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States, and has changed the State Constitution and established a TEST OATH of allegiance to the Confederate States, requir- ing all persons now in office to take the same, or suffer the penalty of removal from office; and actuated by a spirit of petty tyranny, has required the Executive and a portion of the other officers at the seat of Government to appear at its bar at a certain hour and take the same. It has assumed to create organic laws and to put the same in execution. It has overthrown the theory of free government, by combining in itself all the Depart- ments of Government, and exercising the powers belonging to each. Our fathers have taught us that freedom requires that these powers shall not be all lodged in, and exercised by any one body. Whenever it is so, the people suffer under a despotism. Fellow-Citizens, I have refused to recognize this Convention. I believe that it has derived none of the powers which it has assumed either from the people or from the Legislature. I be- lieve it guilty of an usurpation, which the people cannot suffer tamely and preserve their liberties. I am ready to lay down my life to maintain the rights and liberties of the people of Texas. I am ready to lay down the office rather than yield to usurpa- tion and degradation. I have declared my determination to stand by Texas in what- ever position she assumes. Her people have declared in favor of a separation from the Union. I have followed her banners before, when an exile _from the land of my fathers. I went back into the Union with the people of Texas. I go out from the Union with them; and though I see only gloom before me, I shall follow the "Lone Star'' with the same devotion as of yore. I may not be sustained now, but when millions of debt press upon you, when the United States Bonds forming your School Fund have been squandered, and the money upon which your present school system is based is gone, when your public domain is wasted, and taxes are ground out of you, some, at least, will re- member that I attempted to save you from these consequences. Will the people reflect upon the circumstances attending the election of these delegates, and ·ask themselves whether they conferred upon them the extraordinary powers they have since assumed? Was ought said about changing the Constitution of the State, or appointing delegates to a Provisional Government, with powers to constitute themselves members of Congress?
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