276
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1861
Was the power conferred to make Texas a part of a Southern Confederacy, without referring the same to a vote of the peo- ple? Yet, the powers have not only been claimed, but exercised. You have been transferred like sheep from the shambles. A Government has been fastened upon you, which is to be sup- ported from your pockets, and yet you have not been consulted. You are to be taxed in the shape of tariffs on the necessaries and luxuries of life, which you have hitherto purchased free of duty. You are to have high postage and all else in propor- tion; and to forego the freeman's privilege of electing your own President and Vice President, a Provisional Congress has taken the matter out of your hands. You are to support a Constitu- tion which ignores the very name of the people, and to go into a Government, where you are to pay tribute to King Cotton and enjoy the privilege of equality, until you are involved so far that independence will be impossible, and you will be ready to put the State of Texas, with her territory equal in extent to all the other Cotton States, at the rear of the Confederacy, on the term of a slave basis. This is the program marked out for you. You are told that the Union must be dissolved in order that it might be reconstructed. Now, you are told that reconstruc- tion is impracticable and impossible. It is well known to the people that I had ordered an election for delegates to a Convention of Southern States. The Legisla- ture repealed the law under which the election had been ordered, and the Convention then assumed the power to elect the dele- gates, which it did on the very day provided for the election of them by the people. I believ~ that the people .should elect their own public servants. But the Convention was not willing to trust the people. . You have withdrawn Texas from her connection with the United States. Your act changes the character of the obligation I assumed at the time of my inauguration. As Your Chief Ex- ecutive, I am no longer bound to support the Constitution of the United States. If your act did not relieve that obligation, it was nothing. If this is not the result of the action of the peo- ple, the position of the officers of the State Government, and especially that portion who are members of this Convention has indeed been an anomalous one. Have they still been acting upon their oath to support the Constitution of the United States? As your Executive, no matter what my views may have been, I am bound to reflect your expressed will. I have endeavored to do so. Were I asked to swear to support your Constitution, I
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