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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1861
To what Government do we belong? Our U. S. Senators say to the world that we belong to that of President Lincoln, else why their presence in the Senate of the U. S. The self-constituted members of the Congress of the Confederate States, say we be- long to the government of President Davis, else why are they in the Congress of the Confederate States.-The duty will devolve on the Legislature to relieve this difficulty, so that the status of Texas may be plainly defined. Texas has an ancient fame to sustain. Let it not be sullied by permitting the Southern Con- federacy to assign her the post of a spy upon the United States, or by sanctioning the course of those who have placed her not only in this disgraceful attitude but have reflected upon her dig- nity by exposing her to the ridicule of the civilized world. Did the Legislature confer upon the Convention the powers it has claimed and exercised?· The act recognizing it precludes the idea. It delegates the power to submit the question of secession to a vote of the people, and recognizes the Convention as existing under a call, which limited its powers to acting upon that ques- tion, and others incident thereto. It is well known that the Chair- man of the Judiciary Committee of the House, supported in an able speech, the idea that the powers of the Convention were limited to this single question. The call under which the dele- gates were elected leaves no other conclusion. It presents but one idea.-that of the withdrawal of Texas from the Union. Nothing is said in reference once to annexing Texas to a new Government. An official copy published in the Austin Gazette, urges alone the importance of Texas resuming her complete sovereignty before the 4th day of March. It says: "That the action of said Convention be submitted to the people for ratification, or rejection at the ballot box, at the earliest practicable time after its adjournment." The delegates were therefore limited in their powers by the call itself. They were pledged to submit their action to the people "at the earliest practical time a.fter its adj01.wnment." Was this pledge redeemed? It was, so far as the question of secession was concerned. But was its action under its usurped powers submitted to the people? The Convention elected delegates to Montgomery. Was that submitted to the people for their ratifica- tion or rejection? No. Then, by the terms of the call itself, the Convention is condemned as guilty of an usurpation. The call says, that "the action of said Convention be submitted to the people, at the earliest vracticable time after its ad_iournmcnt."
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