Secession Dbq Essay

The Texas State Gazette once stated “no state can force another state… to remain”(Document C). This means that many Texans thought that it was unjust and unconstitutional for the Federal Government to force the CSA to remain a part of the United States. O.M. Roberts, the president of the Texas Secession convention, once said “The true theory of our government as an association of sovereignties, and not a blended mass of people in one social compact.”(Document C). This means that he believed that each and every state was completely individual and deserved rights to separate from the

Everybody knows about the Civil War, the bloodiest war in American history between the Union and the Confederacy. Not many people were informed about the reason Texas fought in this devastating war. In the year 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as president. This was when the south had had enough. The next year in 1861 Sam Houston thought to south had absolutely no chance of winning the war so he believed the Union was a better option. The people of Texas were against this and voted to secede the Union and they were the 7th state to do so. Sam Houston did not take the oath to join the Confederacy and was forced to resign, feeling like he failed his people.

In the Civil War Texans fought because of states rights. President Lincoln stated, “No state upon its mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union. (Document C) However, O.M. Roberts, president of the Texas Secession Convention, disagreed. He believed that each state was independent and had the right to make decisions for itself.

In fact, the federal government responded to the petition for Texan secession by declining the request (Peacefully grant, 2012, p. 1). The executive branch, established that the Union should remain united and that grievances should be handled through measures of the ballot, not running from the issues at hand (para. 3). In addition, they used this Abraham Lincoln quote to support their decision, “in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual." In the years that followed, more than 600,000 Americans died in a long and bloody civil war that vindicated the principle that the Constitution establishes a permanent union between the States. And shortly after the Civil War ended, the Supreme Court confirmed that "[t]he Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States" (Peacefully grant, 2012, para. 3). Next, a fundamental philosophy of Texan separatist is the idea of state rights. For example, Philips (2013) mentions that states like Texas can threaten the economy by romanticizing nullification of federal laws different from elected official’s ideas (para. 3). Accordingly, many scholars agree that nullification and secession is illegal (Rakove, 2014, p. 82). In the writings of Rakove et al., (2014) he explained that there is no mention of nullification, secession, or sovereignty in the constitution,

Charles B. Dew explains, “Leroy Pope Walker, Alabama’s commissioner to Tennessee and subsequently the first Confederate secretary of war, predicted that in the absence of secession all would be lost- first, “our property”, and “then our liberties, and finally the South’s greatest treasure, “the sacred purity of our daughters.” The southerners justified the secession because they believed everything they owned and even the purity of their daughters would be destroyed. The southern states justified secession, because they weren’t allowed to practice their beliefs, and, if they did, there were costs. The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States explains their reason for seceding, “Our people, still attached to the Union from habit and national traditions, and averse to change, hoped that time, reason, and argument would bring, if not redress, at least exemption from further insults, injuries, and dangers. Recent events have fully dissipated all such hopes and demonstrated the necessity of separation.”

First, the Texans fought for states rights. “This is a Union of equal states, and no state can force another state to remain in it or withdraw from it.” (Doc. C). “No state upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the union.” (Doc. C). The Texans fought to deliver equal power and rights to the states among the union.

With Texas apart of the U.S. the citizens' rights were protected and safe by the constitution. Without the constitution their rights would not be safe and the people would start losing rights until they had none. Houston not only believed it was his job to respect the people's rights but also respect the U.S. and he knew that secession was unconstitutional. Houston did not want to disrespect the U.S. and he needed their help. Without the U.S.

Second, many states held state ratifying conventions in order to discuss the option of secession. Since this act of secession was never viewed as possible the state ratifying conventions were viewed as an act of rebellion not an act of secession. As Abraham Lincoln once said "A husband and wife may be divorced and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country can not do this."

The main question that had been asked was whether Texas should stay apart of the union or leave to be their individual “territory”. Sam Houston’s inauguration in December of 1859 made him “the only man to this day who served as governor of two states” (Gone to Texas, page. 236). He was the governor of Tennessee as well as Texas, which aroused expressions of anger from “ultra-southerners”. According to Sam Houston’s “Demagogical Union Saving Doctrines” (Gone to Texas, pg. 236) Runnels explained how it will evidently cause mass controversy and irreparable blow upon Southerners and their interests at the time. According to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, “Texas was not far behind”. Sam Houston refused to call the legislature into a special session to consider secession. Many

Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.” The four times that the North and South had compromised, there were usually only a few issues, or even a single issue. But when 1860 had come around, there were multiple events that occurred before it was too late for a compromise. The South had endured a few events before they decided to secede; these events slowly polarized opinions between the North and the South, leading to a growing sense of sectionalism which identified more with the North or South than they did with the Union. Even though the North and the

There are certain things that people are remembered for throughout one’s life. And there is that moment that helps define one’s character or that moment can overshadows one’s accomplishments. Sam Houston’s refusal to accept the articles of secession served as an example of what he thought was his personal responsibility not only to himself but that of Texas. With that one moment in history, people quickly forgot and ignored what Sam Houston had done for Texas and the United States.

These three articles demonstrate three unique individuals who during the 1850s supported the Unionist ideology. Their analysis by these scholars represents the differing viewpoints held by the typical Unionist that resided in Texas during the 1850s and early 1860. Unionist, for the most part, possessed the same social and cultural similarities, but at different times during their political careers decided to make changes in their support for or against secession in Texas.

Texas joined the Confederate States of America on March 2, and afterward supplanted its representative, Sam Houston, when he declined to take an oath to the Confederate States of America. These seven states withdrew from the United States and took control of military/maritime establishments, ports, and custom houses inside their limits, setting off the American Civil War.

The issue of secession by the representatives of the South was focused on the influence of the non-slaveholding States, especially in the North and the Western parts of the country to try and abolish the institution of Slavery. The leaders believed that the abolishment of the institution would significantly affect the economic prosperity of the region as the abolishment of the institution of Slavery will reduce the availability of cheap labor from the slaves, and this would make the farmers suffer high production costs. Preston believed that the push for secession was constitutional because it would allow the Government of South Carolina to implement the constitutional provisions, whose implementation have been compromised due to the influence of the non-slaveholding nations.

Ever since Abraham Lincoln became president, Texas has wanted to secede from the United States. Sam Houston, being loyal to the U.s. Constitution, was against it since the beginning, but that didn’t stop people from secretly calling for a convention to vote on it. Many of the delegates, from what I’ve heard, voted for it, therefore, they made the Ordinance of Secession. It basically states that the U.S. was abusing its power by trying to interfere with Texas’s