All My Exes Live In Texas

Well, they don't really (I just like the song)  - but if they did, they might be waist deep in a right proper secession movement. As of this morning (November 13, 2012) the good people of the state (perhaps soon to be Republic) of Texas have amassed well over 60,000 signatures petitioning the United States government to allow a peaceful secession from the United States. To find out more and see for yourself what has motivated these Lone Star patriots, click HERE. The number of signatures is growing exponentially and I am looking forward to further developments.


K

Sam Houston and Secession

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

We all know the story - the election of Abraham Lincoln precipitated the secession of seven lower South states. By December 1860, lower South secessionists were set to move pretty quickly. South Carolina was out of the Union on December 20. Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama left on January 9, 10, and 11 respectively. Georgia seceded on January 19 and Louisiana on the 26th. On the 1st of February, the last of the seven lower South states, Texas, left the Union.

But even in the lower South, where the movement for secession was most vocal, the voice of caution sounded from some of the higher echelons of state government (except maybe in South Carolina, but we can talk about that another day). I am speaking today of Sam Houston - hero in the movement for Texas independence, advocate of annexation, and governor of Texas during the secession winter of 1860-61.

Houston fought the secessionists as hard as he could. He claimed that if Texas left the Union that the move would weaken their society and threaten the very things that secessionists were claiming to safeguard. He refused to recognize the secession convention that met in Austin in January, 1861. But Houston's days as governor were numbered. Once the state voted to leave the Union he was simply replaced by lieutenant governor Edward Clark. The eviction, as it were, happened on March 16, when Houston refused to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy. He wrote:

"Fellow-Citizens, in the name of your rights and liberties, which I believe have been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the nationality of Texas, which has been betrayed by the Convention, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the Constitution of Texas, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of my own conscience and manhood, which this Convention would degrade by dragging me before it, to pander to the malice of my enemies, I refuse to take this oath. I deny the power of this Convention to speak for Texas....I protest....against all the acts and doings of this convention and I declare them null and void."

Houston might have been in the minority in the lower South, but his actions during the secession crisis show that not everyone was on board with the movement to establish a new slave-holding republic. Houston exemplifies not the voice of moderation - not the wait and see attitude of some of those less vehement on the secession movement - but the voice of opposition. To no avail. Once he was ousted, he retired to his home in Galveston. But he had this to say to his fellow Texans before he bid farewell to public life.

"Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of states rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South."

Don't mess with Texas? Forget about it...don't mess with Sam Houston.

Peace,

Keith

Robert E. Lee's "Country"

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

I have been been dutifully at my post scouring Youtube for interesting videos worthy of sharing here. I came across this one portraying a Robert E. Lee reenactor giving his take on allegiance to his "country" of Virginia and how the founders formed a union of "countries" under the Constitution.

I will have to give props to the reenactor - he has the look down. But his understanding of the formation of a union of sovereign countries seems a little more than problematic. Like Lincoln, many other folks understood that the formation of a union of former colonies made one country of constituent parts - and thus the formation of the Union created states...bound by allegiance to an indissoluble nation. What do you think?

Peace,

Keith

The Charleston Mercury Defends the Fight for Slavery...in 1865

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

I run across people all the time who try to convince me that the Confederacy was not established to preserve the institution of slavery. Of course I think that is nonsense - so I figured that from time to time I would a post tidbit of primary evidence to illustrate exactly how slavery was the driving force behind secession and war.

So here is a succinct, straight to the point newspaper article. Now I know that one article does not prove an argument. So stay tuned - I will give you lots and lots. This article  from an 1865 edition of the Charleston Mercury - the day is unknown but it seems like the CSA is very close to the end - is a good place to start. Sorry, no picture of the actual article - so I posted and old page of the Mercury from 1861.

Pay special attention. The author notes slavery explicitly as the cause of the war and the reason to maintain the fight...despite the severe losses endured by the South. Further, alluding to the proposition that blacks be enlisted to fight for the Confederacy, the Mercury takes a firm stand against arming black people. It would only lead to emancipation, notes the author - thus rendering their secession pointless.

I have quoted the article below in full (in italics). Please note that when I quote primary evidence I leave the language, grammar, and spelling exactly as written. I do NOT sanitize for your protection. Therefore, some of you may be offended by the choice of words. Rest assured, these are the words of the AUTHOR OF THE MERCURY, not mine.

In 1860 South Carolina seceded alone from the old union of States. Her people, in Convention assembled, invited the slaveholding States (none others) of the old Union to join her in erecting a separate Government of Slave States, for the protection of their common interests. All of the slave states, with the exception of Maryland and Kentucky, responded to her invitation. The Southern Confederacy of slave States was formed.

It was on account of encroachments upon the institution of slavery by the sectional majority of the old Union, that South Carolina seceded from that Union. It is not at this late day, after the loss of thirty thousand of her best and bravest men in battle, that she will suffer it to be bartered away; or ground between the upper and nether mill stones, by the madness of Congress, or the counsels of shallow men elsewhere.

By the compact we made with Virginia and the other States of this Confederacy, South Carolina will stand to the bitter end of destruction. By that compact she intends to stand or to fall. Neither Congress, nor certain makeshift men in Virginia, can force upon her their mad schemes of weakness and surrender. She stands upon her institutions—and there she will fall in their defence. We want no Confederate Government without our institutions. And we will have none. Sink or swim, live or die, we stand by them, and are fighting for them this day. That is the ground of our fight—it is well that all should understand it at once. Thousands and tens of thousands of the bravest men, and the best blood of this State, fighting in the ranks, have left their bones whitening on the bleak hills of Virginia in this cause. We are fighting for our system of civilization—not for buncomb, or for Jeff Davis. We intend to fight for that, or nothing. We expect Virginia to stand beside us in that fight, as of old, as we have stood beside her in this war up to this time. But such talk coming from such a source is destructive to the cause. Let it cease at once, in God’s name, and in behalf of our common cause! It is paralizing to every man here to hear it. It throws a pall over the hearts of the soldiers from this State to hear it. The soldiers of South Carolina will not fight beside a nigger’ to talk of emancipation is to disband our army. We are free men, and we chose to fight for ourselves—we want no slaves to fight for us.... Hack at the root of the Confederacy—our institutions—our civilization—and you kill the cause as dead as a boiled crab.

So....there you go. Not enough, you say? Stick around - there is much much much more to come.

Peace,

Keith

Baltimore 1861 - The Pratt Street Riot

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

My Twitter friend @EmilyHill_Indie was asking about Civil War Baltimore the other day...which naturally made me think of all the mayhem that took place there right at the beginning of the war.

As you all probably know, Maryland - a border/slave-holding state - entertained the idea of secession in 1861. Many citizens had southern leanings, and would have preferred joining the Confederacy...a prospect that would have been very embarrassing for the United States. Had Maryland seceded, the US national capital would have been in the Confederacy.

But of course that never happened. Maryland remained loyal to the US...at least for the most part. But there were still plenty of Marylanders who were pro-Confederate...especially in Baltimore. On April 19, 1861 - secessionists and would be Rebels got to prove it.

It seems that the Union 6th Massachusetts Regiment were on their way to Washington City and had to transfer trains in Baltimore. There was no direct rail line through town and the unit had to march the 10 blocks west along Pratt Street to make their connection.

An angry mob (is there any other kind of mob?) gathered and began to follow the soldiers - they broke windows, threw bricks, shouted oaths...and then somebody in the mob fired a pistol. All hell broke loose and the 6th fired into the crowd - prompting a brawl between soldiers, a pro-Confederate mob, and the Baltimore police. In the end, four Union soldiers and twelve Baltimore citizens lay dead.

The entire state of Maryland fell under the scrutiny of the Lincoln administration - by May 13, Union troops under Benjamin Butler entered Baltimore and declared martial law. The pro-Confederate mayor, city council, and police commissioner were arrested and imprisoned at Fort McHenry. eventually, Union troops were deployed throughout the state.

And there you have it - the Rebels stirred up quite a fuss in Baltimore - a (sort of) northern city with definite southern sympathies. And for their troubles...Baltimore became - more or less - an occupied city.

peace,

Keith

Elmer E. Ellsworth - an Unfortunate Civil War First

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

Who has the unfortunate distinction of being the first officer killed in the Civil war - none other than Elmer E. Ellsworth.

Ellsworth was a New Yorker and an attorney in civilian life, he raised and commanded the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry (the Fire Zouaves) at the beginning of the war, and he was a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln.

Here's how it all went down. On May 24th 1861 - the day after Virginia's voters ratified their state's secession, President Lincoln noticed a huge Rebel flag flying over an inn in Alexandria Virginia...just across the Potomac from Washington City.

Ellsworth, who had worked at Lincoln's law firm, helped in his presidential campaign, and who had accompanied the president to Washington, offered to go over and take care of things - which he then proceeded to do.

He led the 11th into Alexandria, deployed his men in various places in town, and took four men to the Marshall House Inn to remove the heinous banner. When he came down the Inn's stairs with flag in hand, Inn keeper James W. Jackson unloaded a shotgun into Elsworth's chest - killing him on the spot. A Union corporal - Francis Brownell  - in turn killed Jackson. (He later won the Medal of Honor for this).

Lincoln, extremely saddened by the death of his friend, ordered an honor guard to carry him to the White House - where he lay in state in the East Room before returning to New York - where thousands came to visit his body at New York City' s City Hall. He is buried in Mechanicville.

Peace,

Keith