Role Of Secession In Texas

Politically, the Unionist leadership were out matched by the wave of secessionist leadership coming into power during the mid-to-late 1950s in Texas. The next three articles describe typical traits of the Unionist leadership and how those traits motivated them both politically and socially in the eventual support for or against secession. Kenneth Wayne Howell’s article, “When the Rabble Hiss, Well May Patriots Tremble: James Webb Throckmorton and the Secession Movement in Texas, 1854-1861,” describes the political life of one of the most outspoken critics of secession in Texas, James Webb Throckmorton. By providing a detailed analysis of Throckmorton’s opposition to secession, Howell “provides a framework for understanding Unionism in the …show more content…
Howell asserts “two critical events occurred that fueled the flames of secession in Texas – John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, and an insurrection-arson panic, which swept through East Texas.” These events caused fear within citizenry that helped fuel the secessionist propaganda that used “any accident or deviant behavior in the state on abolitionist plots designed to kill white Southerners and to free the slaves.” Throckmorton and Reagan continued to fight secession from within up until the secession convention. Once the citizens voted three to one for secession, he like other moderate Unionists, joined the Confederate military. He cites three reasons for joining with the Confederates. First, he feared reprisals from Confederates who would attack those who supported the Unionist vote in North Texas, so he encouraged others to follow his example and join the Confederate military. Second, he feared that without the Federal army to protect the frontier from Indian raids, he needed the Confederate army to fill the void left by the Federal army in protecting the frontier. Finally, the Republican Party had taken steps to towards enacting policies “that would free the South’s slaves and that would ultimately guarantee them equality with whites.” This threat of black equality, threatened the social and cultural society of the South. Unionist, like Throckmorton, believing in white superiority, decided to join the Confederate army to block the initiatives started by Lincoln’s Republican Party. Howell’s study on Throckmorton demonstrates an accurate analysis towards understanding Unionist in Texas. He provides an excellent list of characteristics of a typical moderate Unionist, the reasons for fighting the secessionist, and provides reasons why Unionist, like Throckmorton and Reagan, later joined the Confederate military following the secession