received interesting criticism from the Governor of Texas, old
Sam Houston. To a commissioner from Alabama who was sent out to
preach the cause in Texas the Governor wrote, in substance, that
since Alabama would not wait to consult the people of Texas he
saw nothing to discuss at that time, and he went on to say:

Recognizing as I do the fact that the sectional tendencies of the
Black Republican party call for determined constitutional
resistance at the hands of the united South, I also feel that the
million and a half of noble-hearted, conservative men who have
stood by the South, even to this hour, deserve some sympathy and
support. Although we have lost the day, we have to recollect that
our conservative Northern friends cast over a quarter of a
million more votes against the Black Republicans than we of the
entire South. I cannot declare myself ready to desert them as
well as our Southern brethren of the border (and such, I believe,
will be the sentiment of Texas) until at least one firm attempt
has been made to preserve our constitutional rights within the
Union.

Nevertheless, Houston was not able to control his State.
Delegates from Texas attended the later sessions of a general
Congress of the seceding States which, on the invitation of
Alabama, met at Montgomery on the 4th of February. A contemporary
document of singular interest today is the series of resolutions
adopted by the Legislature of North Carolina, setting forth that,
as the State was a member of the Federal Union, it could not
accept the invitation of Alabama but should send delegates for
the purpose of persuading the South to effect a readjustment on
the basis of the Crittenden Compromise as modified by the