Allen...

A great post, and thank you for making a lot of sense of the feelings of the day concerning the John Brown conspiracy/events. A lot to reflect on!

To me, what you say brings to light what was being said (and why) in the Secession Ordinance of Texas, concerning the subjects of sectionalism, abolition, and slavery.

With the news editorials, the Republican’s campaign, the abolitionist movement…no one seems to try to have a calming voice.

Then you have the Knights of the Golden Circle forming a big following during this time…

What you say is definitely not being touched on in History classes at school.

I’m of the opinion folk seem to be trying too hard to push the slavery issue away from anything to do with the secession movement, and install all sorts of other reasons I have yet to see in writings of the 1860-61 period. The Texas Ordinance of Secession does not talk of (by name) Jeffersonian theories of the Constitution, or the other reasons folk come up with now, after the fact. The document was written about the concerns of the age old and largely accepted institution of slavery, and the threats coming from the radical abolitionists. The “non-slave-holding States, in violation of that good faith and comity which should exist between entirely distinct nations, the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party, now strong enough in numbers to control the affairs of each of those States, based upon the unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States…” says a lot of what they were thinking!

My thoughts will not be popular with many folk of this day and age. I look at what was being said, and written back in the days our ancestors decided to secede from the Union. What else would you expect from them when Lincoln called up for thousands of volunteers to put down the rebellion!

Looking at what they did back then, with our opinions of modern times now, would (and does) cause a great deal of confusion, and conflicting opinions.

Texans in the 1860s certainly weren't shy about being pro-slavery. To hear a debate between an ardent Texas Secessionist from back then, and a member of the Pro Southern Heritage persuasion now, the results would surprise many!

Kevin Dally