Texas and the Civil War - Secession Convention

The convention began outside the law. Only the governor could call the legislature into special session, and only the legislature could convene a convention; when Sam Houston refused, Chief Justice Oran M. Roberts, John S. Ford and others had the calls printed in newspapers. Houston then convened the legislature, hoping it would declare the gathering illegal, but legislators validated it instead. Delegates were often chosen by voice vote at public meetings that Unionists avoided. About 40 percent were lawyers and about 70 percent slaveowners. James W. Throckmorton of Collin County was the most outspoken of those voting no.

What the plaque says

Texas and the Civil War - Secession Convention The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 caused unrest and drastic action all over the South and in many Texas counties. Despite petitions, editorials and political pressure, Gov. Sam Houston refused to call a special legislative session to consider the position Texas should take. On Dec. 3, 1860, a group of secession leaders took matters into their own hands and called on the people to elect delegates to a convention to meet in Austin on Jan. 28, 1861. Counties sent 177 delegates, and the convention met in the capitol from Jan 28 to Feb. 4 and March 2 to March 25. A Committee on Public Safety, with broad powers, acted for the convention between sessions. By vote of 166 to 7, the convention adopted the Ordinance of Secession and called for a statewide election--the first state in the Confederacy to let voters have a direct voice. 108 of the 122 counties favored secession by a vote of 46,129 to 14,697. The convention voted to join the Confederacy, send delegates to its congress, gear for war and raise troops to protect the frontier. When Gov. Sam Houston refused to take the oath supporting the Confederacy, the convention replaced him with the Lieutenant Governor, Edward Clark. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Capitol — steps away
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 0.4 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.6 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• Harry Ransom Center — 0.7 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.

More markers nearby

• The Archive War — steps away
• Confederate Texas Legislatures — steps away
• Tyler Rose — steps away
• Texas Highway Department — steps away