Fragile Freedom

It was Thomas Jefferson who lamented that slavery would ultimately be the “rock upon which the old Union would split." Now the hammer had come down, and it came down hard. Already six states, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Georgia, declared themselves to be free and sovereign states, separating themselves from the Union. Even as pamphlets with titles like “The South Alone Should Govern the South” circulated radical elements wove their way through Southern society to take hold, rejecting any form of compromise. Despite the efforts of its Governor, Sam Houston, a Constitutional Unionist, the Legislature reaffirmed the Texas Secessionist Convention. Voting with the six states that had already left, all that was needed now were the results of a referendum later that month. Yet none who left, or who were looking to leave had any intention of standing alone. Even before Abraham Lincoln would be sworn in as the 16th President of the United States, they would have a Republic of their own