The following is a brief essay written by Stone Fort Camp Compatriot Joe Allport.  It is in response to an essay published on October 16, 2016 in the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel.  The Sentinel failed to publish the response as they wished it to be shortened to 350 and published as a Letter to the Editor.   Mr. Allport declined to change it to a letter rather than essay to keep from losing the points being made for the sake of presentation in the newspaper.

Response to Essay by Dr. Sosebee Published October 16, 2016

The failures to resolve the economic and social issues of slavery and the expansion of territories were some of the reasons for Secession, but all of them were intertwined with the threat of an ever growing, un-Constitutional federal government.   The United States was deeply divided for decades over economic policies like tariffs and federal tax revenues spent on infrastructure (e.g. railroads) in Northern versus Southern states.  The Secession of the Southern States should not be confused as a reason for inevitable war any more than Lincoln’s election was the only cause.  Before anyone espouses strong opinions on these subjects, they should do the research and that includes studying the entire Texas Ordinance of Secession and learning the history of ante-bellum Texas.  The citizens of Nacogdoches voted in a public referendum when only 18 out of 122 counties voted against Secession.  Approximately 90,000 Texans served in the Confederate States Army and/or the Texas State Troops. 

By the disloyalty of the Northern States and their citizens and the imbecility of the Federal Government, infamous combinations of incendiaries and outlaws have been permitted in those States and the common territory of Kansas to trample upon the federal laws, to war upon the lives and property of Southern citizens in that territory, and finally, by violence and mob law to usurp the possession of the same as exclusively the property of the Northern States.

The Federal Government, while but partially under the control of these our unnatural and sectional enemies, has for years almost entirely failed to protect the lives and property of the people of Texas against the Indian savages on our border, and more recently against the murderous forays of banditti from the neighboring territory of Mexico; and when our State government has expended large amounts for such purpose, the Federal Government has refused reimbursement therefor, thus rendering our condition more insecure and harassing than it was during the existence of the Republic of Texas. 

These and other wrongs we have patiently borne in the vain hope that a returning sense of justice and humanity would induce a different course of administration.  (Texas Ordinance of Secession).

The citizens of Nacogdoches, Texas were not uninformed amoral dupes who could not make up their own minds in regards to the question of Secession.  And the matter was much more complicated than it may seem.  There were indeed fire eaters in the South who wanted nothing to do with the North except perhaps war.  The Southerners with the most to lose were the wealthy class who could and ultimately did lose most (or all) of their property.  Many rich men fought and died alongside farmers and tradesmen. 

There did not have to be a war to end slavery, but there had to be a war to subjugate 9 million Americans and centralize the federal government.  Slavery was a dying institution and there were many proponents who wanted the federal government to purchase slaves as it was done in Europe without bloodshed.  The monetary cost would have been much less than the cost of the War and 750,000 lives would have been saved.

Below is an example of what our ancestors thought about Secession and the aftermath.  It is the inscription on the Confederate Memorial that was erected in 1901, in front of the State Capitol in Austin.

DIED

FOR STATES RIGHTS

GUARANTEED UNDER THE CONSTITUTION

THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH, ANIMATED BY THE SPIRIT OF 1776, TO PRESERVE THEIR RIGHTS, WITHDREW FROM THE FEDERAL COMPACT IN 1861. THE NORTH RESORTED TO COERCION.

THE SOUTH, AGAINST OVERWHELMING NUMBERS AND RESOURCES,

FOUGHT UNTIL EXHAUSTED.

DURING THE WAR THERE WERE TWENTY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY SEVEN ENGAGEMENTS.

IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY TWO OF THESE, AT LEAST ONE REGIMENT TOOK PART. 

NUMBER OF MEN ENLISTED:

CONFEDERATE ARMIES 600,000; FEDERAL ARMIES 2,859,132

LOSSES FROM ALL CAUSES:

CONFEDERATE, 437,000; FEDERAL, 485,216

Joe Allport

Co-author of  “Texans at Antietam: A Terrible Clash of Arms, September 16-17, 1862” 

Great-great nephew of Captain Sam A. Willson, Company F, 1st Texas Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia and signatory of the Texas Ordinance of Secession.