One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago Today...

Around 11:00 am, one hundred and fifty years ago today, the Texas Secession Convention voted 166 to 8 to leave the Union and join the Confederacy.

That’s a long time ago, all but ancient history to modern Americans, especially since we know how it all turned out. Let me ask you, however, if you can remember the election of 2010? Can you? It’s only been thirteen weeks since the GOP took control of the House of Representatives, causing many pundits to consider Obama’s days of importance numbered. And, yet, in this baker’s dozen of weeks, the tides have turned, haven’t they? Obama and the GOP reached some compromises, the tragic shootings in Tuscon have shocked us all, and now events in Africa have us riveted to our TV screens. My, how things have changed.

I bring up these events not for any modern political reason but to give you a sense of the passage of time since the election of 2010 and today, the anniversary of Texas claiming its sixth flag. Things can change on a dime here in the 21st Century. Not so much in the Nineteenth. By 1 February 1861, six states--all in the deep South--had left the Union (or entered a state of rebellion if you lived in Chicago). The secession crisis of 1860 had become the crisis of 1861, the southern states falling like dominoes. For all Americans in 1861, there seemed only one, inevitable result: war.

I’m not sure how my state is going to celebrate the vote today. It was, after all, just a vote. Union sympathizer Governor Sam Houston did all in his power to slow the proceedings or get the Texas Legislature to declare the secession convention illegal. The Legislature acted...by allowing the convention to use the House chambers to meet.

Houston did manage, however, to get the convention to put the question of secession to a public vote. The people of Texas responded on 23 February: 46,129 to 14,697. With renewed vigor, the convention reassembled and we finally got an event. Here is a passage from my Master’s Thesis on the Fourteenth Texas Infantry of the Civil War.

“The Texas secession convention required that all state officials swear allegiance to the Confederacy. Convinced that his beloved state was taking the wrong course of action, the governor remained holed up in his office on the day Texas state officials were to take the oath to the new government. Three times the cry carried through the halls of the state building in Austin for Governor Sam Houston to come to the podium and take the pledge, and three times the cry met with silence. Declaring the office vacant, the victorious convention member called for Houston’s successor. Never one to let an opportunity pass, the tall bearded lieutenant governor eagerly stepped forward and proclaimed his loyalty to the infant Confederate republic. Edward Clark of Marshall was now the eighth governor of Texas.”

Edward Clark would only serve for eight months. After his defeat in November, he left Austin to form the 14th Texas Infantry. But that is another post.

Time feels funny when it’s deep in the past. In these next fours years, however, we will get to experience the Civil War in real time, as the sesquicentennial anniversaries of all the major events and battles are celebrated. In doing so, we will have to remember where we were when we heard the results of the 2010 Election, our touchstone to the Election of 1860. April 9, 2014, may seem like a long way away, but, at least we know that date is coming. Try to imagine yourself a Texan on 1 February 1861, knowing the worst is coming, but knowing not when it will end. Or what it will cost. Kind of like the folks in Egypt now...

Wild West Monday - The Additional Fact

While we're all celebrating Wild West Monday and Texas Independence Day, it turns out that it's the birthday of none other than Sam Houston, 216 years ago today. (For those of y'all who don't like math, that's 1793.) The native Virginian went on to become governor of Tennessee, President of the Republic of Texas (twice), U. S. Senator from Texas, and, finally, in 1859, governor of Texas. When the secession fervor erupted after Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860, Houston, a strong Unionist, opposed secession. The Texas Legislature declared the office vacant and the governorship fell to Houston's Lt. Governor, Edward Clark. The name Clark may not mean much to, well, almost everyone but he was the colonel of the 14th Texas Infantry, the subject of my Master's thesis.

But today is Sam's day...and Texas Independence Day...and Wild West Monday! Go be Western!

Wild West Monday is Today*

Today is Wild West Monday over the blogosphere. For a complete rundown on what it all means, head on over to the Tainted Archive. In short, you should do this: go to your local bookstore and, if a western section isn't there, ask why. If a western section is there, buy one.

Living here in Houston means that at least one brick-and-mortar giant (B&N) does have a western section. I'm pretty sure Borders does, too. Yes, the section is small. Yes, it stocks the big names: L'amour, Leonard, Compten, Johnston. But it is there.

To date, I've only read two westerns: Mascarada Pass by William Colt MacDonald and Guns Along the Brazos by Day Keene (of crime fiction fame). I'm reading a second MacDonald for this week's Forgotten Books Project. And, lo and behold, I wrote my first western short story. It'll be available later this spring at the increasingly excellent webzine Beat to a Pulp. BTW, this week's story is a western by Chap O'Keefe, one of the famous names from the Black Horse Western line.

Depending on where you are in Texas, The West is either nearer or farther away. Here in Houston and elsewhere in East Texas, geography tends to dictate that we're more southern than western. Out in Ft. Worth, you are definitely in The West. Same for almost any town west of I-35.

As a Texan, western stories are just part of life. My grandfather devoured them. I was never really interested in them, to be honest. I preferred the Hardy Boys or Batman or Star Wars any day of the week. But lately, I've discovered a fondness for them. I inherited my grandfather's non-L'amour westerns and I'm going to work my way through them over the years. And I'll be trying my hand and writing a western later this year. Turns out the story I wrote for Beat to a Pulp might actually be a chapter one of a novel...or the start of a series character. Don't know. Looking forward to finding out.

All this is to say, westerns are an important part of American literature and shouldn't be dismissed or discarded. I don't think they will be but, as technology and the City encroaches outward, The West will shrink. It'll always be there: we may just have to search a little harder or go a littler farther to find it.

Or, you can read a western. So get on it, pard'ner.

*Today is Texas Independence Day. What better day for Wild West Monday?

Texas Historical and Literary Blogs at Texas Blog Notes

Recently, former librarian and life-long Texan, Will Howard, e-mailed me with a neat invitation. It seems someone had read my blog and recommended that Howard include my blog on his new bibliography of Texas-related literary and historical blogs. Needless to say, I was quite surprised and honored, especially when you consider some the other Texas author sites Howard chose (Bill Crider or Rick Riordan) are full-blooded professional writers with long careers. At that point, I was honored and humbled. Now, I have to step up.

Howard has compiled this bibliography and its available at a new website: Texas Blog Notes. If you are interested in Texas, history, or literature with a Texas slant, I encourage you to go on over and check out Howard's list. As a historian, a writer, and a Texan, this bibliography is a wonderful way to spend some great hours reading and learning and just having fun.