The 1861 Texas Printings of the Ordinance of Secession, a Declaration of the Causes and an Address to the People of Texas by Everett C. Wilkie Jr. (review)

On January 28, 1861, following the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States and against the wishes of Governor Sam Houston, 177 Texas delegates assembled in convention in Austin to react to the "insults, threats, and aggressions" from the federal government. Governor Houston counseled patience and warned that "Passion is rash" and that "wisdom considers well her way" (quoted in Randolph B. Campbell, Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State, 242), but he was unable to slow the grass roots demand that Texas separate from the Union. He did manage to get the legislature to agree that any action taken by the convention be submitted to the people for ratification.

Under the leadership of O. M. Roberts, Texas Supreme Court judge, the secession convention quickly drafted and adopted an ordinance "to dissolve the union between the State of Texas and the other States" and set February 23 as the date of the referendum. The convention then followed on February 2 with A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union, which justified secession because, among other reasons, "the governments of the various States . . . were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity" and "that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race." Both of these documents were translated into Spanish and German, printed in three languages, and disseminated throughout the state as a part of the propaganda effort to convince voters to support secession. Little effort was needed, and 46,154 Texans voted in favor of secession and only 14,747 voted against it. The convention completed its work with An Address to the People of Texas (March 30), also issued in three languages.

The printing history of these documents has long been a part of the record, as compiled by C. W. Raines, Ernest W. Winkler, Llerena B. Friend, T. Michael Parrish, Robert M. Willingham, and others. John F. Marshall of the Texas State Gazette was the official state printer who produced most of them, but when Everett C. Wilkie Jr., an independent scholar and former head librarian of the Connecticut Historical Society, recently tried to confirm and reproduce their results, he found the record sometimes inaccurate and confused. This work is intended to provide sufficient bibliographic detail and an accurate census of all the rare and important 1861 Texas printings of these three documents. One example of each is reproduced in color. Wilkie has made no attempt to track later printings of the documents.

Wilkie made several interesting discoveries in his research. Several of the previously documented copies turned out to be ghosts or could not be located. It is fascinating that, apparently, the only copy of any of the Spanish and German language printings that still exists is a photostat of the Declaration, even though thousands of copies of all the documents were ordered printed. Wilkie's annotations are helpful, especially because he tries to coordinate his findings with those of previous bibliographers.

Bradley Hutchison designed and printed the letterpress edition and Austin Digital Printing provided the color plates for the edition of 240 copies. Jace Graf of Cloverleaf Studio in Austin bound forty copies of the edition in quarter leather. All are available from the Book Club of Texas.