WASHINGTON CO. COMMISSIONERS APPROVE HISTORICAL MARKER RECOGNIZING SAM HOUSTON SPEECH
A famous speech from Sam Houston will be commemorated at the Washington County Courthouse.
Washington County Commissioners on Tuesday gave the Washington County Historical Commission (WCHC) permission to place a permanent Texas Historical Marker on the courthouse lawn.
WCHC Chair Tom Stevens said the marker will call back to March 31, 1861, when Sam Houston spoke at the courthouse following Texas’ secession from the Union. Houston had recently been deposed by the legislature because he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new Confederate government, and he was requested to speak to explain the reasons for his refusal.
Stevens said the WCHC’s application to the Texas Historical Commission was approved, but authority was needed from the county as the property owner. The marker will go up once renovations on the courthouse square are completed next year.
Arrangements are underway for the speech to be a part of the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street exhibits that are coming to Brenham this winter. Stevens said City of Brenham Tourism and Marketing Director Jennifer Eckermann wants the Historical Commission to put together a historical reenactment of the speech that will play at the Simon Theatre in January.
Commissioners thanked Stevens and the WCHC for their work on this project. Commissioner Kirk Hanath said the freedom of speech is one of the pinnacles of the U.S. Constitution and appreciates the WCHC recognizing this. Commissioner Candice Bullock said this not only acknowledges the importance of the First Amendment, but “a huge moment” in the history of both Washington County and the State of Texas.
Will we really hear an anti-civil war but pro-slavery speech recited at the Simon? Houston’s whole speech is that seceding would weaken the Union. He warns that the Southern states would need to rely on England or other countries for support – and England was the source of the Abolitionist movement.
Houston said, “How would these seceding States be received by foreign powers? If the question of their nationality could be settled (a difficult question, I can assure you, in forming treaties), what do you suppose would be stipulations to their recognition as powers of the earth? Is it reasonable to suppose that England, after starting this Abolition movement and fostering it, will form an alliance with the South to sustain slavery? No; but the stipulation to their recognition will be, the abolition of slavery. Sad will be the day for the institution of slavery, when the Union is dissolved, and with war at our very doors, we have to seek alliances with foreign powers.”
Will we hear these words spoken again in earnest, with pride, in Washington County? “The North does not want it, and we have nothing to do with that. Their customs are their own. They are guaranteed to them just as ours are to us. We have the right to abolish slavery—they have the right to establish it. It is our interest to have it. Climate, soil, association—all make the institution peculiarly suited to us.”
I have no interest in erasing history, but I also have no interest in memorializing or honoring a call to maintain slavery.
You have to read the Houston transcripts to understand why he made this statement.
Basically he’d been in 3 wars at this point and was older and didn’t want to fight fellow Americans. He had had slaves when he lived with the Indians in Louisiana. He thought the civil war would be over in a week. He was out of touch with politics at this time in his life.