Texas Secedes

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RIP FORD

Part 18: Texas Secedes

by Bob Heinonen

John Salmon Ford returned to the good graces of the Democratic party just in time to take up his next cause – one that would remove Texas from union with the United States and see it live under its sixth national flag.

Since the death of his wife, Louisa, in 1846, Rip had not remarried and, in fact, was too busy to date. But then, he met Miss Addie Smith of Brownsville in November of 1859 while bivouacked there with his ranger company during the “Cortina War”. Addie was only 22 years old and the daughter of a wealthy merchant and Rip was 45 and still moving from adventure to adventure.

“Then word came of trouble to the north: Austin was in turmoil over the 1860 presidential elections. Both Republicans and Democrats were holding freedom rallies. A group of fire-eaters headed by Oran M. Roberts [associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court], John A. Green and C. R. Johns were warning that if Lincoln and his sectional party won the election, Texas would secede from the Union. Ford, asking Addie to wait for him, left for Austin at once.

Rip found the capital the scene of feverish activity, for Abraham Lincoln had just been elected President by a largely sectional vote. Up and down the streets marched groups of secessionists waving torches and carrying signs condemning Lincoln and his “abolitionist” government. Ford became immediately an active agitator. With other secessionists he broke up small Unionist meetings and denounced anyone who spoke for moderation.”[i]

“On November 8, 1860, the event dreaded in Texas happened; Lincoln secured sufficient electoral votes to win the Presidency. It was, as [Sam] Houston predicted, a triumph of sectionalism over sectionalism, rather than a national victory. Lincoln was a minority President, by almost one million votes….Lincoln’s victories were confined to only a few big states, all in the North….The startling, and dangerous, quality of this victory was that Lincoln got less than 100,000 votes outside the states he carried. He got none at all in Texas and in several other Southern states.”[ii]

Ford’s attitude toward the abolition of slavery was the typical Southern opinion of the time. He believed that slavery was sanctioned, most importantly, by the Christian Bible; by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; by time and custom; by economics. He believed that, of course, the North didn’t need slavery because the type of economy that required slavery was in the South. “Abolitionism wasn’t the only reason Ford thought Texas must secede. The lackadaisical attitude of the United States government in protecting the state’s frontier was, ‘in my opinion,’ ample ‘cause to sever…connection with the Union on this very head.’ Thousands of Texans agreed with him. And in their secession ordinance, they insisted that inadequate frontier protection as much as abolitionism and economic coercion justified Texas in leaving the Union.”[iii]

“On the platform Rip Ford spoke wildly in favor of another Texas Republic, followed by others advocating similar dreams. But over in the capitol, Governor [Sam] Houston, in face of state-wide sentiment for secession, still refused to call a convention to consider it, still argued that as loyal Americans who believed in the democratic process, they must all submit to Lincoln’s victory at the polls. So secessionists Ford, Roberts and George Flournoy ignoring law and constitution issued their own call for a convention to assemble at Austin on January 28 [1861]. Delegates were to be chosen in a special election on January 8.”[iv]

“When word came that towns around the state were flying the Lone Star flag and holding torchlight demonstrations, Ford and friends planned a huge parade in Austin for January 5. At mid-morning it moved off from the capitol, with parade marshal Ford in front on a white stallion, followed by a blaring band, then a long line of carriages full of screeching ladies who waved Lone Star flags…” At the intersection of Eighth and Colorado, “a color guard ran the Lone Star flag up a 130-foot flagpole especially erected for the occasion.”[v]

“When the secession convention assembled, Ford helped get Oran M. Roberts elected president, then made a speech calling for immediate separation but warning in grave tones that war would be the inevitable result….Whatever reservations he had about their action he dismissed when Texas voters overwhelming approved the secession ordinance on February 23, when days later Texas became a state in the newly formed Confederacy whose constitutional government guaranteed state supremacy and human bondage.”[vi]

In the aftermath of the secession, many good men had to decide on which side of the issue they stood. Sam Houston stood against secession and, as governor, refused to swear loyalty to the Confederacy. The State Legislature removed him from office. He was a broken, sick man who was against secession and yet he gave his saber to his son who joined the Confederate army.

Robert E. Lee was a U. S. Army Lieutenant Colonel serving in Texas. He knew “Secession was suicidal and meant certain disaster for the Southern people. But Lee said quietly that his higher loyalty must be to his own people, and to the state his family had served so long. He would go with Virginia.”[vii]

Before Rip went off to fight for his new cause, he married Addie in Brownsville on May 31, 1861. He would distinguish himself during the war and would also have the last word.

Next Month – Part 19: The War Between The States

Bob Heinonen is a founder of Texana Living History Association and has been portraying Rip Ford since 1993.