Texas Seceded 150 Years Ago Today: Five Reasons It Was a Great Idea
On this day 150 years ago, the Texas legislature voted to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.
Sam Houston said no to this
Nowadays, of course, we have a governor who daydreams about the seceding, if not (necessarily) the Confederacy part.
So it makes sense to look at how things worked out for the Lone Star state. Five highlights:
5. No ruinous health-care reform or air-pollution legislation was adopted
Texans remained free to die from treatable diseases and pour any kind of crap into the rivers or air, just as it should be. Also, they were allowed to keep their slaves.
4. The borders were protected, dammit
Well, mostly at Galveston and Sabine Pass, and mostly from white Union solders, but still.
3. Sharia law was not established in Texas
But -- and it's a huge, huge, but -- the legislature met in a chamber that did not have "In God We Trust" emblazoned on its walls, a horrifying lapse that would not be rectified until Texans came to their senses and elected Dan Patrick to the state Senate. Would having "In God We Trust" mean Texas would have stayed in the Union? We'll never know.
2. We got rid of that damn Sam Houston as governor
The Raven was replaced by such notable men as Edward Clark, Francis Lubbock and Pendleton Murrah.
1. If we hadn't seceded, "Six Flags Over Texas" would be completely wrong
And "Five Flags" just doesn't sing. Historians are unsure whether secession was driven more by a desire to keep black people enslaved or to add just one more flag; the debate rages on.
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