150 Years ago yesterday, according to the wonderful Civil War Online Dot Com “The American Civil War - The American Civil War presented day by day as it happened 150 years ago” the citizens of Houston County, Texas reacted to the distasteful (to them) results of the recent election:
- Good site to bookmark, BTW: http://www.civilwar-online.com
It would do well for us to remember that this modern Thanksgiving came about, in large part, because of what happened three years before the first Modern Thanksgiving, on Thursday, November 26, 1863.
Petition of the Citizens of Houston County
The good people of Houston County, Texas let their governor–the namesake of their fine county, Sam Houston–know exactly what is on their minds in this petition.
HOUSTON COUNTY, TEXAS, November 24th, 1860
To His Excellency, Sam Houston,
Governor of the State of TexasThe undersigned, your petitioners, most respectfully represent that the election of Abraham Lincoln, a Black Republican, to the Chief Magistracy of the United States, upon principles of aroused hostility to the South, and in palpable violation of the sacred compact of the Union, has filled their minds with the most gloomy apprehensions for the fate of the Institution of Slavery and the Constitutional rights and privileges. They therefore hope that Your Excellency will consider the alarming exigency of the times, and convene the Legislature forthwith, to the end, that such measures may be adopted as the right of self-preservation now demands. And your petitioners will ever pray, etc.
Names
RS Pridgen
James F Clinton
D. Gordon
R.W. Taylor
A.F. Taylor
D.W. Taylor
Frank Rainey
J.H. Clinton
W.B. Taylor
A.E. Taylor
James Lindley
James W. Kirkpatrick
R.T. Moreland
Wm R Murchisone
J.E. Sheriden
John Jones
J.F. Wyle
John Weisinger
Robert Black
The following spring, they would get their wish.
Sam Houston, failed 1860 Presidential candidate
Ah, “Black Republican” has become “Black Democrat,” but in all other particulars, t’would seem we haven’t progressed as far as we’d hoped. Thanksgiving, BTW, was first celebrated in the winter of 1863, declared by President Abraham Lincoln, that “Black Republican,” to pray and give thanks (for Vicksburg, giving the entirety of the Mississippi River to Union control; Gettysburg, repulsing the last Southern invasion of Northern territory and the salvation of the Army of the Cumberland after the disaster of Chickamauga). Wikipedia:
In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale,[1] proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863:
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.”
~ Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863
Now, turkey and football.
Courage.
[Note: this is backfilled from November 30, to make the author appear more consistent than he actually is.]
