Southern History Series: Texas Declaration of Secession

You will never see this on a Rainbow Confederate website.

Unlike those Boomers, we’re only interested in the truth here. The truth is that Texas seceded from the United States to protect its ideal of a free government of White men endowed with equal civil and political rights which were to be enjoyed exclusively by the White race for themselves and their posterity. It emphatically rejected the debasing classical liberal doctrine of the equality of all men in the Declaration of Independence for being at war with nature and contrary to the experience of mankind:

“In all the non-slave-holding States, in violation of that good faith and comity which should exist between entirely distinct nations, the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party, now strong enough in numbers to control the affairs of each of those States, based upon an unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of equality of all men, irrespective of race or color– a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of Divine Law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between the white and negro races, and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States. . .

In view of these and many other facts, it is meet that our own views should be distinctly proclaimed.

We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.

That in this free government *all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights* [emphasis in the original]; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states.

By the secession of six of the slave-holding States, and the certainty that others will speedily do likewise, Texas has no alternative but to remain in an isolated connection with the North, or unite her destinies with the South.

We the delegates of the people of Texas, in Convention assembled, have passed an ordinance dissolving all political connection with the government of the United States of America and the people thereof and confidently appeal to the intelligence and patriotism of the freemen of Texas to ratify the same at the ballot box, on the 23rd day of the present month.”

Is it racist?

Yes, it was racist. This is why it happened though. This is the reason why Texas seceded from the United States to join the Confederacy. Texas wanted to remain a White Republic.

Note: Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens explained in the Cornerstone Speech that the new government was based on the rejection of classical liberalism and the affirmation of natural inequality. The Confederate war aim was to reject liberal democracy entirely in favor of building a Patrician Republic more congenial to the organic culture of the Cavalier.