Texans Vote Not Once But Twice To Leave The Union

Even though the outcome was never in doubt on Feb. 1, 1861, tension filled the air as the time came for the 174 delegates to the special convention to cast their ballots on the question of secession.

James W. Throckmorton rose in opposition to the resolution that would end the decade and a half of Lone Star statehood. “Mr. President,” the Collin County representative said to the presiding officer, “in view of the responsibility, in the presence of God and my country, and unawed by the wild spirit of revolution around me, I vote