f state rights, the
North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery,
impulsive people, as you are, for the live in cooler climates.
But when they begin to move in a given direction, where great
interests are involved, they move with the steady momentum of a
giant avalanche, and what I fear is that they will overwhelm the
South with ignoble defeat."

During this speech a horse in a team near by grew restive, and
kicked out of harness, but was soon beaten to submission by his
driver. Houston seized on the incident for an illustration, saying:
"That horse tried a little practical secession--See how speedily
he was whipped back into the Union." This quick-witted remark
brought him applause from unsympathetic hearers.

Houston refused to recognize any Secession authority, and a few
days subsequent to his deposition retired to his home near Huntsville,
without friends, full of years, weak in body, suffering from wounds
received in his country's service, but strong in soul, and wholly
undismayed, though mourning his State's folly. In front of his
house on the prairie he mounted a four-pound cannon, saying: "Texas
may go to the devil and ruin if she pleases, but she shall not drag
me along with her." History does not record another such incident.
To the credit of the Secessionists, they respected the age and
valor of the old hero, and did not molest, but permitted him to
hold his personal "fortress" until his death, which occurred July
26, 1863 (three weeks after Vicksburg fell), in his seventy-first
year.

He died satisfied the Confederacy and secession would soon be
overthrown and the Union preserved.

(107) _Lincoln_ (N. and H.), vol. iii, pp. 180-1.

(108) Con., Art. I., Sec. 9, pars. 1, 4.

(109) Confederate Con., Art. I., Sec. 8, par. 1.

(110) McPherson's _Hist. of the Rebellion_, pp. 4-8.

XXIV
ACTION OF RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS, ETC.--1860-1

Significant above all other of the great events resulting from the
secession of the Southern States was the dissolution of the great
religious denominations in the United States.(111)

First, the Old School Presbyterian Church Synod of South Carolina,
early as December 3, 1860, declared for a slave Confederacy. This
was followed by other such synods in the South, all deciding for
separation from the Church North. The Baptists in Alabama, Georgia,
and South Carolina were equally prompt in taking similar action.

Likewise the Protestant Epis