Auction Name: 2026 February 26 Historical Manuscripts & Texana Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 47028

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6328*47028

[Sam Houston]. Address of Gen. Sam Houston, at the Union Mass Meeting, Austin, Texas, on the 22nd of September, 1860. [Austin]: Publisher unidentified, [circa 1860]. 8vo. 7, [1] pp. Printed self-wrappers, sewn.

Houston's anti-secession speech at the Union Mass Meeting in Austin, delivered six weeks before the pivotal presidential election of 1860. On the back of page 7, a political advertisement for the "Union Electoral Ticket," pledged to support the strongest candidates against Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin.

In the leadup to the election, Houston desperately urged Texans to avoid secession. Although no states had yet seceded from the Union, several were poised to withdraw should Lincoln secure the Presidency. Houston saw disunion as an impending disaster, warning the people of Texas:

"When we deny the right of a State to secede, we...are told, 'Let them go out and you can not whip them back.' My friends, there will be no necessity of whipping them back. They will soon whip themselves, and will not be worth whipping back. Deprived of the protection of the Union, of the aegis of the Constitution, they would soon dwindle into petty States, to be again rent in twain by dissensions or through the ambition of selfish chieftains, and would become a prey to foreign powers."

Unfortunately, Houston's words went unheeded. Immediately following Lincoln's victory, South Carolina held a special convention and voted to secede; by February of 1861, six more states, including Texas, had followed, forming the Confederate States of America. Houston, then governor of Texas, refused to swear an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy, leading the Texas legislature to declare his governorship vacant.

Condition: Moderately toned with scattered staining throughout. Minor edgewear, including a few small chips. Spine and gutters professionally repaired with archival tissue.

Reference: Winkler 1347.

Include Thumbnail(s)