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 ^^^ -^-'-^ Resolutions of 
 
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Jan. 19, 1865.— Laid on 
 the table, and ordered to be printed. 
 
 RESOLTJTIOISrS 
 
 Of the State of Texas, concerning peace, reconstruction, and 
 independence. 
 
 Whereas, amOBg the political parties of the United States the 
 question of a re-union of those States with those of the Confede- 
 racy is being agitated, and in order to promote such re-union it is 
 nrggd thot delegates be chosen from each of the States in the Con- 
 federacy and in the Union, to meet in Convention to reform the 
 Constitution of, the United States, which proposition is coupled 
 with the quasi pledge, that such amendment shall be made to the 
 ConstUution as will forever guarantee the institution of African 
 slavery in the States in this Confederacy; and, Whereas, it is possi- 
 ble that the political party in the United States advocating that 
 proposition may prevail at the approaching election in choosing the 
 Executive of that Government, and that consequently the forego- 
 ing proposition may he attempted to be made to the States of the 
 Confederacy ; JVow, we of the State of Texas, believing that it is 
 proper to meet such proposition in advance, have resolved as 
 follows : 
 
 Resolution 1st. Be it Resolved by the Legislature of the State of 
 Texas, That neitlier the above proposition nor any other can be 
 made to the people of this State, by the United States or any other 
 foreign people, the government of tlie Confederate States being 
 the only organ of the States in the Confederacy, for the transac- 
 tion of business with foreign nations, and such proposition, if made 
 at all, must be made to the government of the Confederate States, 
 and, if made to the government of this State, will not be enter- 
 tained. 
 
 Resolution 2d. That we recognize in that proposition no good 
 faith, but merely an insidious policy, to " divide and conquer;" a 
 policy through which it is hoped to detach some of the States from 
 the Confederacy, thereby to weaken and demoralize the rest To 
 accomplish this an appeal is made to our love of property, which as 
 it is the all prevailing motive to the actions of the people of the 
 North, they supposed would control our conduct. 
 
 Resolution 3d. That it will be well for the people of the North 
 to understand, even at this late day, that the Southern States did 
 not secede from the Union upon any question sucli as the mere pre- 
 servation of the slave property of their citizens. But, that being 
 free and sovereign States, they were resolved to preserve their 
 freedom and their sovereignty. They were free to govern them- 
 
2 • . 
 
 selves as they, and not othcr.s, saw fit. Tliey were free to 
 change their G;®vcrnn)cnt, to erect a new one, and to make what- 
 ever alliances they sliould choose. And after nearly four years of 
 arduous war, these States are still unwavering in their resolution 
 to preserve their freedom and their sovereignty, without which all 
 else is valueless. 
 
 Rfsolution 4th. That could the present war and all its horrors 
 lie blotted out of our memories, our past experience while in the 
 Union would warn us from any re-union with the people of the 
 North. A written Constitution adopted by our ancestors and theirs, 
 which contained plainly worded euarantees of the rights of all was 
 by them and their sworn Representatives, deliberately and persis- 
 tently violated to cur injury ; and finally after years of discussion 
 when tlie question was undcrstandingly before the people at lai-ge, 
 they elected a Chief Magistrate with the purpose that he should 
 dcHtroy our liberties in disregard of the Constitution wliicli he had 
 sworn to support; thus exhiiiiting an instance of radical and wide- 
 spread national depravity, to the honor of human natare, never ex- 
 hibited in tlie world before. 
 
 Resnlution 5th. But we could not if we would, banish from our 
 memory the iniiumanitics of this war. Our enemies have repudia- 
 ted every principle of civilized warfare. They have withdra\vn 
 their felons from Jail? and Penitentiaries, have recruited from the 
 scum of Euro{»o, aad armed our own slaves, in order to procure an 
 army suHiciently atrocious for their purpose; and this army has 
 been launched upon us willrtlie declared object of our extermina- 
 tion. Poisoned weapons have been manufactured and used. Ex- 
 change of prisoners has been refused until the success of our armies 
 extorted a cartel, and the terms of this have been violated by them 
 whenever the varying fortune of the field made it api)arcntly ad- 
 vantageous to do so. Our countrymen when captured have been 
 removed to rigorous climes, and subjected to every hardship, that 
 thus they might ))c destroyed. Non-combatants have l)eeu murder- 
 ed. Indiscriminate onslaught has been made upon totteiing age 
 and tender youtli. Our chaste and defenceless vromcn have been 
 submitted to outrage worse than death. Peaceful villages have been 
 bombarded, and lijqipy homes plundered and burnt. Whole popu- 
 lations have boon i-emoved and bondaged to Nortliern masfcrs. 
 Desolation has marched with their armies. Religious services have 
 been prohibited ; ministei's of the gospel of peace have been incar- 
 cerated and silenced, and sacriligious hands have been laid upon 
 our sacred altai-s. Eying to themselves, and pretending to the rest 
 of the world that tliey are righting the l)attle of freedom for four 
 millions of happy and contented negroes, they are attempting the 
 enslavement of eight millions of freenaen. With devilish mock- 
 ery of philanthropy, they have deluded and dragged these negroes 
 from their comfortable homes to use them as screens from our 
 weapons in the day of battle, and they have sent them by thousands 
 to painful death by neglect, exposure and starvation Words can 
 
not express the inaliijiiity in their hearts or tlie atrocity of their 
 deeds, exceeding as tliey do all tliat was ever conceived by men 
 from tke Scythian down to the Comanche. Nor has this been the 
 conduct of an unbridled soldierly merely. Those offieersof their 
 army who have surpassed the rest of the infamous, in infamy, have 
 been rewarded with promotion by their Government. Nor has 
 their Government been alone in identifyinir itself with these crimes. 
 The people of Ihc North have never failed, when the opportunity 
 was presented, to render ovations to the most transcendent among 
 the criminals, while their press has been constant in its laudation 
 and their orators and preachers have cried out " well done" Army, 
 government, and people, have united to make the name of Yankee, 
 suggestive as it was before of fraud, now the synonym of barbarism 
 and baseness. 
 
 Resolution 6th. Ry the Just pride of the manhood and the virtue 
 which we claim as individuals and ns a people; by the divine com- 
 mand which warns us not to walk in the way with the wicked ; by 
 the memory of our murdered dead ; by the ?ight of the b'^reaved 
 mothers, widows, sisters, daughters and orphans in our land ; by 
 the heart brokencess of trampled virtue; and by our desolated 
 hearths, we are forbidden to admit a thouglit of further association 
 with the peo])le of the North. <^ur hcnvc soldiers, the living, and 
 the martyred dead. forl)id it; and our trust, in God forbids it. 
 
 Resolution 7th. We declare tiiat we are earnestly desirous of 
 peace, but we say no less distinctly that it must be coupled with 
 our independence. And if the ])eople of the United States be 
 really dis{»oscd to lorminate the war, they will best prove that dis- 
 position by making their proposition to the Government of the Con- 
 federate States, which alone cau enteitain it. 
 
 Resolution Sth. That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted 
 to the President of the Confederate States, to each of our Senators 
 and Representatives in Congress, and to tlie (Tovornorof oacli State 
 in the Confederacy. 
 
 Approved, November 12. 18G4. 
 
 Statb of Tkxas, 
 
 Department of State. 
 I, Robert J. Town, s, Secretary of State of the State of Texas, 
 do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of 
 the original, now on file in my Department. In testimony whereof, 
 I have hereunto signed my name and caused the Seal of my De- 
 partment to be affixed, at Austin, this I5th day of November, A. D., 
 1864. 
 
 R J. TOWNES. 
 
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