Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 11.djvu/22

8 lieutenant-governor, F. R. Lubbock received 33,379, his opponent, Jesse Grimes, 20,818, and F. Smith 878. Senator Houston continued to occupy his seat in the Senate until his term expired, which was before the next general election.

Early in 1858 Governor Runnels delivered a message to the legislature, in which he discussed the revolutionary proceedings in the Territory of Kansas to the injury of Southern interests, and referred to the action of Congress as encouraging and not repressing the growing agitation of the slavery question, all of which made it incumbent upon each State to look to its own protection. He recommended resolutions to be passed, making provision for co-operation with other Southern States in a consultation for the mutual protection of their constitutional rights. The legislature passed resolutions (approved February 16, 1858) authorizing the governor to order an election for seven delegates to meet delegates appointed by the Southern States in convention when ever the executives of a majority of the slaveholding States shall express the opinion that such convention is necessary to preserve the equal rights of such States in the Union; and appropriated $10,000, or as much thereof as was necessary, to pay the expenses of the delegates. The second resolution provided that should an exigency arise, in the opinion of the governor, in which it is necessary for the State of Texas to act alone through a convention representing the sovereignty of the State, he is here by requested to call a special session of the legislature to provide for such State convention.

This message and the resolutions give evidence of being prompted by serious apprehension of great trouble prevailing in the minds of the people of Texas. That apprehension was justified by the long-continued agitation of the slavery question, which continually increased in virulence in the Congress of the United States, and was led by such distinguished statesmen as Sumner and