Some of you laugh to scorn the idea of bloodshed as the result of secession, but let me tell you what is coming....Your fathers and husbands, your sons and brothers, will be herded at the point of the bayonet....You may after the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, as a bare possibility, win Southern independence...but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of state rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction...they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South. -- Sam Houston, Speech in Galveston, 1861
Sam Houston was the general who won the Texas Revolution, the first President of the Republic of Texas, the first governor of the State of Texas, but he was removed from office for refusing to take the oath of loyalty to the Confederacy, and died during the war, under somewhat sadder circumstances than he should have.
