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The state of Texas declared its secession from the United States on February 1, 1861, and joined the Confederate States of America on March 2, 1861, replacing its governor, Sam Houston, when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy.

 During the subsequent American Civil War, Texas was most useful for supplying soldiers for Confederate forces and in the cavalry. Texas was mainly a "supply state" for the Confederate forces until mid-1863, when the Union capture of the Mississippi River made large movements of men, horses or cattle impossible. Spanish find the mississipi

Some cotton was sold in Mexico, but most of the crop became useless because of the Federal naval blockade of Galveston and other ports.

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In the late winter of 1861, Texas counties sent delegates to a special convention to debate the merits of secession. The convention adopted an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 166 to 8, which was ratified by a popular referendum on February 23.

Separately from the Ordinance of Secession, Texas also issued a declaration of causes spelling out the rationale for secession.

 The document specifies several reasons for secession, including its solidarity with its "sister slave-holding States," the Federal government's inability to prevent Indian attacks, slave-stealing raids, and other border-crossing acts of banditry.

 It accuses Northern politicians and abolitionists of a variety of outrages upon Texans. The bulk of the document offers a justification of slavery and white supremacy, including this extract:

We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.

—Secession Convention, "A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union"

Secession Convention and the Confederacy

Following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, public opinion in the cotton states of the Deep South (South Carolina through Texas) swung in favor of secession. By February 1861, the other six states of the sub-region had separately passed ordinances of secession. Unlike the other "Cotton States" chief executives, who took the initiative in secessionist efforts, Houston refused to call the Texas Legislature into special session to consider the question, relenting only when it became apparent citizens were prepared to act without him.

In December 1860, a group of state officials drew up a petition declaring Lincoln's election an imminent danger to Southern rights and called for a statewide election of delegates to assemble in convention in January to decide Texas' course.

 Houston called the legislature into session, gambling that the elected body might be inclined—or persuaded—to block any separatist action by the convention.

On January 21, 1861, the legislature met in Austin and was addressed by Houston. Calling Lincoln's election "unfortunate" he nonetheless emphasized—in a reference to the upcoming meeting of the secession convention—it was no justification for "rash action".

 The Texas Legislature voted the delegates expense money and supplies. Over Houston's veto, the Legislature made a pledge to uphold the legality of the Convention's actions, requiring only that the people of Texas have the final say in referendum.

With gubernatorial forces routed, the Secession Convention convened on January 28 and, in the first order of business, voted to back the legislature 140–28 in that an ordinance of secession, if adopted, be submitted for state-wide consideration.

 The following day, convention president Oran Roberts introduced a resolution suggesting Texas leave the Union. The ordinance was read on the floor the next day, citing the failures of the federal government to protect the lives and property of Texas citizens and accusing the Northern states of using the same as a weapon to "strike down the interests and prosperity" of the Southern people.

After the grievances were listed, the ordinance repealed the ordinance of July 4, 1845—in which Texas approved annexation by the United States and the Constitution of the United States—and revoked all powers of, obligations to, and allegiance to the U.S. federal government and the U.S. Constitution.

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