Why Did Texas Fight From 1820 To 1860

How would you feel, if you thought the government was trying to take what you believed to be a fundamental human right away from you? In 1820, America was beginning to fall apart due to various events. The Missouri compromise, which made sure no new slave states would be north of the border was repealed in 1854 and replaced with the Kansas-Nebraska act. The act made Kansas and Nebraska chose for themselves whether they would be slave or free states. Tensions were building, and then in 1859, an abolitionist named John Brown led a raid on a Armoury that belonged to the government to start a slave uprising, and southerners felt invaded. In 1860 Abraham lincoln was voted to be the president and he was against slavery, at this time the south the decided they had enough, and six states left the U.S.A. Texas came to secede soon afterward in 1861, and month later he Civil War started. But why did Texans fight? They fought because of

An average texan soldier named John Wesley Rabb, who served in the unit Terry’s Texas Rangers, records in his letter about how yankees are coming to texas and the soldiers wanted to be in Texas to stop them. (Document D) He also believes that the yankees were going to take all of their stuff. Since he was an average soldier his position represents the common opinion of texans at the time. Secondly, Texans fought in the Civil War to protect their states’ rights. Abraham Lincoln said in his first inaugural address “No state upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the union”, but an article in the Texas State Gazette from 1860 says “No state can force another state either to remain or withdraw from it”. Finally O.M. Roberts, president of the Texas Secession said “The crisis upon us involves not only the right of self government, but the maintenance of a great principle in the law of nations”.(Document C) This is proof that Texans wanted to protect their states’