Houston Refuses the Oath

The victor of San Jacinto refused an oath and lost the governor's house.

Collection: Austin · USA · Open in OpenStreetMap

Sam Houston, Mathew Brady portrait, about 1861 · Mathew Benjamin Brady, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

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How the story begins

Abraham Lincoln twice offered Sam Houston federal troops, to keep him in office and Texas in the Union. Houston was the victor of San Jacinto, and in early 1861 he was the governor of Texas, living in this house. He was a Unionist, and Texas seceded anyway. Then a convention in Austin required him to swear loyalty to the Confederacy. He wrote out his answer. "I refuse to take this oath," it says, over and over, in the name of one thing after another.

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Visiting

1010 Colorado Street, Austin. Seen from the street. The Friends of the Governor's Mansion list free guided tours on some weekday afternoons; check txfgm.org and book ahead.