[capitan_refugio]

I remember a graphic in a Texas history book, from my youth, that showed the western half of the State was not consulted in the Feb 1, popular vote. I think it is also fair to say that most of the population was along the coast and up the Louisiana border.

However, I think there is still a lingering resentment how Gov. Sam Houston got treated.

[rustbucket]

However, I think there is still a lingering resentment how Gov. Sam Houston got treated.

You may be correct. I respect him and had relatives fight under him at San Jacinto. He worked hard to make sure that the first battle of the WBTS did not occur in Texas. The first encounter with actual bloodshed did occur in Texas though, but he was out of office by then.

Houston was for Texas, period. Here is an 1863 letter he wrote to Confederate General McGruder about driving the Federals out of Galveston:

General: It gives me great pleasure to mingle my congratulations with the many thousands that you have received. You, sir, have introduced a new era in Texas by driving from our soil a ruthless enemy. ... Your advent was scarcely known in Texas when we were awakened from our reverie to the realities of your splendid victory. Its planning and execution reflect additional glory on your former fame, as well as on the arms of Texas.

Sam Houston, January 7, 1863.

[GOPcapitalist]

I remember a graphic in a Texas history book, from my youth, that showed the western half of the State was not consulted in the Feb 1, popular vote. I think it is also fair to say that most of the population was along the coast and up the Louisiana border.

That was essentially the case. Excepting El Paso and a few Rio Grande settlements, most of the areas to the west of San Antonio and Austin were uninhabited by anyone but comanches.

[Grand Old Partisan]

Most of the people in west Texas were Unionist, as their ties were stronger with California and Colorado than with the slave plantations in east Texas.