As the linked page notes, Governor Sam Houston was not in favor of secession, and spoke out strongly against it, mostly for pragmatic reasons. He warned:
"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 this: 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."
Houston thought that Texas would do better as an independent republic, as she began, than as a member of the Confederacy.
As the Lone Star Junction link tells us, the delegates to the Convention voted in favor of secession, despite Houston's gloomy prognostication.
''The convention met on January 28, 1861. Four days later, on February 1, it's members voted by a margin of 166 to 8 to secede. They drafted and signed an Ordinance of Secession, which "repealed and annulled" the Texas annexation laws of 1845. The Ordinance of Secession was subsequently approved by popular vote in a statewide election.
As planned, the convention reconvened after the popular election and adopted another ordinance uniting Texas with the Confederacy. Sam Houston subsequently refused to take the oath of allegiance to the newly organized Confederate government.''
And the rest is history, as they say.
Despite the great cost of the War Between the States and the dreadful outcome of 'Reconstruction' in the later decades, I can't say I've ever known anyone who felt that Texas should have heeded Sam Houston (admired though he is) and stayed aloof from the Confederacy.
But Houston's remarks about the differences in temperament between North and South, and the grim relentlessness of the Yankees (the Union forces, that is) give us pause to think, in light of what has happened since.
"All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit. The faith of the people of Texas stands pledged to the preservation of a republican form of government, and, subject to this limitation only, they have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient."
