The convention, which assembled in Austin on January 28, 1861, was dominated by secessionists. Instead, the legislature gave approval to the convention, on the condition that the people ratify its outcome by a final vote. Houston attempted to forestall the convention by calling a special session of the legislature and recommending that it refuse to recognize the convention. Members of the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) in Texas involved themselves in all aspects of secession and the subsequent war with nearly 53 percent of the convention delegates arriving from counties with Knight castles.

Rogers, issued an address to the people and called for the election of delegates to a state Secession Convention in early January. A group of secessionist leaders, including Oran M. The demands for a convention increased, however, with the secession of South Carolina in December 1860 and the calling of state secession conventions in Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana in early January. Houston, devoted both to Texas and the Union, paid little heed to these requests and refused to take any step that might aid secession. Citizens urged Governor Houston to call a convention of the people to determine what course of action the state should take. Lincoln had not appeared on the ballot in Texas, where Governor Sam Houston considered running as an independent candidate.

Many Texans considered the election of Abraham Lincoln (“the Black Republican”) to the presidency (November 1860) as a threat to slavery. Although only one Texas family in four owned slaves, most Texans opposed any interference with the institution of slavery, which they believed necessary for the continued economic growth of the state. While most Texans had a strong attachment to the Union that they worked so hard to join in 1845, they expressed increasing concern over the attacks upon Southern institutions by Northern political leaders. The sectional controversies that divided the North and South in the 1850s deeply troubled Texans ( see ANTEBELLUM TEXAS).

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