"The time had come when we believed we could not live peaceably with them. Therefore, we preferred to secede and for a government of our own, which we thought, we had a right to do. We did not demand any of the public treasure or public lands or any of the community property of the government of which we rightfully owned a part, but simply seceded from disagreeable company and set up a government of our own and asked only to be left alone. 


I doubt if a constitutional lawyer could have been found at that time who would have said we did not have a right to secede and I doubt if you can find a constitutional lawyer today who understands the organic law of the government who will say that we had no right to secede. Then where did this power lie or come from authorizing Abraham Lincoln to make war on and devastate the Southern States? 


It is self-evident from the foregoing writings in these sketches that if the writer were asked to fix the responsibility of the Civil War he would say without hesitation, Abraham Lincoln, his ill advisors and coadjutors were responsible for all of the bloodshed, the deaths, the horrors and devastation of that war. 


James Knox Polk Blackburn from “Reminiscences of the Terry Rangers” 1918"




Photo 1902 Reunion of Terry's Texas Rangers Dallas Texas