Declaration of the Causes which impel the State of Texas to secede from the Federal Union -- also the Ordinance of Secession. Letterpress broadside on silk satin. [San Antonio, Texas]: Herald Office, [February 1861]. 19 1/4 x 14 1/4 in. 

1861 FIRST EDITION TEXAS SECESSION BROADSIDE PRINTED ON SILK SATIN

EXCEEDINGLY SCARCE. ONLY TWO OTHER COPIES OF THE FIRST EDITION KNOWN. ONE OF SEVEN KNOWN COPIES OF ALL EDITIONS.  

Provenance: Cyrus Halbert Randolph (1817-1889), Texas State Treasurer (1858-1865), thus by descent to Margaret Ann Randolph Smith Marshall, married to Lytton Bruce Marshall (1929-2015), to present owner. (Accompanied by affidavit of provenance). 

Crandall 2153; Parrish & Willingham 4151; Wilkie 23; Winkler & Friend 171.

An exceptionally rare Texas secession broadside, executed on silk satin in San Antonio in 1861. Printed in five columns with an ornamental border, the broadside features both the Ordinance of Secession and the Declaration of Causes, two of the three principal documents drafted by the Texas Secession Convention, along with a list of delegates. According to the colophon, "These sheets on Fine Satin may be had at the Herald Office for $1, or on fine Book Paper at 10 cents each."

After South Carolina's secession in December 1860, Texas was not far behind in joining them. The Constitutional Convention was organized on 1 February 1861 and voted overwhelmingly in favor of a formal ordinance of secession. The ordinance was ratified by popular vote on February 23rd. 

This broadside, luxuriously printed on silk satin, belonged to Cyrus Halbert Randolph (1817-1889), who was the Texas State Treasurer at the time of secession. Randolph arrived in Texas in March 1838 and quickly became established as an attorney and politician. A member of the Snively Expedition in 1843, he served in several political roles in Houston County, including justice of the peace (1840), chief justice of the county (circa 1843), and sheriff (1847). He also represented the county in the Texas Legislature in two terms between November 1851 and November 1857. Randolph was elected state treasurer 1859, won re-election in 1860 (c.f. To the Voters of Texas broadside, Heritage Auctions, 24 January 2009, Lot 45089). 

This copy has been passed down through the family of Cyrus Halbert Randolph and is here offered publicly for the first time, consigned by a direct descendant.

Notably, small pencil notations are next to the names of several delegates in the list, perhaps associates of Randolph. Other known copies have connections to delegates (c.f. the Christie's and William Reese copies, further discussion below), and it seems likely that the sheets printed "on Fine Satin" were ideal souvenirs for prominent Texas politicians. 

The document begins with the Declaration of Causes, a fiery assertion of Texas's rights, which highlights her unique history as an independent country and leaves no doubt as to the core issue at stake: "Texas abandoned her separate national existence and consented to become one of the Confederated States to promote her welfare, insure domestic tranquility and secure more substantially the blessings of peace and liberty to her people. She was received into the confederacy with her own constitution, under the guarantee of the federal constitution, and the compact of annexation, that she should enjoy these blessings. She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery - the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits - a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time. Her institutions and geographical position established the strongest ties between her and other slave-holding States of the confederacy. Those ties have been strengthened by association. But what has been the course of the government of the United States, and of the people and authorities of the non-slave-holding States, since our connection with them?"

Continuing in scathing language, the authors accuse the North of interfering directly as they "encouraged and sustained lawless organizations to steal our slaves" and "invaded Southern soil and murdered reoffending citizens" and "sent seditious pamphlets and papers amongus to stir up servile insurrection and bring blood and carnage to our fireside" and "sent hired emissaries among us to burn our towns and distribute arms and poison to our slaves" and "finally, by the combined sectional vote of the seventeen free or non-slave-holding States, they have elected as President and Vice President of the whole Confederacy, two men whose chief claims to such high positions, is their approval of these long continued wrongs, and their pledges to continue them to the final consummation of these schemes for the ruin of the slaveholding States."

What follows is a list of the 168 delegates ending with Philip A. Work, distinguishing this copy as a first edition. Noted bibliographer and Texas historian Everett C. Wilkie, Jr. made a detailed study of the Texas secession documents in The 1861 Printings of the Ordinance of Secession (Dallas: The Book Club of Texas, 2011), and identifies three separate editions of the broadside, essentially distinguished by the list of delegates. 

The first edition (Wilkie 23) was almost certainly printed in February 1861 and ends the delegate list with Philip A. Work. The later editions (Wilkie 24 & 25) were printed in early and mid-March, respectively, with additional delegates added to the list. This edition also includes six lines naming the delegates who voted against secession. 

Parrish & Willingham note three institutional copies: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Southern Historical Collection, Louis Round Wilson Library, 1417-z); University of Texas, Austin; and Baylor University. The Baylor, copy, however, is actually the 7-page Austin edition (Parrish & Willingham 4150). The UNC and Texas are the only other known copies of the first edition. 

Only one other copy has sold at auction at Christie's on 16 December 2004, which Wilkie identifies as the only known copy of the second edition (Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Americana,  Lot 454; Wilkie 24). 

Two copies of Wilkie's third edition (Wilkie 25) are known, one held in a private collection and another located at the Library of Congress (Printed Ephemera Collection, Portfolio 346, Folder 43). 

One other known copy was sold by the William Reese Company (Inv. #  WRCAM55492). It was noted to be a transitional copy likely printed sometime between Wilkie's second and third editions. 

A unique opportunity to acquire one of the most significant broadsides in Texas history. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Texas, Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, Alamo, Texas Rangers]