Sam Houston’s warning

Regarding “Don’t remove Houston’s Civil War statues. Put them in context” (Page G8, Zest, Aug. 20), if a Confederate monument is allowed to remain in Sam Houston Park, as the author Mark B. Ryan wishes, readers should at least be informed that Confederates hounded Gov. Sam Houston from office because he refused to swear allegiance to their regime.

They should also learn of the prophetic warning Houston delivered in Brenham on his way home, protected from mob violence by a friend with a revolver: “When the tug of war comes ... the fearful conflict will fill our fair land with untold suffering, misfortune, and disaster. The soil of our beloved South will drink deep the precious blood of our sons and brethren . ... I cannot, nor will I close my eyes against the light and voice of reason. The die has been cast by your secession leaders, whom you have permitted to sow and broadcast the seeds of secession, and you must ere long reap the fearful harvest of conspiracy and revolution. ... But the hiss of the mob and howls of their jackal leaders can not deter me nor compel me to take the oath of allegiance to a so-called Confederate Government.”

There is a difference which neoConfederates often paint over between owning slaves, which Houston and many founding fathers and a number of Unionists did, and taking up arms against a duly elected government that one has sworn to defend.