The War in Texas

Lundy's pamphlet on "The War in Texas" is not only the best account, up to that time, of the Texas conspiracy, but closes with the remarkable prediction of the Southern Confederacy, which established itself twenty-five years later: "Our countrymen, in fighting for the union of Texas with the United States, will be fighting for that which at no distant period will inevitably dissolve the Union. The slave States, having the eligible addition to their land of bondage, will ere long cut asunder the Federal tie, and confederate a new and distinct slavehotding republic, in opposition to the whole free republic of the North. Thus early will be fulfilled the prediction of the old politicians of Europe, that our Union could not remain one century entire; and then also will the maxim be exemplified in our history, that liberty and slavery can not long inhabit the same soil." Lundy died, as he had lived, in the firm belief that American slavery would be abolished before 1900, and he contributed more to that result than many—perhaps than any —of his contemporaries.