John Hemphill

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about John Hemphill, and it is quite a story. John Hemphill, born in 1803, died in 1862, and the county that bears his name marks him with a star and wreath. That right there tells you something about the weight this man carried in his time.

On the eve of secession, when the whole country was crackling like dry timber near a flame, U.S. Senator Hemphill stood up before the United States Senate in January of 1861 and laid out Texas' right to secede and become a sovereign nation once more. Once more.

That word matters. He wasn't arguing for something new. He was arguing for something he believed had always been true.

Now, what happens next is the kind of thing that moves fast when history decides to move. Hemphill was elected as a delegate to the provisional Confederate Congress, meeting down in Montgomery, Alabama. That body had serious work ahead of it.

They drafted a constitution for a new nation. They mobilized manpower. They set up a financial structure.

They elected political leaders. That is the architecture of a government being built from scratch, and Hemphill was in the room where it happened. He carried that work forward, but he would not live to see where it led.

John Hemphill died in Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, in 1862. The State of Texas erected this memorial in 1963 to Texans who served the Confederacy, and Hemphill's name stands at the top of that telling.

What the marker says

(1803 - 1862) Star and Wreath. On the eve of secession, U.S. Senator Hemphill set forth to Senate January 1861 Texas' right to secede and again became a sovereign nation. Elected delegate provisional Confederate Congress at Montgomery, Alabama which drafted the new nation's constitution, mobilized manpower, set up financial structure, elected political leaders. Died in Richmond, Virginia, Confederate capital. A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy erected by the State of Texas 1963.