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Judges As Political Orators: The 1860 Secession Debate Between Texas Supreme Court Justices O.M. Roberts And James H. Bell, William J. Chriss

William J Chriss

This article deals with an episode in the ideological history of Texas. It analyzes the rhetorical strategies employed by Texas politicians during the Secession debate, in order to better understand the political thinking of the people who responded to them. The primary prism through which the strategies of each side are viewed is the extent to which they marshaled analogies from classical history and literature in support of their arguments. Because the unionists in Texas adopted for themselves the role of wise philosophers denouncing mob violence, they often used classical literature and examples from ancient and medieval republican history to …