Secession and Civil War

1
Secession and Civil War Change and Continuity
in Texas during the Civil War and Reconstruction
2

• Why some southern states seceded
• Some northerners blamed a Slave Power conspiracy
• Some southerners blamed a Republican conspiracy
  to destroy southern culture
• Abolitionists denunciation of slavery as immoral
  and southern defense of slavery as a positive
  good
• The constitutional issue of states rights
• Incompatibility of southern and northern
  economic systems
• Conflicts over religion, immigration, and
  cultural conformity
• Issues of special influence on Texas
• Increasing profitability of slavery
• Racial prejudice and fear
• Increased connection to the Lower South

3
Texas Politics in the 1850s
Politically, the majority of Texans before the
Civil War considered themselves Democrats. The
Whigs briefly existed in Texas, attracting
professionals, merchants, and prosperous
planters. In the mid-1850s, the Know-Nothing
party attracted many Texans with its criticism of
immigrants and Catholics. See pages 134-135.
4
The Republican Party was established in the
mid-1850s by northerners who opposed the
geographic expansion of slavery.
The Schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin where the
Republican Party was first organized locally in
1854.
1860 campaign banner
5
Sam Houston
Hardin R. Runnels
Hardin R. Runnels defeated Sam Houston for the
governorship in 1857 on a platform supporting the
reopening of the African slave trade. Runnels
resided in Old Boston and was buried in a family
cemetery in Bowie County in 1873. In the
election of 1859, Houston put Runnels on the
defensive by criticizing the latters inadequate
protection of the frontier, highlighting Runnels
wishes to see the slave trade renewed, and
reminding voters of the governors preference for
secession. Sam Houstons victory in the 1859
gubernatorial race was hailed as a tribute to
Unionism. Unfortunately, it was Houstons last
political position.
6
John Bell Candidate of the Unionist Party (A
coalition of Unionist Democrats, ex-Know-Nothings
and former Whigs)
John C. Breckinridge Candidate of the Southern
Democrats
Stephen A. Douglas Candidate of the Northern
Democrats
Disintegration of the Democratic Party. Texas
Democrats faced an excruciating decision over
which Democrat to support. By the summer of 1860,
however, most Texans began to swing over to
Breckinridge, who most closely mirrored the
sentiments of pro-slavery Texans and seemed most
likely to win. (See p. 137)
Abraham Lincoln
7
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8
Secession and Civil War Politically, most
Texans shared the prewar Southern inclination
toward the states rights philosophy. They did
not oppose federal action uniformly, however, if
it meant protection of slavery in the territories
or the protection of frontier settlers against
Indians. Yet the Texas secession convention did
base it actions on states rights, with later
affirmation from 75 percent of the states
voters. (Alwyn Barr, Change and Continuity
in Texas during the Civil War and Reconstruction
in The Texas Heritage 4th ed., p. 105.)
9
Slavery, Secession and Civil War The Texas
economy in 1860 remained even more agrarian than
most states in a predominantly rural region.
Slaveholders and planters did not dominate Texas
society to the extent they did in some of the
older states in the Deep South. But as
slaveholders grew in numbers and in the
leadership positions during the 1850s, they
became the ideal for a majority of their fellow
Texans. Slavery received the support of most
nonslaveholding Texans, as well as slaveholders,
because it provided not only a system of
controlled labor but also a means for social
domination of a black people, whom most whites in
the nineteenth century considered to be
inferior. (Alwyn Barr, Change and Continuity in
Texas during the Civil War and Reconstruction in
The Texas Heritage 4th ed., p. 106.)
10

• Issues of special influence on Texas
• Increasing profitability of slavery
• Racial prejudice and fear
• Increased connection to the Lower South

11

• Why Texans voted for secession
• Feared the policies of Republicans
• Considered allegiance to the South as the only
  defense against abolitionism
• Felt that secession was the only way to uphold a
  slave society

In its declaration of secession, Texas stated
that it intended to go to war to preserve a
southern way of life that made racial
distinctions, in part, by maintaining blacks in a
condition of servitude. (See. p. 138)
12
Sam Houston was forced from the governors office
when he refused to take an oath of loyalty to the
Confederacy.
13
5TH TEXAS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY, CO. K
14
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15
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16
The two highest-ranking Texans in the Confederate
army were Albert Sidney Johnston and John Bell
Hood.
17
Texas-Mexico Trade Routes
Texas was economically important to the
Confederacy because the Confederacy was able to
conduct foreign trade through Mexico by way of
Texas. (See p. 142.)
18
Cotton bales on Matamoros wharf arrived across
the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas
(background)
Texas, because of its border with Mexico,
continued to produce cotton in large quantities
for sale across the Rio Grande to Mexican and
European buyers. The border trade also meant that
Texans did not suffer from shortages of
manufactured goods to the same extent as
Confederates in states located east of the
Mississippi. Nevertheless, Texans faced the need
to develop substitutes for some unavailable
items, fashioning cotton wicks for candles and
homemade straw hats. (Alwyn Barr, Change and
Continuity in Texas during the Civil War and
Reconstruction in The Texas Heritage 4th ed., p.
109.)
19
"There is no parallel in ancient or modern
warfare to the victory of Dowling and his men at
Sabine Pass considering the great odds against
which they had to contend" Jefferson Davis
The Battle of Sabine Pass September 8, 1663
In the fall of 1863, Confederate forces under the
command of Lt. Richard Dowling turned back a much
larger Union invasion force at the battle of
Sabine Pass. (See pp. 140-141.)
20
In Gainesville (Cooke County), North Texas
Confederatesresponding to reports of a plot by
members of the Peace Party to take over local
ordnance depots and to revolt at the same time
that Unionists forces invaded Texas from Kansas
and Galvestonexecuted some forty-two alleged
conspirators (most of the innocent) in October
1862 and proclaimed martial law in the county.
(See p. 145)
21
The so-called Battle of Nueces was actually a
massacre of German Unionists near Brackettville
Many German Texans continued to support the Union
and organizations during the war such as the
Union Loyal League. Many Texans loyal to the
Confederacy targeted German Texans for any
outward sign of disloyalty or subversion, even as
hundreds of German Texans from West Texas
enlisted in the Confederate ranks. Through the
Union Loyal League, German Unionists endeavored
to destabilize the Texas Confederacy and
reinstate Union authority, by military means if
necessary. Expectedly, Austin officials
considered the Union Loyal League a danger to
Southern security in July of 1862 they ordered a
company of Confederate cavalry and Texas state
troopers into the Hill Country to suppress League
activities. Many Germans found the Confederate
effort to establish law and order through arrest,
detention, and violence so odious, however, that
some sixty-one of them opted for flight into
Mexico on August 1. Convinced that those fleeing
the country were part of the seditious sentiment
overrunning the German west counties,
Confederate troops gave pursuit, overtaking the
Unionists on August 10. In what came to be
known as the Battle of Nuecesa brief skirmish
resulting in fatalities on both sidesthe
Confederate forced the Germans to surrender.
Subsequently, and on their own initiative, a
handful of Confederates foully murdered some of
the German survivors. (Calvert, De León
Cantrell, 143-144)
At the Battle of Nueces, Confederate forces
killed nineteen German Texans were killed and
wounded nine. The nine wounded settlers were
later caught and executed. The bodies of the
nineteen were left unburied and in 1865 after the
war had ended, residents from Comfort went and
collected the remains and returned them to
Comfort for a proper burial. Their remains are
now at the site of the Treue der Union ("Loyal to
the Union") Monument.
Inscribed on the east face of the monument are
the words, Treue der Union ( "TROY-der-OON-yen,"
or "Loyal to the Union"). The west face of the
obelisk lists those believed to have died at the
Nueces battle site (honors Gefallen am 10 August
1862), the south face those killed at the Rio
Grande (Gefallen am 18 Oct. 1862), and the north
faces lists those allegedly hanged (Gefangen,
genomen, und ermordet --"Captured, taken
prisoner, and murdered"). The monument lists
thirty-five names, but the exact number killed,
and the manner of their deaths, obviously will
never be known. (http//www.hal-pc.org/dcrane/txg
enweb/nueces.htm)
http//www.rootsweb.com/txcbduv/
22
Some 24,000 Texans perished during the four years
of fighting. The war left a legacy of deep
personal hatreds. Many sought to continue to
fight the Northern Army of Occupation through
terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan.
23
Politics After the Civil War Radical Republicans
advocated extending full civil rights to
ex-slaves. Conservative Republicans
principally wanted to pursue economic
development. Both the Radical and Conservative
Republicans agreed that African Americans should
have legal equality. Texans sought to
reestablish the Democratic rule redolent of that
before the war. Most urgent, for them, was to
find a way to keep a newly freed black population
(estimated by scholars to have numbered about
250,000) in subordination.
24
Federal Army Enters Richmond, 1864, by Harpers
Weekly, New York
25

• Chaos in 1865
• Disbanded soldiers confiscated Confederate
  property
• Criminals committed acts of violence and theft
• State and local governments were powerless

News of the Confederate surrender in April 1865
resulted in the disintegration of the army and
government in Texas. Servicemen deserted in
large numbers, and as the army dissolved, chaos
erupted. Disbanding soldiers sacked arsenals and
government buildings and confiscated Confederate
public property of every sort. Scoundrels
capitalized on the general disorder to rob and
recklessly kill innocent civilians. Unidentified
persons pillaged the state treasury on the night
of June 11. Simultaneously, government at the
state and local level staggered. (pp. 148-149)
26
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27

• General Gordon Granger - June 19, 1865
• Declared the acts of the Texas Confederate
  government illegal
• Paroled members of the Confederate army
• Announced that all slaves were free

General Gordon Granger
28
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29

• Texas was in a stronger position than other
  southern states
• Slaves had been moved into the state
• Trade with Mexico had helped Texas businesses
• Little wartime devastation

Problems at the end of the Civil
War 1. Financial distress 2. Property values
depreciated 3. Legacy of hatred
30
PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTUCTION President Andrew
Johnson offered relatively mild terms for those
states which seceded to reenter the Union. He
called on them to declare secession null and
void, to cancel the debt accumulated during the
war, and to approve the Thirteenth Amendment,
which ended slavery. However, he did not press
further to guarantee the rights of African
Americans. Most white Texans who took the oath of
loyalty to the United States, as required, could
participate in the restoration of home rule. This
lenient policy permitted the majority of Texans
to assume previous civil rights. (p. 150.)
President Andrew Johnson, A Unionist Democrat
from Tennessee, succeeded to the presidency on
April 15, 1865, after the Assassination of
Abraham Lincoln.
31
Andrew Johnson's Restoration Plan 1. Declare
secession null and void 2. Cancel the Confederate
debt 3. Approve the Thirteenth Amendment 4. Amnest
y program
32
On June 17, 1865, President Andrew Johnson
appointed Andrew Jackson Hamilton, a former U.S.
congressman from Texas and a Unionist who had
fled to the North, as provisional governor of
Texas. As a part of his ongoing plan to implement
what historians call Presidential Reconstruction,
Johnson instructed Hamilton to call a convention
and undertake the necessary steps to form a new
civil government in the state. (p. 150.)
Andrew Jackson Hamilton Hamilton and his
supporters worried that those tied to the
Confederate past would attempt to regain their
former prominence, and duly block efforts to
realize civil rights for black persons.
33
See pages 150-151.
34
James Webb Throckmorton Convention Chairperson
Governor of Texas On June 25, 1866, the voters
approved the Constitution of 1866, which
essentially consisted of an amended Constitution
of 1845. (p. 152).

• 1866 Constitutional Convention
• Declared secession illegal
• Repudiated the war debt
• Ratified the Thirteenth Amendment

James Webb Throckmorton
35
Federal mandates forced the convention to grant
certain rights to blacks 1. Purchase and sell
property 2. Sue and be sued 3. Enter into
contracts 4. Testify in court in cases involving
blacks The 1866 Constitutional Convention
denied blacks 1. The right to vote 2. The right
to hold public office 3. The right to serve on a
jury 4. Public schools
36
The Black Code included a contract labor law
specifying that laborers wanting to work for more
than thirty days would have to enter a binding
agreement. Although the black code did not
mention race specifically, it clearly intended to
dictate the way the freemen would earn their
living. (p. 154.)
37
A contract labor law specified that the freedmen
were to choose an employer and then sign a
binding contract if their work exceeded one
month. A child apprenticeship law provided that
parents could indenture their offspring to
employers until the age of 21. The black code
legislation prohibited blacks from marrying
whites, holding office, and voting. African
Americans suspected of being truant from their
jobs could be arrested and forced to work on
public projects without pay until they agreed to
return to their employer. In dealing with
whites, African Americans could not make
insulting noises, speak disrespectfully or out of
turn, dispute the word of whites, or disobey a
command. Further, they had to stand at attention
when Whites passed, step aside when white women
were on the sidewalk, address whites "properly"
and remove their hats in the presence of whites.
Whites insisted upon this behavior because they
continued to believe in white supremacy.
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 154.)
Black Code Legislation
38
Carpetbagger or Good Freedman Bureau Officer
Carpetbagger
Carpetbagger
Scalawags
In 1865, the U.S. Congress established the
Freedmans Bureau to help African Americans make
the transition from slavery to freedom. White
Texans detested the outsiders from the North,
looking upon bureau men as carpetbaggers who
wanted to render the South powerless, as
intruders bend on interfering with race
relations, and as opportunists working only for
the money they derived from their
office. Carpetbaggers in Texas were not very
numerous and played a very minor role in Texas
Reconstruction
39

• Freedmens Bureau
• White Texans detested the outsiders from the
  North.
• carpetbaggers and scalawags
• With only about 70 field agents and subordinates
  at its full manpower level, the bureau lacked the
  personnel to help ex-slaves successfully enter
  society as free persons.
• Many Texans saw the bureau as an institution
  thrust upon them by the Radical Republicans
• E. M. Gregory, the first head of the bureau in
  Texas, asserted that the freedmen had full legal
  rights and demonstrated a sympathetic attitude
  toward their aspirations. This incurred so much
  protest from Texans that the bureau transferred
  Gregory to Maryland. (Calvert, De León, Cantrell,
  p. 155.)

40
Re-evaluating the Agents of the Freedmans Bureau
How do you reform an enemy who does not want to
be reformed? How do you govern those who view you
as a detestable outsider? Agents of the
Freedmans Bureau faced formidable opposition in
carrying out their work. For example, they had
to contend with thugs such as Cullen Montgomery
Baker in northeastern Texas (Bowie and Cass
counties). Baker claimed his enemies were all
carpetbaggers, Texas Unionists and freedmen.
Baker killed several such persons before being
killed himself in 1869. The southerners view
that bureau agents were opportunistic
carpetbaggers is not substantiated by recent,
balanced studies of the Texas bureau. True, some
agents were inept. However, many, such as
William G. Kirkman, who was stationed in Bowie
County in 1867 (and who was murdered by Cullen
Montgomery Baker the next year), and Charles E.
Culver, enforced laws equally for blacks and
whites, refereed labor and apprenticeships
contracts, mediated disagreements between the
races, and encouraged blacks to be
self-sufficient and independent. Overall, agents
who served in Texas tended to be men of high
principles who worked towards carrying out the
intentions of the bureau despite the limitations
imposed upon them.
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 160.)
41
The Freemens Bureau supported the education of
former bondspeople. In 1865, the bureau began
operating sixteen schools for freedmen in Texas.
(p. 155)
42
Education was a Top Priority
The Freedmans Bureau made schooling a high
priority, and by 1870 the state managed some
sixty-six schools, with an enrollment of more
than 3,000 black children approximately 300
blacks students even engaged in higher
learning. Black literacy had been reduced in the
process, and the groundwork for black education
in the state had been established.
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 160.)
43
During Reconstruction, the church emerged as the
focal point of the black community. The most
popular religious denomination among Texas blacks
was Baptists.
44
Numerous situations provoked acts of violence by
whites against blacks

• Political events (historians find a correlation
  between political setbacks for anti-Unionist
  Texans and an increase in violence)
• Disagreements over labor relations
• Violation of social codes by blacks
• A sense of defeatism within the white population
• Mindless hatred or sadism (thin the niggers out
  and drive them to their holes.)

One historian has estimated that close to 1
percent of black men in Texas between the ages of
fifteen and forty-nine met a violent death at the
hands of whites in the three years following the
end of the war.
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 154.)
45

• At the national level, Radical Republicans
  believed
• Southerners should take an oath of allegiance
  before voting or hold office
• The southern states were "conquered provinces"
• Blacks should have equal civil rights

• Under Andrew Johnson's Restoration Plan
• Ex-Confederates controlled the southern
  governments
• Black codes limited the rights of freedmen
• White terrorism

46
In 1867 Congress implemented Congressional
Reconstruction when it passed the Reconstruction
Acts.
The Reconstruction Acts
A March 1867 cartoon, following the passage of
the Reconstruction Act, shows President Johnson
and his southern allies angrily watching African
Americans vote.
A series of congressional acts in 1867
established Radical Reconstruction

• Divided the South into five military districts
• Abolished the Restoration governments
• Required new constitutions with equality for
  blacks
• Restricted the political participation of former
  confederate leaders

47
Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction Between
March and July 1867, the U.S. Congress passed a
series of new Reconstruction Acts that divided
the ex-Confederacy into five military districts,
suspended existing state governments, and
demanded that the ex-Confederate states write new
constitutions with all races participating in the
selection of delegates to the constitutional
convention.
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, pp. 156-157.)
The new constitutions must grant suffrage to
black males and permit them to hold public
office.
The Reconstruction Acts led to the establishment
of the Republican Party in Houston on July 4,
1867. Texas Unionists now joined Congressional
Republicans in repudiation of Conservative
Democrats.
48
General Philip Sheridan
Elisha M. Pease
49

• The Election of the Constitutional Convention,
  February 1868
• Many black voted (Mobilization efforts of George
  Ruby and the Union League
• Many whites refused to participate. They had
  hoped to scuttle the convention by not going to
  the polls, for the Reconstruction Acts stipulated
  that at least one-half of the registered voters
  had to cast ballots in favor of the convocation
  before it could convene.
• The result was the election of delegates (among
  them ten blacks) sympathetic to Radical
  Reconstruction.
• Overall, the Republican party of the era was a
  frail organization of blacks, native white
  Unionists, and a few northerners.

The Constitution of 1869 1. granted suffrage
and general civil rights to black Texans 2.
extended enthusiastic support for the opportunity
of all Texans to receive a public education 3.
sought to check local- and county-level
interference with state laws by increasing the
power of the governor (who could appoint people
to executive and judicial posts) 4. attempted to
keep the railroads from plundering the states
most valuable asset (its public lands) by
prohibiting land grants for internal improvements
50
A VIOLENT REACTION TO CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION
The Democratic opposition launched a vigorous
campaign to undermine the power of black voters.
Arsonists victimized centers in which blacks
assembled, including offices of the Freedmans
Bureau and Bureau-run schools. An increased
number of whites joined the Ku Klux Klan, which
made its appearance in Texas about this time
vicious activity became the hallmark of the
Klans conspiracy against African Americans.
Black sections of towns witnessed violence.
(Calvert, De León, Cantrell, p. 159.)
51

• Targets of white terrorism
• Blacks
• Freedmen's Bureau agents
• U. S. Army

52
A cartoon threatening that the KKK would lynch
carpetbaggers, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Independent
Monitor, 1868.
53
Donald Campbell to Pease, August 25, 1868
54
Ab initio the belief that all official acts
passed under secession to help the Confederacy
were null and void.
55
REPUBLICAN DIVISIONS After the establishment of
the Republican Party in Texas, the states
Republicans divided into moderate and Radical
factions over the issue of civil rights for
blacks.
The Election of 1869
By the time of the election of 1869, the
Republicans had split and consequently fielded
two candidates. The Radical Republicans chose
Edmund J. Davis, who supported the principle of
ab initio and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Amendments. Seeking to attract disaffected
Democrats, the Moderate Republicans ran A.J.
Hamilton, even though he did not believe in much
of their program. (p. 161.)
Radical Republicans vs. Moderate Republicans The
Radical Republicans marshaled the black vote
through the efforts of the Union League, in which
Rubys registration efforts had paid dividends.
Radical Republican Edmund J. Davis
Moderate Republican A.J. Hamilton
56
Edmund J. Davis first got involved in military
affairs in 1859, when as a district judge in
South Texas, he accompanied the ranger unit of
Captain William G. Tobin during the Cortina wars
in Brownsville. As the Civil War approached, he
supported Sam Houston and opposed secession.
After secession, he refused to take a loyalty
oath to the Confederacy and was removed from his
judgeship. President Lincoln commissioned Davis
a colonel in the Union army. Davis recruited and
led the First Texas Cavalry (U.S.), and saw
action in Galveston, Matamoros, and the Rio
Grande Valley. Promoted to brigadier general in
November 1864, he commanded the cavalry of
General Joseph J. Reynolds in the Division of
Western Mississippi. On June 2, 1865, he was
among those who represented the Union at the
surrender of Confederate forces in Texas.
Source Texas State Library and Archives
Commission (www.tsl.state.tx.us/
governors/war/davis-p01.html)
Edmund J. Davis
This photograph shows Edmund J. Davis in uniform
as a brigadier general in the federal army.
57
The Election of 1869
Radicals supported

• Ab initio the belief that all official acts
  passed under secession to help the Confederacy
  were null and void.
• Equality for blacks
• State financing of public schools
• The use of eastern railroad interests to build
  railroads in Texas
• Disenfranchisement of ex-Confederates
• The division of the state

58
The Election of 1869
Democrats did not nominate a separate candidate
for a variety of reasons

• Some whites could not take the loyalty oath
  required by Congress and thus were disfranchised.
• Some Democrats feared that a Democratic victory
  at the state level would only prolong
  Reconstruction should the Congress then reject
  the states readmission into the Union.
• Some Democrats decided to boycott the election
  and stayed away from the polls.

59
The Radical Republican Governor Edmund Jackson
Davis establishes a policy to bring order to the
state, and also establishes the states first
system of public education.
Edmund  Jackson  Davis
Governor Davis organized a state police as well
as a state militia, both to be under the
governors oversight. He also signed a bill
financing a public school system with such
progressive features as a state superintendent
and compulsory attendance. Higher taxes were
imposed on property to finance these efforts.
(p. 164.)
Governor of Texas from January 1870 to January
1874
60
Black Legislators during Reconstruction
George T. Ruby
Two black senators and twelve black
representatives sat in the Twelfth Legislature
(1870-1871) they constituted about 12 percent of
the bodys entire membership. Overall, black
legislators who served during the era of
Reconstruction in Texas amassed political savvy
and performed as well as did their black
counterparts throughout the South.
Matt Gaines

• George T. Ruby
• Born educated in the North
• Educator in Louisiana
• Arrived in Texas in 1866
• Freedmans Bureau teacher in Galveston
• Agent for the Freedmans Bureau
• Organizer of the Union League
• President of the Union League (1868)
• Vice President of the Republican state convention
  (1868)
• State Senator from Galveston (1869-1874)
• Served on several influential committees for the
  state legislature

Matt Gaines Self-educated former slave Preacher
of the Baptist church after the Civil
War Courageous advocate for African American
causes in the state legislature State Senator
Calvert, DeLeón, Cantrell, p. 163.
61
Republicans were weakened by

• Internal divisions
• White terrorism

62
Governor Davis Faces Strong Opposition Governor
Daviss opponents managed to mold public opinion
into associating the Radical administration with
corruption and extravagant spending. Recent
research suggests that the greatest percentage of
the states revenue went to law enforcement, the
common school system, and frontier defense and
that the Radicals were not in fact wasteful with
the taxpayers money. But Texans (among them the
members of the planter class, allies of the
Democrats), opposed what they considered
arbitrary taxation, while others condemned what
they believed to be a central governments
usurpation of local autonomy. As Democrats
campaigned in the special congressional election
of 1871, they stressed the issues of high taxes,
corruption, fraud, and misgovernment.   In
November of 1872, the Democrats won a majority in
both chambers of the State Legislature. When the
new legislature met in 1873, it abolished the
state police and overthrew Daviss public school
system. (p. 165)
63
Gubernatorial Election of 1873
In the gubernatorial election in December 1873,
Davis again ran on the Republican ticket, while
Richard Coke, an ex-Confederate, campaigned as a
Conservative Democrat. During the campaign, Davis
highlighted the programs he had initiated, while
Coke and his followers talked of redemption, of
restoring strong states rights and of
overthrowing the coalition of Republicans and
freedmen. Coke took the election 100,415 to
52,141.
Richard Coke (1829-1897)
Edmund  Jackson  Davis
The Redemption
64
THE REDEMPTION NEEDS A NEW CONSTITUTION! With
the conservative Democrats back in power, a
majority of the states citizens wanted to erase
all vestiges of Reconstruction, and they demanded
the replacement of the Constitution of 1869. A
new document, they figured, would overturn
Republican successes on behalf of blacks and let
the state return to the limited concept of
government that had prevailed before the Civil
War. Governor Coke eventually convened the
constitutional convention in 1875.
Composite photo of the 1875 Constitutional
Convention, Archives and Information Services
Division, Texas State Library and Archives
Commission.
65
The constitution of 1876 decentralized government
power in the state and greatly weakened public
education.
The Constitution of 1876 included provisions that
prohibited the state from chartering banks,
empowered the state to regulate corporations and
railroad companies, established a state debt
ceiling of 200,000, put a strict limit on the
maximum ad valorem tax rate, and all but
abolished the public school system. Many
delegates to the constitutional convention argued
that parents should bear sole responsibility for
the education of their children. The argument
came in part from those who rejected the idea
that white landowners should pay taxes for the
education of black children. The Constitution of
1876 eliminated the office of superintendent and
compulsory education. It also mandated
segregated schools. Despite its flaws, the
Constitution of 1876 reflected fairly well the
political views of most white southerners,
displaying a general distrust of activist
government and a desire to limit its powers.