The reader may think it strange that I give so much space to so common
an occurrence as a State election, but the explanation is simple. It was
the first reasonable attempt to carry our State back into the Union. The
Democrats had made one effort and had failed, because they had offended
the dominant sentiment of the country by “Apprentice Laws,” and other
measures which virtually reduced the freedman to a state of slavery, and
by electing to the United States Senate a man who had presided over the
convention which carried Texas out of the Union. Because of this
failure, the Democrats, as a party, took no part in the second effort to
reconstruct the State, but divided, those of them who voted at all,
between the two Republican candidates.
Thousands of them sullenly refused to vote at all. It was therefore a
contest between _men and ideas_. _The questions were all new._ True,
there have been many State elections since then, but the results have
all been foregone conclusions, so that the younger generation of Texans
know nothing of the excitement, the strenuousness, the manliness, of a
real contest for the political control of a great State.
Davis and his party publicly denounced this constitution as being
“framed in the interest of rebels,” and swore to defeat it either before
the people or at Washington. Will the reader believe that a month later
these same men publicly declared _in favor_ of this same constitution,
and for E. J. Davis as their candidate for Governor under it? But that
is history.
Hamilton also became a candidate for Governor. Gen. J. J. Reynolds was
in command of the Department of Texas, and the elections were held under
military supervision. Although both candidates were Republicans, General
Reynolds and others secured the support of the national administration
and the Republican National Committee for the Davis faction.
This Reynolds, a stranger to the people of Texas, desired to make
himself United States Senator from the State, and with that purpose in
view, permitted the frauds which defeated Hamilton, and he (Reynolds)
declared Davis elected by a majority of only seven hundred votes,
several whole counties being denied by Reynolds the right to vote at
all. The Davis Legislature _did_, later on, elect this same J. J.
Reynolds to be Senator, but the Senate of the United States refused to
admit him, and he was subsequently suspended from the army by sentence
of a court-martial!
The State was admitted to the Union, Davis was inaugurated, and the
notorious Twelfth Legislature convened. I had the honor to be elected a
member of that memorable body, and also had the honor to be counted out
by Reynolds.
[Illustration]
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