9. Texas in the Latter Nineteenth Century: Part A (1865-1876)
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Suggestion: One might also find it useful to consult the list of documents and collections of documents at List 2, "Texas in the Nineteenth Century: General."
W. D. Wood. Reminiscences of Reconstruction in Texas, and Reminiscences of Texas and Texans Fifty Years Ago (1902). Author was a resident of Centerville in Leon County, where he practiced law and published a local newspaper during the middle years of the nineteenth century and served in the state legislature in the 1870s. The Reconstruction section contains Woods' observations, as an former adherent of the Confederacy, on the tumultuous post-Civil War era, especially in his home county, including comments on the character of Governor E. J. Davis. Link to document
United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Records relating to Texas. Site has twenty-three documents and sets of documents on this subject. The records bear dates in the latter part of the 1860s. Link to documents
Gideon Welles. Diary entry, June 9, 1865. Secretary of the navy writes of attending a cabinet meeting that day in which Texas matters were discussed, including whether to continue A. J. Hamilton as military provisional governor. Welles mentioned the possibility of appointing ex-governor E. M. Pease instead. Welles comments about the character of both Hamilton and Pease. [Scroll down to the document.] Link to document
P. H. Sheridan to Gordon Granger, June 10, 1865. The commander of the Federal Military Division of the Southwest tells the commander of the Thirteenth Army Corps to get 1,800 troops to Galveston quickly. "There is not a very wholesome state of affairs in Texas." The governor, soldiers, and people "are disposed to be ugly." [For information about how to cite this document, read the note at the top of this list.] Link to document
P. H. Sheridan to J. A. Rawlings, June 13, 1865. The commander of the Federal Military Division of the Southwest writes to his chief of staff, announcing troop assignments to various points in Texas, including Custer's column to Houston. Biggest concentration to be in the Brownsville area. Mentions Maximilian. [Scroll down to the document.] [For information about how to cite this document, read the note at the top of this list.] Link to document
Gordon Granger. General Order No. 3, June 19, 1865. The commander of the District of Texas issues order from Galveston, announcing freedom for the slaves in Texas. [The text is in the first paragraph of this Web page. This appears to be an excerpt, but it includes the key statement.] Link to document
P. H. Sheridan to Gordon Granger, July 10, 1865. The commander of the Federal Military Division of the Southwest informs the commander of the District of Texas that Acting Governor [A, J.] Hamilton had called on him at New Orleans on his way to Texas. Will require an escort to Austin and a small garrison there. . . ." [For information about how to cite this document, read the note at the top of this list.] Link to document
Seymour Howell to F. W. Emory, July 10, 1865. An army general writes from Galveston to a staff member of the District of Texas that, owing to Confederate deserters and others pillaging and destruction of Confederate property after the surrender, he has been unable to obtain such for U.S. government use. Efforts continue. [Scroll down to the document.] [For information about how to cite this document, read the note at the top of this list.] Link to document
Elizabeth B. Custer. Tenting on the Plains: or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas. 1895. [Written in the latter 1880s.] In the chapters dealing with Texas, III-IX, the author, wife of George Armstrong Custer, writes of her experiences accompanying her husband on a five-month military assignment in Texas, August 1865-February 1866, living most of the time in Austin. Link to document
Samuel Q. Richardson to A. J. Hamilton, [September, 1865]. Van Zandt County judge asks Acting Governor Hamilton to send federal troops and an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau to the county to deal with violence against freedmen. Link to document
Whitelaw Reid. After the War: A Southern Tour. New York: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1866. Author was a journalist who traveled through the former Confederate states soon after the Civil War. There is some brief material in Chapter XIII (p. 227 and following) and on p. 426 on Reconstruction in Texas. [The Internet collection of which this document is a part is the University of Michigan's "Making of America" website.] Link to document
Texas Constitutional Convention. Journals of the Constitutional Convention, February 7-April 2, 1866. [The link is to the Table of Contents. There one will find a link to each day's proceedings. The document is in pdf format; Adobe Acrobat required.] Link to Table of Contents
A. J. Hamilton. Message of Governor A. J. Hamilton, to the Texas State Convention. February 10, 1866. The reference in the title is to the Constitutional Convention. [The Internet collection of which this document is a part is the University of Michigan's "Making of America" website.] Link to document
Andrew Johnson to A. J. Hamilton, February 13, 1866. Telegram. President Johnson expresses gratification to hear from Texas Governor Hamilton that the Texas constitutional convention has been organized. Urges that the proceedings be prudent and that the delegates display loyalty to the government of the United States, etc. Link to document
Texas Constitutional Convention. Ordinance, March 15, 1866. Declares the Ordinance of Secession null and void. Link to document
Texas Constitutional Convention. Constitution of 1866, June 1866. This was when the document was ratified by popular vote. It was another reworking of the Constitution of 1845, taking into account the outcome of the Civil War and making other changes as well. Link to document
Gideon Welles. Diary entry, August 2, 1866. The secretary of the navy has had two interviews with ex-Governor E. M. Pease of Texas, who claimed that in Texas there is no toleration of Union men like himself. Wants the protection of federal troops. Welles disagrees. Details. Link to document
Andrew Johnson. Proclamation, August 20, 1866. The president declares a state of peace between Texas and the United States. Link to document
Oran M. Roberts, "The Experiences of an Unrecognized Senator." [Covers the period August 1866 to early January 1867.] [Written sometime after the fact and published in the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association in 1908.] The author, a former justice of the Texas Supreme Court during the Civil War, recounts his unsuccessful attempt to be seated as a United States senator from Texas in Washington. Contains other information about and opinions relating to Reconstruction. Link to document
W. H. Whaley to J. W. Throckmorton, September 29, 1866. Gainesville resident pleads with the Texas governor to provide protection for the frontier settlements against Indian attack. Link to document
J. W. Throckmorton to the President of the Senate of the United States, October 3, 1866. The Texas governor provides notification that the Texas legislature has chosen former Texas Supreme Court justice O. M. Roberts as one of Texas' two United States senators. Link to document
J. W. Throckmorton to O. M. Roberts, October 3, 1866. The Texas governor encloses Roberts' credentials as one of Texas' two U.S. senators. [Roberts had served as a Texas Supreme Court justice during the Civil War.] Expresses hope that the senate will recognize Roberts as a member. [Scroll down to the document.] Link to document
Gideon Welles. Diary entry, December 13, 1866. Secretary of the navy writes that ex-Governor E. M. Pease of Texas had called on him that day. Was in Washington to lobby for the passage of strict Reconstruction legislation. Claims that most Texans are still rebels at heart and wants federal troops to come to his state to control them. Welles voices his disagreement. Link to document
O. M. Roberts to Jas. Douglas, December 14, 1866. Roberts, who had served as a Texas Supreme Court justice during the Civil War, writes to a former Confederate army officer, stating that no Texas senator or representative will be seated during the present session of Congress. Details. [Scroll down to the document.] Link to document
O. M. Roberts, D. G. Burnet, B. H. Epperson, A. M. Branch, and George Chilton. "Address of the Texas Delegation to the Congress and People of the United States," January 1, 1867. The authors, all of whom had been denied seats in Congress because none could take the test oath, make an extended statement about Texas, including its history before the Civil War, its secession, and its situation at the present. There are other details about their views on Reconstruction, including the status of the freedmen. Link to document
Reading Wood Black to J. W. Throckmorton, January 6, 1867. Uvalde County resident writes to the Texas governor, proposing to negotiate a treaty to persuade the Kickapoo Indians, [who had been raiding along the Rio Grande], to leave the area. Link to document
United States Congress. First Reconstruction act, March 2, 1867. Asserts that "no legal State governments or adequate protection for life or property now exists in the rebel States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas and Arkansas." [The date is the day it was passed over President Andrew Johnson's veto.] Link to document
United States Congress. Second Reconstruction act, March 23, 1867. [Date is that day it was passed over President Andrew Johnson's veto.] [Scroll down to the document.] Link to document
Philip Sheridan to J. W. Throckmorton, March 29, 1867. Telegram. General Sheridan, commander of the Fifth Military District, writes to the Texas governor, calling on Texas state officials and all of the people to cooperate with the Union commander in the state to achieve reconstruction. Link to document
Charles Griffin to J. W. Throckmorton, April 26, 1867. General Griffin, Union commander in Texas, writes from Galveston to the Texas governor. Makes reference to a petition from "loyal citizens" in Parker and Jack counties, charging that the courts there are being used to persecute Unionists. Requests that the governor protect them in both their persons and property. Link to document
Mark Walker to Chauncy McKeever, May 14, 1867. Army lieutenant at Fort Arbuckle in the Indian Territory reports to a superior officer about an interview with an Indian who has possession of a white youth who he has obtained from Comanches who captured him in Texas in 1866. Now the man wants to negotiate to return the boy to his father. Details. [Walker seems to be asking for instructions.] On the letter's cover is General William T. Sherman's blunt response, dated June 25, 1867: Indians must return stolen children without recompense or there will be war. Link to documents
Gideon Welles. Diary entry, June 12, 1867. Secretary of the navy states that E. M. Pease, ex-governor of Texas (and a Unionist), had called at Welles' office in Washington. Pease spoke of despotism in Texas since secession; would prefer U.S. military despotism. Welles' response. [Scroll down to the document.] Link to document
United States Congress. Third Reconstruction act, July 19, 1867. [Date is that day it was passed over President Andrew Johnson's veto.] [Scroll down for the document.] Link to document
George S. Hartruff. Special Order No. 105, July 30, 1867. Assistant adjutant general, Fifth Military District, issues district commander, General Philip Sheridan's order removing Texas Governor J. W. Throckmorton and appointing E. M. Pease as provisional governor. Details. Link to document
Gideon Welles. Diary entry, July 30, 1867. Secretary of the navy notes the action of General Philip Sheridan, commander of the Fifth Military District, in removing Texas Governor J. W. Throckmorton and appointing E. M. Pease, an "old friend" in his stead. Comments on the appointment and on Pease in general. Says that Pease's mind has become warped by his recent expereriences in Texas. Details. [Scroll down to the document.] Link to document
Livingston Lindsay to E. M. Pease, October 9, 1867. Texas Supreme Court Associate Justice reports to the provisional governor on the effects of the yellow fever epidemic, then raging through many parts of the state, on the people of La Grange. Link to document
United States of America and leaders of the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches. Treaty of Medicine Creek Lodge, October 21, 1867. Although the treaty does not mention the term Texas, it calls for the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Indians then living in--or raiding into--Texas to move onto reservations in the Indian Territory [present-day Oklahoma]. Link to document
W. S. Hancock to E. M. Pease, March 9, 1868. The commander of the Fifth Military District responds to a letter from the provisional governor of Texas, dated January 17, 1868, in which Pease had written of the continued rebellious sentiments of the majority of the people of his state and urging the need for military commissions to enforce the civil law. Hancock counters that mere opinions or feelings are not subject to "the punitory power of human tribunals." Details. [Scroll down to the document.] Link to document
Texas Constitutional Convention. Ordinances passed by the Convention, June 8, 1868-February 5, 1869. [The link is to a table of contents. There one will find links to the ordinances. The documents are in pdf format; Abobe Acrobat required. Link to Table of Contents
T. H. Mundine. Texas Constitutonal Convention delegate from Burleson County submits proposal for an article to the new state constitution, July 8, 1868. The article would give women the right to vote in Texas. Referred to Committee on State Affairs. Link to document
Committee on State Affairs, Texas Constitutional Convention, Majority report on proposed article to provide for women's suffrage, July 30, 1868. Report is favorable. Gives reasons. Link to document
Committee on State Affairs, Texas Constitutional Convention, Minority report on proposed article to provide for women's suffrage, July 30, 1868. Report is unfavorable. Gives reasons. [Note: The convention as a whole later rejected the proposed section.] Link to document
Donald Campbell to E. M. Pease, August 25, 1868. Marion County Chief Justice reports to the Texas provisional governor about Ku Klux Klan activity in and about Jefferson. Link to document
Several delegates to the Texas Constitutional Convention. Proposed constitution for the state of West Texas [1868]. Drafted by several delegates from the western part of the state who favored the division of Texas into two states. Link to document
Texas Constitutional Convention. Constitution of the State of Texas, 1869. Was adopted by popular vote in the early part of 1869. This was the so-called Reconstruction constitution, which was highly unpopular with the formerly pro-Confederate majority of the Texas population. Link to document
United States Congress. Act authorizing the submission of the constitutions of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas to a vote of the people, etc., April 10, 1869. Also authorized the election of state officers. Link to document
Ulysses S. Grant. Proclamation, July 15, 1869. Submits the Texas Constitution, just written by a constitutional convention, to the voters for approval. Link to document
Texas Legislature. Official Reports of the Debates and Proceedings of the Twelfth Legislature [1870]. Image of an excerpt of the remarks by Senator Matt Gaines, an African American, on the proposed bill to form a militia to deal with violent groups, including the Klux Klan. Link to document
United States Congress. Act to admit the state of Texas to representation in Congress, March 30, 1870. Link to document
George T. Ruby. Oath of office as a state senator, April 26, 1870. Ruby was an African-American leader in the Texas Republican Party. Link to document
F. W. Johnson, William T. Austin, and E. M. Pease to the Legislature of the State of Texas, [no date]. Petition that the state grant pensions to two African Americans, Thomas Stephens and Mack Smith, who, while slaves, fought in the Texas Revolution. From the context, it is certain that the petition was written between the end of the Civil War and early 1874. Link to document
Texas. Legislature. Act for the Relief of Thomas Stephens and Mack Smith (Freedmen), [no date]. Grants to these African Americans pensions for their service, while slaves, in the Texas Revolution. The date was probably soon after the petition of F. W. Johnson, William T. Austin, and E. M. Pease, asking that the two be granted pensions. Link to document
Stephen Powers, "Solid Days in Texas," Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine: 6 (June 1871), 555-561. Undated account of trip by a Texas lawyer and politician into the Fort Davis area. Internal evidence shows trip must have occurred between 1865 and 1871. [The Internet collection of which this document is a part is the University of Michigan's "Making of America" website.] Link to document
State of Texas. Pension laws relating to the Texas Revolution and the Republic of Texas, 1870-1889. Texts of the laws follow summary statements about their contents. Link to documents
Dagmar Mariager, "Camp and Travel in Texas," (1871).
Reminiscences
of the [unidentified] author, who in 1871 traveled from New Mexico
through El Paso eastward into Central Texas before reversing and going
into western Texas again. These articles are taken directly from the Overland
Monthly and Outwest Magazine. There are four parts to this account. [The Internet collection of which
this document is a part is the University of Michigan's "Making of
America" website.]
Part
I
Part
II
Part III
Part
IV
Isaac Lane, Autobiography, with a Short History of the C.M.E. Church in America and of Methodism (1916). Most of the book is not about Texas. However, the author, a Methodist bishop, tells of some administrative activities with the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in Texas in the early 1870s. Link to document
William T. Sherman to Ranald McKenzie, May 28, 1871. The commanding general of the U.S. Army writes from Fort Sill to the commander of the Fourth U.S. Cavalry, reporting the arrest of several Indians, among them the Kiowa chief, Satanta, who has confessed to attacking a wagon train in Texas earlier in the month near Fort Belknap in Texas and to killing several persons in the process [known to history as the Salt Creek Massacre]. Link to document
Horace Greeley. Mr. Greeley's Letters from Texas and the Lower Mississippi: to Which Are Added his Address to the Farmers of Texas, and his Speech on his Return to New York, June 12, 1871 (1871). The author was the publisher of the New York Tribune. [The Internet collection of which this document is a part is the University of Michigan's "Making of America" website.] Link to documentJohn W. Glenn to E. J. Davis, September 25, 1871. Author, a civil engineer in the employ of the state, makes report to Governor Davis concerning his inspection of new construction by the Houston & Great Northern Railroad (as required by law). Link to document
Charles B. Pearre. A Review of the Unconstitutional Laws, of the Twelfth Legislature of Texas, and the Oppressions of the Present Administrations Exposed. 1872. The author, a Waco attorney, writes about the gubernatorial administration of E. J. Davis and the Republican-dominated legislature of the first part of his administration. [The Internet collection of which this document is a part is the University of Michigan's "Making of America" website.] Link to document
Edward King. The Great South: A Record of Journeys in Louisiana, Texas, the Indian Territory, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. (1875) The author was employed by Scribner's Monthly to write material for that periodical about the southern states in the post-Civil War period. His travels in Texas took place in 1873. Places visited (among others) include Galveston, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. King comments on economic and social conditions, cultural life, etc. The link is to the beginning of the Texas material. Link to document
D. A. Sen Clair to E. J. Davis, September 10, 1873. An African American reports to Texas Governor Davis that whites in Comanche County have taken lands belonging to blacks. Asks for help in rectifying the situation. Also reports sexual assaults by whites upon black women. Link to document
John B. Jones. Oath upon entering service as a Texas Ranger, May 19, 1874. Link to document
E. Dawson to Richard Coke, August 8, 1874. Clay County resident writes to the governor, offering to raise a company of Rangers to protect local settlers from Indian attacks. Expects an outbreak of raids soon along the entire frontier of the state. Link to document
David Holderman to Richard Coke, September 7, 1874. Grieving father asks Governor Coke to offer a reward for brother-in-law of John Wesley Hardin who had allegedly murdered Holderman's son. Link to document
Samuel Bell Maxey to Richard Coke, September 7, 1874. Soon-to-be U.S. senator writes to the Texas governor that the U.S. government has failed to protect the frontier against Indian attack. Only strong military action will solve the problem. Link to document
Reward for Sam Bass and others, [mid 1870s?]. Undated manuscript, titled "Omaha Train Robbers." Amount of reward, $10,000. Contains a description of Bass, including that he was between twenty-three and twenty-five years of age. [Bass was born in 1851.] Link to document
G. B. Cooke to _____________, February 4, 1875. San Saba County judge testifies to the effectiveness of the Frontier Battalion [of the Texas Rangers] in reducing the level of Indian violence in his area. Link to document
_________________ to the San Antonio Herald, February 16, 1875. Unidentified person writes from Uvalde County of a fight between settlers and Comanches in the northern part of the county and criticizes President U.S. Grant's peace policy toward the Indians. Link to document
Texas Constitutional Convention. Debates of the Convention, September 6-November 24, 1875. [Link is to a table of contents. There one will find links to each day's session. The document is in pdf format; Adobe Acrobat required.] Link to Table of Contents
Texas Constitutional Convention. Debate on railroads, November 5, 1875. The printed record encompasses more than seven pages. Link to document
U.S. Congress, 44th Congress, First Session, 1875-1876. Law prohibiting Indians at Fort Sill Reservation in the Indian Territory from entering Texas. [Copy]. Link to document
Texas Constitutional Convention, Constitution of the State of Texas. Was adopted by the convention in September of 1875, then ratified by popular vote, February 15, 1876. Link to document
Brown County officials to Richard Coke, June 3, 1876. Ask that the law allowing the carrying of pistols in the county be suspended. Letter goes on to explain why. Link to document
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