The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994 Page: 48
754 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
white violence against them. A year and a half after the end of presiden-
tial Reconstruction, Texas Republicans claimed that former slaves in the
county were still being routinely robbed and killed. In 1869 blacks com-
prised almost half of the county's population. About 90 percent of the
county's black adult males had registered, compared to approximately
56 percent of their white counterparts. Therefore, with 949 blacks and
6oo whites on the Falls County registration lists, Davis should have car-
ried the county easily. After he lost Falls County by 232 votes and no-
ticed that almost 2oo fewer blacks voted in 1869 than had voted in
1868, he claimed that the election there was "simply a farce." Both the
quantitative and qualitative evidence sustain his charge.21
The two leading "scoundrels" whom Davis blamed for the Falls County
atrocity were ironically neither former secessionists or ex-Confederates.
They were Maj. Clarence Mauck, the U.S. Army commander of the local
military post and president of the board of registration, and Benjamin
G. Shields, a staunch unionist who had been a U.S. congressman from
Alabama and the American charge d'affaires in Venezuela before set-
tling in the county in the early 1850s. Major Mauck, who saw nothing in-
appropriate about bringing his private supply of liquor to the election
room, enjoyed the company of "General" Shields, who admittedly com-
manded considerable and well-deserved respect from the freedmen.
Shields had courageously, albeit somewhat dangerously, voiced his opin-
ion during the late antebellum period that slavery was morally wrong
and economically moribund. His distinguished reputation and large
slaveholder status combined to safeguard him from physical harm at the
hands of zealous secessionists. After the war Shields had been one of the
so-called "radical unionists" at the state constitutional convention assem-
bled in i866 during presidential reconstruction. In 1869 he was an ar-
dent Hamilton supporter and a Republican candidate for congress until
he withdrew from the race shortly before the election.22
On the morning of the first day of the four days of balloting in Falls
County, it became apparent that black men were overwhelmingly casting
what the local newspaper called the "mongrel ticket." Major Mauck
21 Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculzar Institution in Texas, x821-1865
(Baton Rouge- Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 243 (2nd quotation), 244 (1st quota-
tion), 245-246, 264-265; Elisha M. Pease to Joseph J. Reynolds, July 16, 1868, Governors' Pa-
pers: Pease; and Edmund J. Davis to Joseph J. Reynolds, Dec. 13, 1869 (3rd quotation),
Microfilm Reel #39, COCADT, RG 393 (NA).
2 EdmundJ. Davis to Joseph J. Reynolds, Dec. 13, 1869 (1st quotation), Microfilm Reel #39,
COCADT, RG 393 (NA); Clarence Mauck to Charles E. Morse, Dec. 18, 1869 (2nd quotation),
ibid; Moneyhon, Republicanism in Reconstruction Texas, 121; A Memorial and Bzographical Hstory of
McLennan, Falls, Bell and Coryell Counties, Texas (1893; reprint, St. Louxs, Mo.: Ingmire Publica-
tions, 1984), 482-486; and James A. Baggett, "Birth of the Texas Republican Party," Southwestern
Historical Quarterly, LXXVIII (July, 1974), 8-9 n. 27.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994, periodical, 1994; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117154/m1/76/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.