The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994 Page: 51
754 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Chicanery and Intimidation
In San Augustine County in early 1868, during the election on calling
a constitutional convention and selecting delegates, "rebels" assaulted
the polling place with "Knives, Pistols, and Shot guns." Apparently in-
spired by a local justice of the peace's injunction to "[g]o ahead" and
"drive those damn Yankees out," the rioters broke the windows of the
polling place, shot one black voter and threatened others, and forced
the local black member of the board of registration into hiding. Only
the interference of "respectable citizens" saved the remaining election
managers, including the local Freedmen's Bureau agent, from violence
and enabled the election to proceed, albeit without the black member
of the board.28
One historical account published in the 1930s celebrates the exploits
during this time of a Klan-type organization that consisted of 2oo men
led by I. D. Thomas, Jr. His "Invisible Empire" allegedly staged relentless
nightly raids in San Augustine and neighboring Sabine counties, admin-
istering a "good flogging" to "obnoxious" black leaders and driving away
only those "whose minds had been inflamed by Yankee emissaries." This
white terrorism presumably continued until the 1869 balloting, when
the blacks were declared by the same narrator to have become "inspired
with a wholesome respect for the white population.""29
The plight of James Lowrie, the Freedmen's Bureau agent in Jasper
county, captures the flavor of the times in this area during congressional
reconstruction. Lowrie had been shot in the thigh by unknown as-
sailants on a summer night in 1867. While recuperating, he caused a cri-
sis by arresting the sheriff, J. K. P. Truett, for killing a freedman. (Truett
had stabbed the freedman in the lung with a large pocketknife at a polit-
ical meeting.) Claiming that only President Andrew Johnson could or-
der troops to detain their sheriff, crowds of local whites went berserk
and rabble-rousers called for an armed attack upon an occupying force
of soldiers. After mollifying a mob by letting the sheriff go free, Lowrie
was himself "arrested" and subjected to a kangaroo court proceeding in
which his "crimes" were evaluated. Without constant troop support,
28 William Phillips to Elisha M. Pease, Feb. 1o, 1868 (1st quotation), quoted in Betty Jeffus
Sandlin, "The Texas Reconstruction Constitutional Convention of 1868-1869" (Ph.D. diss.,
Texas Tech University, 197o), 35; affidavit of Albert A. Metzner regarding the state of affairs in
San Augustine County, June 19, 1868 (2nd quotation), Microfilm Reel #13, BRFAL, RG 105
(NA); Albert A. Metzner to C. P. Richardson, Feb. 21, 1868 (3rd quotation), ibid.; and Richter,
Overreached on All Sides, 171-172.
29 George Louis Crocket, Two Centunes in East Texas: A Hstory of San Augustine County and Sur-
rounding Territory from x685 to the Present Time (Dallas: The Southwest Press, 1932), 347 (1st and
3rd quotations), 348 (2nd quotation), 349 (4th and 5th quotations). Thomas was the son of the
wealthy planter/merchant I. D. Thomas, who served as the county clerk of San Augustine Coun-
ty from his election in 1869 until his resignation on March 5, 1873. See Registers ofElected and Ap-
pointed State and County Officials, 1867-1885, Microfilm Reel #5, p. 525, RG 307 (Archives
Division, Texas State Library, Austin).
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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/m1/79/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.