The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994 Page: 53
754 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Chicanery and Intimidation
Coryell County, located in north-central Texas on the legendary
Chisholm Trail, failed to give Davis a single vote. A local military com-
mander blamed the lopsided result on ex-sheriff William W. Hammack,
who, although under indictment for allowing the lynching of prisoners
in his jail, still exercised along with others in his family a powerful influ-
ence at the time of the balloting. While it might have been true, as al-
leged, that the small percentage of freedmen in the county were "either
kept away from the polls by fear or made to vote as Hammack dictated,"
abnormally large margins for Hamilton characterized this entire region
of the state, including San Saba, Burnet, and Bell counties, where the
Davis vote also fell below the numbers of blacks voting in the referen-
dum election. Although the handful of Burnet County freedmen who
claimed that their Davis ballots were deliberately ignored might have
been telling the truth, this irregularity alone would scarcely explain
Hamilton's large margin of support in their county."3
Brevet Brig. Gen. George P. Buell, commander of the Fifteenth In-
fantry, believed that few "Union men of any color" had been free to
vote as they wished in the adjoining counties of Dallas, Denton, Ellis,
and Kaufman. Although the Davis vote fell below the number of blacks
voting in the constitutional referendum only in Ellis County, the quanti-
tative findings presented here do not necessarily impugn the sworn testi-
mony of Radicals who described how blacks in Dallas County had "their
houses shot into" as warnings against voting the Davis ticket, how a mob
in Denton County during the election drove away Davis campaign work-
ers, and how black voters in Kaufman County had their Davis ballots tak-
en from them at the polls. Moreover, in these three counties combined,
237 fewer blacks voted in 1869 than had voted in I868.3'
In conclusion, an examination of the relationships between voting
patterns in the 1869 constitutional referendum and simultaneous voting
in the Davis-Hamilton election helps to identify Texas counties where
idiosyncratic voting returns suggest apparent fraud in the governor's
race. More qualitative evidence reveals that many of the unusually large
estimated levels of support for Davis among white voters and for Hamil-
'3 Lt. J. H. Sands to Charles E. Morse, Jan. 20, 1870 (quotation), Microfilm Reel #40, CO-
CADT, RG 393 (NA); and Mary E. Coffee to Joseph J. Reynolds, Jan. 28, 1870, Microfilm Reel
#28, Ibid In general, Davis fared poorly in a string of twelve counties on the northwestern fron-
tier, including Brown, Burnet, Comanche, Erath, Hamilton, Jack, Lampasas, Llano, Montague,
Palo Pinto, San Saba, and Wise.
4 George P. Buell to Charles E. Morse, telegram received by HFMD on Dec. 18, 1869 (1st
quotation), and affidavit of William W. Lewis, Dec. 20, 1869 (2nd quotation), Microfilm Reel
#23, COCADT, RG 393 (NA); "Papers in the Contested Election Case of Grafton vs. Conner,"
June 2, 1870, H. Mis. Doc. 144, 41st Cong., 2nd Sess. (Serial 1433), 1-2;James Brown and B. F.
Boydstun to Charles E. Morse, Dec. 27, 1869, Microfilm Reel #32, COCADT, RG 393 (NA); W.
H. Blackmon to HFMD, Dec. 15, 1869, Microfilm Reel #38, ibid.; and HFMD, General Orders,
No. 73 (Austin, Texas- Apr. 16, 1870), 2-9.
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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/m1/81/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.