The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994 Page: 54
754 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
ton among black voters must be taken at face value, but in many coun-
ties the voters' intentions were clearly violated. For example, had the
freedmen in Falls County been allowed an untrammeled ballot, the out-
come there would have redounded to Davis's benefit. Moreover, the vot-
ing behavior of Jasper, Sabine, San Augustine, and Panola counties
places them under heavy suspicion of being localities where intimida-
tion of freedmen cost Davis many votes. More traditional evidence cor-
roborates the impression that in this corner of northeastern Texas the
franchise of hundreds of black voters went virtually unprotected. If the
final tallies in the 1869 governor's race were corrected for the radical-
orchestrated chicanery in El Paso and Hill counties, and if military au-
thorities had ordered a new election in Milam and Navarro counties, the
additional votes for Hamilton, according to the analysis presented here,
would still not have come close to offsetting the gains for Davis created
by rectifying the instances of intimidation of black voters in Falls County
and the San Augustine/Sabine area.
The findings presented here thus strengthen revisionist interpreta-
tions which reject the notion that Davis and Reynolds stole the 1869
election. Although both the quantitative and qualitative evidence sug-
gest that the degree of intimidation of black voters by anti-Davis men ex-
ceeded the extent of Radical chicanery, the evidence introduced here is
compatible with historical accounts which argue that white voter apathy,
especially among conservatives and Democrats who opposed Davis but
could not bring themselves to vote for Hamilton, was the deciding factor
in producing Davis's victory.35
As governor from 1870 to 1874, Davis left his mark on a new era in
Texas politics in which, at least in theory, former slaves would have the
chance to receive full civic and political rights. Because of his unpopu-
larity among white conservative Texans, who for generations belittled
his goal as "nigger equality,"6 history has still not bestowed upon Ed-
mundJ. Davis the fair treatment to which he is entitled.
95 See especially Gray, "EdmundJ. Davis," 150-181; Moneyhon, Repubicanism mn Reconstruction
Texas, o104-128; and Carrier, "A Political History of Texas," 327-404..
3" For the ubiquitous use of the word "nigger" in the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
turies, see Lawrence D. Rice, The Negro in Texas, 1874-1900oo (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Uni-
versity Press, 1971), 34.
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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/m1/82/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.