Beyond Redemption: Texas Democrats after Reconstruction

1. Redeeming State Government, 872–74

1 Redeeming State Government, 1872–74 t he winter before the battle at palo duro—on January 15,฀1874— democratic legislators installed texas’ first Redeemer governor. like the cold, wet weather, the circumstances of Richard coke’s inauguration were hardly auspicious.1 As the Waco jurist and planter himself recalled: “An universal conflict of jurisdiction and authority , extending through all the departments of government, embracing in its sweep all the territory and inhabitants of the state, and every question upon which legitimate government is called to act, was imminent and impending. . . . texas seemed on the verge of a convulsion.”2 no one questioned that democrat coke had won a hefty majority of the votes cast in the previous month’s gubernatorial election.3 yet the state supreme court had declared that election—which filled not only executive but also legislative and county posts—unconstitutional and void.Republican incumbent edmund davis refused to yield his office. the overwhelmingly democratic legislators-elect had nevertheless assembled in Austin and met as the Fourteenth legislature. As allies of davis proceeded, with bayonets fixed,to secure state offices in the capitol,democrats similarly reinforced the legislative chambers upstairs. the self-proclaimed legislature, having seized the election returns from a protesting secretary of state,swore in coke.in the meantime, some Republican members of the previous legislature gathered in the building’s basement and challenged those upstairs for recognition as the state’s legitimate lawmaking body.4 the standoff at the capitol was only the most dramatic manifestation of a broader contest.in various texas counties local Republican officials likewise ฀ beyond฀redemption refused to give way to their elected democratic successors.5 clashes seemed to be brewing too on the streets of Austin. democrats traveled to the capital city to support their cause,and they believed that Republicans were similarly streaming in.With African Americans prominent among davis’s supporters both within and without the capitol, a sergeant at arms appointed by the de facto democratic legislature reportedly warned the Radical governor: “let a negro fire a gun, and the next shot will not be at them, but aimed directly at your heart.”6 the day after coke’s inauguration, rival bodies of troops briefly confronted one another at the local arsenal. Another armed crowd gathered downtown after reports filtered back that black militia had seized Austin’s mayor during the incident. A prominent democrat present at the scene later asserted that if fighting had actually commenced, “not less than 20,000 people would have been killed in two weeks—and texas would not have recovered from it in fifty years.”7 Rather suddenly, though, the state stepped back from the precipice. outnumbered Republicans knew that without federal support all was lost. But the Grant administration refused to embrace their arguments as to the invalidity of democrats’ claims and would not provide troops to keep the peace in Austin. By January 19 davis had surrendered his offices. Within days recalcitrant local officeholders seem also to have given way. Republican control of the executive had ended not with a bang, just a few huzzas offered davis by black troops as he left office. more than a century passed before another Republican would serve as governor of texas.8 this armed confrontation at the capitol,often referred to as the coke-davis “imbroglio,” has traditionally been treated as the climactic finale of Reconstruction in texas.For many historians it is what divided the period of Radical rule from a subsequent era of conservative hegemony.9 yet even in a state as overwhelmingly democratic as texas had become, Redeemers’ assumption of power was too drawn out and complicated a process to be comprehended by a mere chronicling of this January standoff.the transfer of authority had begun well before the imbroglio. But even after coke assumed office, many democrats worried that their control remained far from complete, for the power that mattered in texas was exercised not only in the governor’s office but also in the legislature and at county courthouses, municipal buildings, and polling places. When it came to redeeming state government, the true watershed had come fourteen months before coke’s inauguration, with the election of the decidedly democratic thirteenth legislature in november 1872.indeed some prominent democrats took these earlier elections to mark Reconstruction’s end. As the new legislature assembled in January 1873, the state’s premier democratic journal declared texas “redeemed...