In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

7 In the 1872 Texas election the Democrats solidified control of the Thirteenth Legislature and anticipated the termination of the State Police. The Democratic victory stimulated the belief that the state authorities were to be deprived of enforcing the laws and preserving the peace. The “desperate element has broken loose,” decried Norton’s Union Intelligencer. The law was “trampled under foot” and lawmen “shot down.” The Daily State Journal echoed this sentiment when it declared that the prospective removal of the State Police had “encouraged the lawless to break out all over the State.” Desperadoes were “too strong for the civil officers of the county.” This “malicious spirit” needed to be crushed.1 A few papers gave some grudging praise for the organization and even performed an occasional about-face in support of police efforts, but in general the “governor’s hounds” were detested and often vilified, as was Governor E. J. “Despot” Davis. James B. Gillett, who became a Texas Ranger, painted the force as a political entity when he stated that “naturally they were rank Republicans, and many of them were termed carpetbaggers. This body was never popular in Texas, especially as many of the force were negroes.”2 Publicly , the State Police were condemned at every turn and generally described as misfits and law breakers. The denouement began in early 1873. Just before the final disbandment of the organization, four policemen died in a hail of bullets inside a Lampasas, Texas, saloon. Lampa

Share