The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 148

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

whom are not less than eight-tenths of the educated Republicans in
the State.
In a bitter denunciation of Reynolds' actions in interfering
with the Texas election and substituting Davis men for moderates
in political positions under the Reconstruction acts, Pease con-
cluded by saying:
I have believed for sometime past that the only mode of doing this
[completing a just and fair reconstruction policy] was by ratifying
the new constitution and electing the ticket headed by General
Hamilton. Under existing circumstances I am unwilling to become in
any way responsible for the course being pursued by the military
commander and the administration at Washington. I therefore resign
the office of governor of Texas..7
Texas was again completely under the control of the mili-
tary, and the election was held on November 30, 1867. General
Reynolds received the returns, had the votes counted, and de-
clared that Davis had won over Hamilton by a vote of 39,901 to
39,092. The new constitution provided for an appointive Supreme
Court consisting of three members. Davis appointed Lemuel D.
Evans (a moderate) as chief justice, Moses B. Walker, a former
Federal Army officer, and Wesley Ogden as associate justices.
With the organization of the new court in 1870, the second of the
Reconstruction courts came to an end. The court which went out
of existence has been commonly called the "Military Court" be-
cause its judges were appointed by the commander of the Fifth
Military District who also removed certain of its members. Moses
B. Walker, who was appointed by Davis to the court organized
under the Constitution of 1869, later known as the Semicolon
Court, also served as a member of the Military Court.
George W. Paschal, who was appointed as reporter for the Mili-
tary Court or the "provisionals" as he called them, states that it
was his understanding that General Reynolds removed Judge
Caldwell and appointed Moses B. Walker to take his place while
Walker was serving as a colonel in the occupation army under
Reynolds.'"
17Wooten, Comprehensive History of Texas, II, 179.
18 Texas Reports, XXXI, vii. Paschal had difficulty with the Military Court
over the publication of its opinions and in his preface to Volume XXXI of the
Texas Reports he indicates his estimate of the Military Court by saying: "Had

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