The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994 Page: 45
754 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Chicanery and Intimidation
Research into the 1869 election results in El Paso County reveals a re-
mark that goes to the heart of the fraud issue. The commanding officer
at Fort Bliss stated that Fountain and another had confided to him that
they had "procured the alteration of ballots fraudulently ... but that the
Board of Registrars were [sic] in no way responsible for it." In light of
this comment and other evidence, the best hypothesis is that Father Bo-
rajo masterminded the numerous alterations of Hamilton ballots in the
hands of many Spanish-speaking El Pasoans who arrived in the county
seat of San Elizario, twenty miles below El Paso, to vote on the first day
of the election. The modifications or "scratchings," which were made
mostly with a blue crayon pencil, changed many votes for county as well
as state offices.14
El Paso conservatives subsequently charged that the "cool, calculated
and deliberate" alterations made "clear through" many Hamilton ballots
could not possibly have been made in the street or in a crowd, but were
fraudulently produced only after the board of registrars allowed the
Radical faction to tamper with the ballot box. The anti-Davis men also
claimed that the actual vote in their county should have been "about
278 for Hamilton and 182 for Davis." Fountain and the Radicals might
have altered or, to use the favorite word of the Hamilton faction, "disfig-
ured" as many as 154 Hamilton tickets.15
In spite of the extremely high number of estimated ballots cast by
non-blacks for Davis in El Paso County-a number which translates in
percentage terms into the support of nearly half of the county's regis-
tered whites-the actual extent to which the voters' intentions were vio-
lated remains problematical. Fountain and Borajo capitalized on
genuine and widespread distrust of Mills's designs on the nearby salinas,
where the salt had historically been free for the taking. Moreover, Foun-
tain's subsequent efforts to keep the salt beds in the hands of all citizens
and out of the grasp of rapacious groups of Anglos were honorable and
sincere.16 Nevertheless, a second look at the 1869 voting returns suggests
that his election to the Texas senate was achieved by an additional sub-
tlety, if not by outright guile.
'~ Sonnichsen, Pass of the North, I, 186; comments by H. C. Merriam written on back of Albert
H. French's affidavit, Dec. 4,1869 (ist quotation), Microfilm Reel #28, COCADT, RG 393 (NA);
Gaylord J. Clarke to W. W. Mills, Dec. 7, 1869, and Albert H. French to W. W. Mills, Dec. 4,
1869, in W. W. Mills, El Paso, A Glance at Its Men and Contests for the Last Few Years. The Election
Fraud, the Marshes, Williams, Pearson, Verney, Stine, and Fountain the Infamous (Austin: Repubhcan
Office, 1871), 11-12 (2nd quotation); and affidavit of Jose Maria Gonzales, Dec. 15, 1869, Mi-
crofilm Reel #28, COCADT, RG 393 (NA).
15 Affidavit ofJos6 Maria Gonziles, Dec. 15, 1869 (1st quotation); GaylordJ. Clarke quoted in
Mills, El Paso, A Glance, 11-12 (2nd and 3rd quotations); and affidavit of Albert H. French, Dec.
4, 1869 (4th quotation), Microfilm Reel #28, COCADT, RG 393 (NA).
16 Sonnichsen, Pass of the North, I, 186.
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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/m1/73/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.