Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 5, Number 1, January 1995 Page: 20
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Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal
by the death of A. K. Foster, who had won that office in 1869. Early reports from
Columbus claimed that Tendick's opponent, Wells Thompson, was certain to win
because white voters were more numerous than black, but the Republican prevailed by
140 votes. At the same election, H. M. Shoemaker, a carpetbagger who had settled in
Lavaca County, won the seat in the state house of representatives vacated by the death
of W. T. Wilkinson of Colorado County.58
Thus, in spite of factionalism, Republicans identified with E. J. Davis
controlled Colorado County through 1870. During that year, however, the Twelfth
Legislature enacted the Governor's program for Texas, and that gave conservatives the
focus for a much stronger attack on radicalism. Republicans created a state police force
and a state militia, both of which enrolled blacks, and a highly centralized public school
system. All three measures cost money and meant increased levels of taxation. In
Colorado County, local property taxes, which since the war had not been higher than
25 cents per one hundred dollars of assessed value, jumped to $1.125 on the hundred
in 1871. State property taxes added another 55 cents on the hundred.59 These new
policies and taxes drew outraged editorials in the conservative press. The Colorado
Citizen of February 2, 1871, called on Texans to rescue the state from bankruptcy and
ruin. "The welfare of every white man, woman and child in the State," the editor wrote,
"demands the expulsion of radicalism from power and the repeal of all the laws passed
by the present legislature that are detrimental to the best interests of the people and the
State." Four months later, the Citizen took an even uglier tone: "We have received from
Mr. R. P. Tendick ... a copy of the tax law, enacted by the nigger conclave at Austin,
to rob the people of the fruits of their industry, for the benefit of the Radical party." The
public schools, it went on, are interested primarily in teaching "negroes to be impudent
to the white race." And Governor Davis is the "most corrupt, vindictive and proscriptive
man in Texas."60
Increasingly vocal conservatives put Republican strength to the test in the
election of a United States Congressman in October 1871. A printed circular headed
"Anti-Radical" called a meeting at the courthouse on August 10 to consider candidates.
Signed by Fritz Leyendecker, H. C. Everett, Mathias Malsch, and others, the circular
promised support for the Democratic Party or any candidate-Moderate Republicans
included-who would oppose the incumbent, Edward Degener. Radicals, it said, are
trying to destroy Texas with taxes and to aggrandize blacks, carpetbaggers, and thieves.
The signatures of Leyendecker and Malsch, both of whom were Germans known for
unionism, were especially significant as indicators that the Republicans' main source of
white votes was weakening. Malsch, the Frelsburg merchant who had served as a county
commissioner throughout Congressional Reconstruction, gave another indication of
58 Galveston Daily News, December 1, 2, 3, 1870; E. M. Glenn to E. J. Davis, October 29, 1870,
Governors' Papers: EJD; Ninth Census [ 1870], Schedule 1; Journal of the House of Representatives, 12th
Legislature (Austin: Tracy, Siemering & Co., 1870), pp. 197-198.
59 Moneyhon, Republicanism in Reconstruction Texas, pp. 134-148; Records of the Comptroller of
Public Accounts, Ad Valorem Tax Division, Real and Personal Property Tax Rolls, Colorado County, 1865-
1871 (microfilm, Genealogy Division, Texas State Library, Austin).
60 Colorado Citizen, February 2 (first quotation), May 11, 1871 (second quotation).20
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 5, Number 1, January 1995, periodical, January 1995; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151393/m1/20/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.