Forty years at El Paso, 1858-1898; recollections of war, politics, adventure, events, narratives, sketches, etc., by W. W. Mills. Page: 91 of 163

RECONSTRUCTION-CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
OF I868-69.
In 1868 I was elected to represent El Paso county in
the State Constitutional Convention, which was to meet
at Austin in May of that year, to frame a constitution
under which Texas might be readmitted into the Union.
At the start I was opposed for that office by Major
Joseph Smith, a popular Democrat, who had been honorably
discharged from the United States military service
at El Paso, but early in the contest I badgered him
into saying that if he found a single "Nigger" in the
convention, he would resign.
I then suggested to the Mexican audience that if he
had that much race prejudice, he would not do to represent
them. Major Smith soon saw certain defeat before
him, and withdrew, and I was unanimously elected.
During April of that year, I went in a buggy, with a
single companion, Hon. W. P. Bacon, Judge of our district,
to San Antonio, en route to Austin, seven hundred
and forty miles, in seventeen days, without change of
animals (two horses). We "camped out" and did our
own cooking, and traveled much at night, because
marauding Indians were then abundant on that route.
I arrived at Austin a total stranger to every soul in that
capital. The convention had ninety delegates, only ten
of whom were Democrats. There were nine colored delegates,
a large contingent of carpetbaggers, and several
new recruits to the Republican party, who claimed from
the day of their'conversion to be more "loyal" to that
party than any of us. But about one-half of the body
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