The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 12, July 1908 - April, 1909 Page: 225
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Presidential Reconstruction in Texas.
to aid his radical friends the commissioner had forgotten that
the civil officials of whom he complained were those appointed by
Hamilton, since the recently elected conservatives were not in-
stalled until August. Sheridan, in his official report, declared
that conditions in Texas were such that the trial of a white man
for killing a negro would be a farce,' and in a letter to Throck-
morton, January 16, 1867, asserted that "there are more casualties
occurring from outrages perpetrated upon Union men and freed-
men in the interior of the State than occur from Indian depreda-
tions on the frontier. The former greatly exceed the latter and
are induced by the old rebellious sentiment."2 To this Throckmor-
ton entered a prompt and vigorous denial. He told Sheridan that
the latter and his officers had for the most part been imposed upon
by men who proclaimed themselves "outraged Union men," but
who had really never been Union men at all; more often they were
rogues and horse-thieves who set up that cry in order to get pro-
tection of the military. He himself had been a Union man be-
fore the war, had had extensive correspondence with Union men
all over the State, and he knew that some of these men who were
now being outraged "for their Union sentiment" had formerly been
"brawling, blatant secessionists" and notorious for their bad char-
acter.3 Not content with this, the governor, on February 9, sent
out circular inquiries to the civil officers throughout the State,
chiefly to the justices of the county courts, regarding the treat-
ment of Union men and freedmen in the courts and at the hands
of the people in general, and making specific inquiries concerning
such cases as had been brought to his attention. In the answers
to this circular it was claimed without exception that the law was
impartially enforced upon all classes without distinction of color
or politics. Some writers complained of the Bureau officials, some
of the soldiers, while some were on the best of terms with the
military, to whom they referred for endorsement of their state-
ments. Although one is tempted to suspect that many of the civil
officials endeavored to make out as cheerful a picture of conditions
'See Official Records, IWar of Rebellion, Series I, Vol. XLVIII, Part 1,
p. 301.
MS. in Executive Correspondence.
'Throckmorton to Sheridan, Executive Records, Register Boole 84, p. 246.225
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 12, July 1908 - April, 1909, periodical, 1909; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101048/m1/253/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.