The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 82, July 1978 - April, 1979 Page: 245
496 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Constitutional Union Party in Texas
The Travis County Union Club organized in Austin on September
3, and an executive committee of correspondence was appointed. A
petition endorsing two union Democrats, George W. Paschal of Travis
County and John H. Robson of Colorado County, as Union party pres-
idential electors for the state-at-large and for the western part of the
state, respectively, was being circulated in Austin by the organizers.
Paschal, Robson, and Hamilton began campaigning in areas within a
hundred-mile radius of Austin. Paschal also wrote campaign letters to
individuals and newspapers.24
The same week that the western district chose presidential electors, a
Constitutional Unionist meeting occurred at Honey Grove in Fannin
County, where William Stedman of Rusk County and Benjamin H.
Epperson of Red River County, two old-line Whigs, were chosen as
electors for the state-at-large and for East Texas. Immediately Epperson
undertook a four week campaign in the eastern and northeastern part
of the state. The Clarksville Standard reported that "Stedman[,] [State
Representative George W.] Whitmore, Evans, and Epperson, leave no
stone unturned."25
The Galveston Constitutional Union party, one of the earliest to
organize, assumed the appearance of a gentleman's club. Meeting week-
ly were a handful of highly respected long-time Island City citizens,
almost all of whom had Whig backgrounds. The group included Col-
onel A. C. McKeen, a local merchant; William P. Ballinger, a well-to-do
lawyer; and Levi Jones, pioneer physician and land speculator. They
delivered speeches; entertained visitors (including David G. Burnet,
one-time acting president of the Republic of Texas, whom they made
an honorary member); suggested possible electors for the Bell-Everett
ticket, if any of the men already appointed were to decline; and
5], 186o. The Marshall Harrison Flag, June 29, 186o, questioned the advisability of the
continued candidacy of Sam Houston for the presidency: "[That] the independent candi-
dacy of Gen. Houston, as a Constitutional Union man, and that of the nomination of Mr.
Bell, by a convention composed of the great lights of the Constitutional Union move [sic]
have placed the Union men of Texas, in an awkward predicament is but too apparent."
24Southern Intelligencer (Austin), Sept. 5, Oct. io, 186o; Alamo Express (San Antonio),
Sept. io, 186o; Smyrl, "Unionism in Texas," 178-179; Harrison Flag (Marshall), Sept. 22,
186o; True Issue (La Grange), Sept. 3, 18, 186o; State Gazette (Austin), Oct. 2o, 186o;
Navarro Express (Corsicana), Nov. 2, 186o; Standard (Clarksville), Oct. 27, 186o. Unionist
legislators were identified from the list of signatures on the petition supporting Paschal
and Robson. Southern Intelligencer (Austin), Sept. 5, 186o.
25Smyrl, "Unionism in Texas," 179-18o; Standard (Clarksville), Oct. 27, 186o (quotation);
Wooster, "Ben H. Epperson," 32; Alamo Express (San Antonio), Sept. lo, 186o; Harrison
Flag (Marshall), Sept. 15, 186o; State Gazette (Austin), Sept. 29, 186o; Southern Intelli-
gencer (Austin), Oct. 1o, 186o.245
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 82, July 1978 - April, 1979, periodical, 1978/1979; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101206/m1/297/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.