The Junior Historian, Volume 15, Number 6, May 1955 Page: 24
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THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN
JOHN MIDDLETON GREEN FIGHTS
BATTLE OF THE BLUEBONNETS
by JOHN MIDDLETON GREEN, II
Cuero High SchoolW HEN you have read this essay,
you will know why I am right-
fully proud to be my grand-
father's namesake for he was indeed an
unforgettable character of his day. He
is remembered for his youthful ambi-
tions and his success in obtaining a
higher education against tremendous
difficulties, which you can easily under-
stand when I tell you that he was the
ninth child of a circuit-riding Baptist
preacher of the pioneer days of Texas.
He is remembered for his strict rules
of character, for his exactness and fair-
ness, and his devotion to his wife, chil-
dren, and home. For fifty years he was
a member of the Texas Bar Association,
eighteen of which he served as District
Judge. He is remembered for his splen-
did Americanism during World War I,
for his resemblance to Woodrow Wilson,
for his gold-headed cane and long-tail
coat, and for his admirable spirit and
fearless opposition to the Ku Klux
Klan which sought to take the law into
its own hands and belittle the courts
of the country. For many added reasons
my grandfather will long be remem-
bered, but especially at this time of the
year when the whole State of Texas
seems to pay him homage.
This is the time when the thousands
of hills, valleys, and prairies of this vast
state are blanketed with Texas blue-
bonnets, the official state flower, the se-
lection of which in 1901 was accredited
to the great oratorical ability of my
grandfather.
John Middleton Green was a mem-
ber of the Texas House of Representa-
tives when the question came up of
designating by law the official flower
of the Lone Star State. Some club la-
dies of Dallas came to Austin represent-
ing the Colonial Dames. They came to
the legislative halls and explained thatthey had come before the legislature to
get the bluebonnet adopted as the Tex-
as State Flower.
Among my grandfather's papers I
have found these interesting items.
The resolution passed the Senate with but
little opposition, if any, and the matter came
over to us in the House in this verbiage,
(substantially) :
Senate Concurrent Resolution No.
BE IT RESOLVED by the SENATE OF
TEXAS, the House of Representatives con-
curring, that the flower known as the Buffalo
Clover or Bluebonnet be, and the same is
hereby adopted and declared to be the Texas
State Flower.
The friends of the measure expected it to
go sailing through to a unanimous passage.
Imagine our consternation when P. H. Clem-
ents, of Mills County, offered an amendment
to strike out the flower named, and in lieu
thereof insert the name of the open cotton
boll or White Rose of Commerce. W. J. Bul-
lock and John N. Garner sent up a substitute
for the amendment striking out Bluebonnet
and inserting 'Cactus' as the Texas State
Flower. (Garner thus acquired the sobriquet
"Cactus Jack.")
W. W. Dillard of Bowie County wanted the
Cotton Bloom inserted in place of the open
boll. The Bullock and Garner substitute was
tabled by a viva voce vote and thus it was
killed.
Mr. Dillard withdrew his cotton bloom
amendment to the Clements' amendment. This
left a clean-cut fight between the big old open
cotton boll and our fragile little bluebonnet.
And Phil Clements was sturdy and unyielding.
He was a real estate man, and in a loud and
powerful speech he lauded cotton as the
source of nearly all our wealth, that it was
our chief article of export and cited statistics
to prove that Texas raised nearly all the cot-
ton that was raised. He declared it would be
but a just recognition of these facts to adopt
the open cotton boll and let the world know
that it was the Texas Flower; that production,
commerce and wealth all cried out in loudest
tones for cotton, while all that could be said
for the bluebonnet was based on mere senti-
ment, because the bluebonnet never made its
owner a dollar in all its little old useless life,
or words to that effect; and much more along
the same line.
Others made speeches on the side of cotton,24
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Texas State Historical Association. The Junior Historian, Volume 15, Number 6, May 1955, periodical, May 1955; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391315/m1/26/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.