Edmund Jackson Davis | |
|---|---|
 Brig. Gen. Edmund J. Davis in a Federal uniform | |
| 14th Governor of Texas | |
| In office January 8, 1870 – January 15, 1874 | |
| Lieutenant | Vacant |
| Preceded by | Elisha M. Pease |
| Succeeded by | Richard Coke |
| Chair of theTexas Republican Party | |
| In office 1875–1883 | |
| Preceded by | John L. Haynes |
| Succeeded by | Norris Wright Cuney |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1827-10-02)October 2, 1827 St. Augustine, Florida, U.S. |
| Died | February 7, 1883(1883-02-07) (aged 55) Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Resting place | Texas State Cemetery Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Anne Elizabeth Britton |
| Profession | Lawyer and politician |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States (Union) |
| Branch/service | U.S. Army (Union Army) |
| Years of service | 1862–1865 |
| Rank |  Brigadier General |
| Commands | 1st Texas Cavalry Regiment |
| Battles/wars | American Civil War |
Edmund Jackson Davis (October 2, 1827 – February 7, 1883) was anAmerican lawyer, soldier, and politician. Davis was aSouthern Unionist and a general in theUnion Army in theAmerican Civil War. He also served as the14th Governor of Texas from 1870 to 1874, during theReconstruction era. Reviled by many Texans during and after the Civil War as a traitor for his open support for the North and his attempts to break upTexas into several Northern-controlled states,[1] Davis is known for leasing prisoners to private corporations to alleviate state budget shortfalls.[2]
Davis was born inSt. Augustine, Florida, a son of William Godwin Davis and the former Mary Ann Channer. His father was a lawyer and land developer in St. Augustine, the oldest permanent settlement in the United States. In 1848, after the signing of theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Davis moved with his parents toGalveston, Texas.
The next year, Davis moved toCorpus Christi, where he was admitted to the bar. He was an inspector and deputy collector of customs from 1849 to 1853, when he was appointeddistrict attorney of the 12th Judicial District, which includedWebb County in south Texas. He became a judge in that district.[3]
The 1850 census has Davis living on Grant Street in downtownLaredo, the seat of Webb County. Davis, three carpenters, and a laborer were residing, apparently in a boarding house, with Tomasa Benavides and her children when the census was taken that year.[4] He subsequently maintained a ranch in Webb County and conducted his law practice in Laredo. For a time he was a judge of the state's 29th Judicial District.[5]
In early 1861, Edmund Davis supported GovernorSam Houston in his stand againstsecession. Davis also urgedRobert E. Lee not to violate his oath of allegiance to the United States. Davis ran to become a delegate to the Secession Convention but was defeated. He thereafter refused to take an oath of allegiance to theConfederate States of America[4] and was removed from his judgeship. He travelled from Texas and took refuge in Union-heldNew Orleans, Louisiana. He next sailed toWashington, D.C., where PresidentAbraham Lincoln issued him a colonel's commission with the authority to recruit the1st Texas Cavalry Regiment (Union).[3]
Davis recruited his regiment from Union men who had fled from Texas to Louisiana. The regiment would see considerable action during the remainder of the war. On November 10, 1864, President Lincoln appointed Davis as abrigadier general ofvolunteers.[6] Lincoln did not submit Davis's nomination to this grade to the U.S. Senate until December 12, 1864.[6] TheU.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on February 14, 1865.[6] Davis was among those present when GeneralEdmund Kirby Smith surrendered the Confederate forces in Texas on June 2, 1865.[3] Davis was mustered out of the volunteers on August 24, 1865.[6]
In March 1863, Davis and his friendWilliam W. Montgomery had heard that they were going to be arrested by Confederate Soldiers in Austin, Texas. Both Davis and Montgomery quickly gathered up a few of their things and headed toHamilton Pool, just outside of Austin, where they hid out before deciding to meet up with other Union soldiers inMatamoros, Mexico. At the border, there were numerous reports that Confederate soldiers and Union soldiers would taunt each other across the border at night, sometimes getting into fights.[citation needed] After setting up camp in Matamoros, Montgomery discovered that Confederate forces planned to come across the border to arrest Davis. Montgomery raced back to the camp to try and warn Davis, only to find that Confederate soldiers were already there. The Confederates hanged Montgomery on the way back into Texas. Shortly after the war Davis petitioned Congress to instate a pension for Montgomery's widow.[citation needed]
Following the end of the war, Davis became a member of the1866 Texas Constitutional Convention. He supported the rights of freed slaves and urged thedivision of Texas into severalRepublican-controlled states.
In 1869, he was narrowly elected governor againstAndrew Jackson Hamilton, a UnionistDemocrat. As aRadical Republican duringReconstruction, his term in office was controversial.
On July 22, 1870, theTexas State Police came into being by Radical Republican legislation. The State Police were to have extraordinary powers, including taking offenders from one county to another for trial and of operating undercover as secret agents.[7] It worked against racially based crimes, and included black police officers, which caused protest from former slaveowners (and future segregationists). Davis created the "State Guard of Texas" and the "Reserve Militia", which were forerunners of theTexas National Guard.[8] The Printing Bill provided an official public printer and a state journal and provided that regional newspapers be designated to print the various required official notices.[7]
Davis' government was marked by a commitment to thecivil rights ofAfrican Americans. One of his protégés wasNorris Wright Cuney of Galveston, who continued the struggle for equality until his own death in 1898 and is honored as one of the important figures in Texas and American black history. Though Davis was highly unpopular among former Confederates, and most material written about him for many years was unfavorable, he was considered to have been a hero for the Union Army. He also gained the respect and friendship of Spanish-speaking residents on theRio Grande frontier.[5]
In 1873, Davis was defeated for reelection by DemocratRichard Coke (42,633 votes to 85,549 votes) in an election marked by irregularities. Davis contested the results and refused to leave his office on the ground floor of the Capitol. Democratic lawmakers and Governor-elect Coke reportedly had to climb ladders to the Capitol's second story, where the legislature convened. WhenPresident Grant refused to send troops to the defeated governor's rescue, Davis reluctantly left the capital in January 1874. He locked the door to the governor's office and took the key, forcing Coke's supporters to break in with an axe.[9]John Henninger Reagan helped to oust him after he tried to stay in office beyond the end of his term.[citation needed] Davis was the last Republican governor of Texas until RepublicanBill Clements defeated the DemocratJohn Luke Hill in 1978 and assumed the governorship the following January, 105 years after Davis vacated the office.
Following his defeat, Davis was nominated to be collector of customs at Galveston but declined the appointment because he disliked U.S. PresidentRutherford B. Hayes.[citation needed] He ran for governor again in 1880 but was soundly defeated. His name was placed in nomination forVice President of the United States at the1880 Republican National Convention, which met inChicago and choseJames A. Garfield as the standard-bearer. Had Davis succeeded, he might have wound up in the White House, as didChester A. Arthur, the man who received the vice presidential nomination that year. Davis lost an election for theUnited States House of Representatives in 1882.
After Democrats regained power in the state legislature, they passed laws making voter registration more difficult, such as requiring payment ofpoll taxes, which worked todisfranchise blacks, Mexican Americans and poor whites. They also instituted awhite primary. In the 1890s more than 100,000 blacks were voting, but by 1906 only 5,000 managed to get through these barriers.[10][failed verification] As Texas became essentially a one-party state, the white primary excluded minorities from the political competitive process. They did not fully recover their constitutional rights until after enforcement under theVoting Rights Act of 1965.
Edmund J. Davis died in 1883 and was given a war hero's burial at theTexas State Cemetery inAustin. A large gravestone was placed in Davis's honor by a brother. Davis was survived by his wife, the former Anne Elizabeth Britton (whose father, Forbes Britton, had been chief of staff to Texas GovernorSam Houston), and two sons:Britton (a West Point graduate and military officer) and Waters (an attorney and merchant inEl Paso).[3]
{{cite book}}:Missing or empty|title= (help){{cite book}}:|last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)William W MontgomerySOURCES
“An Act granting a Pension to Mary Ann Montgomery, Widow of Wm. W. Montgomery, late Captain in Texas Volunteers,” 17 Stat. 677 (7 June 1872); digital images, “A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875,” Library of Congress, American Memory (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html : accessed 28 Sep 2014). ↩“Joint Resolution of the Legislature of Texas…,” House Misc. Doc. No. 43, 42nd Congress, 2d Session, The Miscellaneous Documents Printed by Order of the House of Representatives, … 1871-’72, 4 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1872), 2: 43; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 28 Sep 2014). Note: John Wesley’s birth year was originally posted as “185i” and has been corrected, thanks to a reader’s eagle eye. ↩Affidavit of Richard Pendergrast, 11 Dec 1863, in The Miscellaneous Documents Printed by Order of the House of Representatives, … 1889-90, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1891), U.S. Congressional Serial Set 2769: 867-858; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 28 Sep 2014). ↩Dean W. Holt, American Military Cemeteries, 2d ed. (Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., 2010). ↩Stanley S. McGowen, Horse Sweat and Powder Smoke: The First Texas Cavalry in the Civil War (College Station, Tex. : Texas A&M Univ. Press, 1999). ↩
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forGovernor of Texas 1869,1873 | Succeeded by William Chambers |
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forGovernor of Texas 1880 | Vacant Title next held by Anthony Banning Norton |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Texas 1870–1874 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
