Texas. Governor (1870-1874 : Davis)

Edmund Jackson Davis served as governor of Texas from January 8, 1870 to January 15, 1874. Florida native E.J. Davis was born on October 2, 1827. His family moved to Texas in 1848, settling in Galveston. After reading law in Corpus Christi, he served as customs inspector in Laredo (1850-1853), district attorney (1853-1856), and then district judge (1856-1861) at Brownsville. An anti-secessionist, he was defeated in a race for the Secession Convention of 1861. In 1862, Davis left the state to avoid conscription in the Confederate Army and organized a Union cavalry regiment. He was honorably discharged as a brigadier general when the Civil War ended. As a radical Republican, Davis took part in the Constitutional Conventions of 1866 and 1868-1869.

The 1869 gubernatorial election was one of the most turbulent and controversial in Texas history. Favoritism by the military for candidate Davis over A.J. Hamilton caused Governor E.M. Pease to resign September 30. General J.J. Reynolds ordered the drawing up of a new voter registration list, eliminating many of those who had qualified in 1867. Troops stationed at the polls probably prevented many Democrats from voting: only about half of the registered white voters actually cast a ballot, and many polling places were either not opened, or ordered closed. Irregularities were reported but never investigated, and official returns reported that Davis won by slightly more than 800 votes.

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