The twelfth chapter of Richardson et al.’s Texas: The lone star state deals with the political, economic, and social realities of the aftermath of the Civil War in Texas. There was significant political upheaval as the Democrats took power in the legislation in 1872, the governorship in 1873, and ratified a new Constitution after a state convention in 1876. Eventually, the judiciary was also overturned as legislative maneuvering allowed for judges to be replaced and a new state Supreme Court to be formed, with Democrats filling vacancies. Overall, it began a period of almost a quarter of a century of conservative Democratic rule, supported by the majority white, farmer population. Meanwhile, the Republicans were in the significant minority due to both their loss of identity as a party and association with African Americans as a prevalent supporting population for the party across the country.
In the midst of the democratic leadership, Texas was undergoing various socioeconomic changes. In the context of the political and constitutional conventions, several issues were especially relevant to Texans at the time. This included economic growth, crime and public indebtedness, agricultural depression, railroad expansion and industrialization, use and sale of public lands, and financing of public education. The Democrats believed that economic entrenchment was better than aggressive reform, and this led to significant agrarian discontent. Some other policies such as attempting to sell public lands were largely a failure, unable to generate revenue to decrease public debt. However, with a frugal and effective approach, changes were made that improved that economic status, law and order, and public services financing across the state.
In the years of democratic leadership, there were significant changes to the state economy. First, the railroad expansion was greatly seen, demonstrating progress since before the Civil War with many new connections being built both in critical junctures as well as in the context of further Westward exploration. The increased presence of railroads allowed for rapid commercialization of farming as train freight rates were at least twice as cheap in comparison to wagon trains, giving Texas farmers access to lucrative markets. At the same time, this allowed for this majorly agrarian state to develop industrialization, including in the context of building materials for construction and expansion, producing goods that farmers bought now that the majority of their product went to market, and to package some of the farm products being shipped across the state and country (Richardson et al., 2010). Overall, despite some policy errors, the Democratic governance in the state produced a period of economic growth and stability which impacted the socioeconomic status quo and raised Texas a strong state power again. The three main ideas of this chapter is legislative/political reform, addressing vital social issues, and economic growth.
References
Richardson, R. N., Anderson, A., Wintz, C. D., & Wallace, E. (2010). Texas: The lone star state (10th ed). Routledge.