DE JE VU ONE MORE TIME
(Please be aware this post was written in 2003 and published at that time in the Houston Chronicle (Houston, Texas) newspaper. Some of the news in this post, therefore, may not be current. Current and future posts on this blog may revisit and update news on this and other posts on this blog. If you have questions and/or suggestions, please send Mic a note using the comment page -Don’t forget to use the orange “subscribe” button to receive new posts-Thanks, Mic)
This week eleven Texas state senators boarded chartered aircraft and landed in Albuquerque, New Mexico where they plan to stay until Governor Rick Perry’s newly called second special legislative session is over. This is the second time in three months Texas legislative democrats have crossed Texas’ borders avoiding a forced vote on redistricting they can not win. In May over fifty House democrats fled to Ardmore, Oklahoma where they remained until the regular session of that Legislature expired.
Under totally different circumstances and with a different result a similar situation occurred in Tennessee in 1866. In June of that year Radicals in the United States Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution .
The Fourteenth amendment forbade anyone who ever served in any elected office and later supported the Southern Cause from serving in any future elected office. It forbade federal and state governments from paying claims of Southerners arising from the war. And it further took away the citizenship, including voting rights, of most of the South’s leading men.
In the Tennessee Capital legislators debated the issues. The Democrats, primarily those who formerly had supported the Southern Cause, filibustered until they lost control of the debate floor. They then returned to their home district depriving the legislature of a quorum and the ability to cast a vote on the amendment.
The Tennessee Republican leadership called in the Colored Union soldiers guarding Nashville and sent them to arrest the Democrats at their homes. The wayward Democrats were brought to the legislative chambers in chains, placed in chairs, counted present for the quorum and allowed to abstain from voting. The end result was a positive vote ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment.
Because Tennessee ratified the Fourteenth Amendment that state did not suffer the pain and suffering wrought on the other Southern States during Reconstruction. Some Southern states, including Texas, were under the powers of Federal Reconstruction as late as 1876.
TEXAS CONFEDERATE OFFICERS
Compiled from historical collections and letters of contemporary Civil War historians Frances Terry Ingmire has compiled a who’s who book of Confederate officers who served in Texas Confederate or Texas state army and naval units. The book begins with an alphabetical listing of officers who served in 115 Texas counties during the War.
A second section of the book contains an alphabetical list of counties, their company commanders and the microfilm roll number on which the unit appears. A final alphabetical index with page numbers where each officer is listed in the book concludes the publication.
Confederate Officers of Texas may be purchased for $36.50, postpaid, from Mountain Press, P.O. Box 400 Signal Mountain, TN 37377-0400.
There are several organizations in Houston honoring ancestors who served the Confederacy. There is the UDC, the United Daughters of the Confederacy for women, the Children of the Confederacy for children, the SCV, the Sons of the Confederate Veterans for men and the MOSB, the Military Order of the Stars and Bars, an extension of the SCV. To be eligible for the MOSB the ancestor must have served as a military officer or higher governmental office holder.
Membership in each society requires one to document their lineage from an ancestor who served in the Confederate military or government. If you are interested in joining one of these fine organizations contact Jeff Cobb , Adjutant of the Albert Sidney Sherman Camp, SCV at 713-721-7134 or by email at jeffcobb@mindspring.com .
NATIVE AMERICAN SEMINAR IN MCKINNEY
Bill Welge, Director of the Research Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City will be the featured speaker at the upcoming North Collin County Genealogical Society workshop. The workshop will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday September 6 at the Holiday Inn, 1300 North Central Expressway in McKinney.
A noted lecturer and historian Welge will talk on Native American topics including Tribal Records at the Oklahoma Historical Society; the Indian-Pioneer History Collection; and the History of the Unassigned Lands.
Registration for the workshop is $25 prior to August 30 and $30 thereafter. Checks may be sent to NCCGS, P.O. Box 1802, McKinney, TX 75070. For more information contact Faye Chism at 214-544-1055 or by email at chmtraildixietx@aol.com .
Anyone whose ancestors lived in Collin County on or after April 3, 1846 when the county was created and before December 31, 1880 are eligible to apply for an Early Settlers of Collin County, Texas certificate. To qualify one must document each generation from oneself to the qualifying ancestor. For more information visit the NCCGS website at http://www.angelfire.com/tx5/escc/Eligibility.html .
