1st. Davis contended that all who had participated in the Rebellion should be disfranchised. Hamilton opposed.
2d. Davis contended that all laws passed by the Legislature during the Rebellion were null and void, ab initio.
Hamilton contended that only such laws as contravened the Constitution and laws of the United States were void.
3d. Davis contended for a division of Texas into three States, and Hamilton opposed.
(The proposition to divide Texas was finally killed on motion of the writer of these chapters, and if any Texan thinks that the State was not then in danger of being divided, let him remember old Virginia.)
Hamilton won on all three of these propositions, and a constitution was framed in accordance with his views, and submitted to the people. I quote below a report of the last day’s stormy session of this memorable convention, by Whilden, the brilliant correspondent of the Galveston News:
“TEXAS CONVENTION.
“Austin, Texas, February 8, 1869.
“Special to the Galveston News.
“Precisely at what point to begin I am in doubt. This convention, which we thought was to give civil government to Texas and to which we necessarily attached some dignity, has in the end proved itself to be a farce on the civilization of the nineteenth century. Jack Hamilton and a few others did all that genius could do to turn its purposes to legitimate ends. Partially they failed; but in that failure they left the impress of brains upon the wild waste of passion which this convention has given to the world. * * * All mortal things shall ever have an ending, and this convention is as all other mortal things.