The Civil War and its aftermath largely defined the Texas party system for the duration of the nineteenth century. Texas was a "tagalong confederate", with strong divisions among its citizens regarding secession. When the War concluded, Texas like the rest of the South was eventually put under military rule and subjected to restrictions that prohibited former Confederate officers (usually white Democrats) from engaging in political activity. This paved the way for Republican Party control of state governments throughout the South, with high numbers of black office holders. This is known as the period of Reconstruction.
In Texas, the Radical Republican administration of Governor Edmund J. Davis (1870-1874) was known for devoting considerable attention to public works, as well as its political corruption. This administration undertook the construction of extensive infrastructure projects (roads, railroads, bridges, and government buildings) and it created a public school system. But as the expenditures rose, so did taxes. Because many of the state's landowners refused to pay the high taxes, levels of public debt skyrocketed. (Davis's administration also created a homestead provision that would protect indebted citizens in the event of bankruptcy. Texans continue to enjoy homestead protection today.)
In 1872, the Democratic Party won control of the legislature, some five years before the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction. Three years later, the Democratic-controlled legislature (now dominated by conservative whites who had been shut out of government under Republican rule) called a convention to rewrite the existing Constitution of 1869, a document that had been most strongly backed by Unionists and African Americans. After the Compromise of 1877, state Democratic parties throughout the South (including Texas) solidified control of their state governments, effectively halting Republican Party projects and dismantling the Party itself.
The end of Reconstruction and the return of "home rule" by conservative whites in Texas kicked off a period of Democratic Party dominance that would last though the rest of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century. Reconstruction left the Republican Party associated in popular thought with military occupation and external rule. The party's only significant support was among African Americans and migrants from other states. Republicans were relegated to seemingly permanent minority status as Democrats took long-term hold of local political organizations and government offices.
The Democrats of this period constituted a different party than the present-day Democratic Party. The party was dominated by white interests dedicated to maintaining segregation, using racial appeals, patronage, and the suppression of black voters to maintain their hold on elections and government. Socially conservative thinking guided by the political culture of the Confederacy, as in much of the South, exerted a powerful influence over the controlling majority of the Democratic Party. This Democratic Party past is often invoked by present-day moderate Republicans attempting to appeal to ethnic and racial minority voters who now overwhelmingly support the post-Civil Rights Democratic Party.
The most significant challenge to the post-Reconstruction Democratic Party was an alternative political party that grew out of a group of farmer and rancher cooperatives known as the Farmer's Alliance. The Alliance became politically active in the state in 1878. The movement spread throughout the state and then nationally, and by 1887 had a national membership of between one and three million. The movement joined with other reform groups to become the People's Party in 1891, and subsequently the "Populists," as they were often called, won elected public offices in Texas and other states.
The Populists attracted Democratic voters and activists on reform issues. As a result, Populist successes aggravated divisions in the dominant Democratic Party. In a bid to get key platform planks favored by both the Alliance and the People's Party implemented, the national People's Party supported Democratic Party candidate William Jennings Bryan in his failed bid for the Presidency in 1896, exacerbating splits in both the Populist and Democratic parties. The combination of Jennings's defeat and these divisions within the party contributed to the rapid decline of the Populists after 1896. Democratic hegemony in Texas remained intact as the nineteenth century ended and the new century began. But the Populist insurgency heralded tensions that would eventually split the Democrats in Texas and in the nation.
