Item #2351 To the Voters of Texas. Fellow Citizens: The Period Is at Hand When You Will Be Called on to Elect a Person to Fill the Office of Governor for the Ensuing Term [caption title and first line of text]. Texas, Elisha M. Pease.

To the Voters of Texas. Fellow Citizens: The Period Is at Hand When You Will Be Called on to Elect a Person to Fill the Office of Governor for the Ensuing Term [caption title and first line of text]

Austin: 1855. Large broadside, 24 x 18 inches. Printed in four columns. Previously folded. Worn, with separations and repaired small losses along old folds, slightly affecting text. Awkward restorations to upper corners, not affecting text. Dampstaining along right edge, heavier at upper right corner. Toned. Good. Item #2351

A large and scarce 1855 Texas broadside that prints an address by Governor Elisha M. Pease outlining the successes of his first term and the platform of his re-election campaign. Pease is today regarded as a popular and successful governor; he launched the state's public education system among other accomplishments:

"After annexation Pease represented Brazoria County in the first three legislatures and authored the Probate Code of 1846. In 1851 he made an unsuccessful run for the governorship. Two years later he won the office and was reelected in 1855. Pease was an outstanding governor. Among his important achievements was his pioneering effort to persuade the legislature to establish a system of public education and a state university. Though this effort proved largely premature, Pease's administration did establish the permanent school fund, and his vision laid the groundwork for future achievement.... Perhaps his most significant accomplishment was the settlement of the public debt of the state, by which he made available funds for the establishment of a hospital for the mentally ill and schools for the deaf and blind, all of which he had recommended to the legislature. Upon his retirement from office in 1857, the state was in excellent financial condition." - Handbook of Texas Online.

In this broadside, Pease advocates for his own re-election against David C. Dickson, a challenger from the Know-Nothing Party, here described as "a society whose principles and plan of operations are alike kept a secret from the world." He continues:

"The ostensible opposition to me is not based upon any official acts which I had done, or which I have proposed to do, but upon certain opinions expressed by me in relation to the construction of works of Internal Improvement by the aid of the credit of the State. I am charged with attempting to force these opinions upon the people, and with making their adoption an issue in the coming election. This charge is untrue.... Those individuals who falsely charge me with having made this question an issue in the coming election are really the parties who have endeavored to make that issue, with the hope that, under its cover, they may succeed in bringing into power in Texas a secret political society, which can never find favor with the people upon its own merits."

The lengthy statement goes on to address Pease's positions on boundary settlements with other American states and territories, debt repayment, prohibition, property taxes, and much more. Pease handily gained re-election in August 1855. He went on to support the Union during the Civil War, became one of the founders of the Texas Republican Party, and failed to win a third term as governor during Reconstruction. A rare and substantial survivor, and a great document of Texas gubernatorial electioneering in the mid-1850s. OCLC locates two copies, at Yale and the Houston Public Library; Winkler adds another, at the University of Texas.
Winkler 583.

Price: $2,500.00