The political culture in Texas was influenced and shaped heavily in the old south and the frontier experience. The old south quickly showed how important agriculture is and was to live a sustainable life. Agriculture is what provided these early Texas families with their money.
With being so agriculturally based that obviously made early Texas a very rural place. So rural in fact that there was no major cities. With agriculture came the need for workers, and of course back then majority of these were slaves.
Texas quickly became a slave state due to that and quickly saw African Americas as just that only workers. They believed they were inferior to them due to their skin. The Texans strong belief in slavery made them anti-government because the republicans opposed slavery. The antigovernment behavior gave these Texans a lot of self-reliance. This sort of self-reliance drove the pride that many Texans have to this day. Land was everything in the early Texas culture, without it would mean no farming which will mean no money. With all this land these farmers and ranchers had, they had to count on their fellow Texans to help with whatever they needed. Southern hospitality is a term heard all around Texas and it was true back then, they were very friendly to their neighbors and loved new travelers.
These ideologies and way of life shaped what was the Texas culture.Many individuals shaped and made Texas what it is today, I believe one of the most important person that shaped it drastically was Lyndon Johnson. Lyndon Johnson was a native born Texan that was elected presidency. He was a democratic leader and pushed for many reforms. He started head start, food stamps, school loans, and helped with the civil rights acts of 64 and 68. He pushed civil rights forward even more and helped black Texans gain more equality and attempted to cure Texans of racism. He also pushed against the republican way by creating many of these reforms catered to the lower class.
The document that I believe had the most effect on the constitution of 1876 is the predecessor of it. This document of course is the Reconstruction constitution of 1869. This constitution major goals were to create a modern state government, create a strong state government and weaken the local government. This constitution also gave blacks equality. It gives blacks equality but not equal rights, they were still not allowed to vote.
This constitution was very hated because it was a drastic change from the traditions and political culture that dominated the south in the past. I chose this document as the one that most effected the constitution of 1876 because the content changed immensely in a mere seven years. For example in the constitution of 1876 a major goal of it was to weaken the state government while the one in 1869 wanted to strengthen it. Another big change is that they wanted to limit the budgetary power of the state. The term of governors was reduced from four years to two and they now were elected. Schools were given back to local control rather then state control.
Many Texans and Texas as a whole were influenced by the 1869 constitution. It was a step in the opposite direction by giving power to the state government. This constitution by far had the most influence on the constitution of 1876.The one change in the federal system that impacted Texas the most was the passing of the 14th amendment. This gave black American citizenship and equal protection. This impacted the Texas constitution because without this change being forced on to Texas who knows if Texas would have ever made the initiative to give the black Americans any rights.Many people, documents and changes in the federal system has influenced Texas into what it is now.
These three that I wrote about are just some of the more important ones in my opinion. Lyndon Johnson helped start many reforms, the constitution of 1869 showed Texas and Texans that they were straying away from there traditions and the passing of the 14th amendment forced Texas to make the morally right decision and integrate African Americans into their state and life’s.
