The time indeed came when the Blue and the Gray joined hands, and the Lone Star shone once more in a cloudless sky. But that time was not yet. The years which followed the Civil War were bitter and sorrowful ones for Texas.  
After the surrender General Granger continued to hold military possession of the state.
 
Before his arrival Pendleton Murrah, who had succeeded Lubbock in 1863, had left his office in the hands of the lieutenant-governor Fletcher S. Stockdale, and gone to Mexico.
 
Andrew J. Hamilton was appointed provisional governor by President Johnson. He arrived at Galveston in July (1865), and at once assumed the duties of his office.
 
He ordered an election of delegates to a convention which was called for the purpose of framing a new constitution.
 
But no man was allowed to vote who had borne arms against the United States. The majority of Texas men had fought against the union; they therefore took little interest in an election of delegates for whom they could not vote.
 
The convention met (February, 1866), the new constitution was drawn up and submitted for ratification to such of the people as were “loyal to the United States, and none others”; and in June James W. Throckmorton was elected governor.
 
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A few months later the United States government decided to place the state again under military rule. Louisiana and Texas were constituted a Military District with headquarters at New Orleans. General Philip Sheridan was placed in command, and General Charles Griffin was ordered to Texas with several thousand troops to enforce military rule (March, 1867). His headquarters were at Galveston.
 
All elections except those under control of his officers were forbidden by General Griffin. An oath, known as the “iron-clad oath,” was required of all voters. The newly freed negroes were for the first time placed on juries and encouraged to vote.
 
It was during this time that the remains of the great soldier General Albert Sidney Johnston were removed from New Orleans to Austin for final burial.
 
At Houston, when the funeral train rolled into the station, it was met by a procession of five hundred ladies and little girls. The coffin was borne to the old Houston Academy, where for a day and night it lay in state, amid the mournful tolling of bells.
 
In July Governor Throckmorton, upon reports made by General Griffin, was removed from office by General Sheridan, and E. M. Pease appointed in his place.
 
 
General Albert Sidney Johnston.
 
In September, 1869, Governor Pease, vexed and wearied by the strife and discord around him, resigned his thankless office. For a time there was no governor, a military adjutant performing the duties of the place.
 
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In 1870 Edmund J. Davis was inaugurated governor and held the office four years. He was succeeded in 1874 by Richard Coke, with Richard B. Hubbard as lieutenant-governor.
 
The dark and stormy period from the surrender to the close of Governor Davis’ term of office has since been known in Texas as the “Reconstruction Time.”
 
At the time of Governor Davis’ election, the military was finally withdrawn from the state, the citizens were restored to their civil rights, and Texas was readmitted to the union. During his administration a Homestead Law was passed, a one-per-cent tax was levied for the building of schoolhouses, and the growth of railroads was encouraged by liberal grants of land.
 
But there was still a great deal of trouble and discontent, and it was not until Governor Coke took his seat that the state, so long shaken by contention, began once more to breathe freely and to put forth the strength within her.
 
Governor Coke served from 1874 to 1876; in 1876 he was elected to the United States senate, and Richard B. Hubbard became governor (1876-1879).
 
The governors who guided the Ship of State from 1879 to 1895 were Oran M. Roberts (1879-1883), John Ireland[43] (1883-1887), Lawrence S. Ross (1887-1891), and James S. Hogg (1891-1895).
 
In 1894 Charles A. Culberson became governor, and in 1896 he was returned by a large majority to the same office. On his election by the legislature in 1897 to the senate of the United States, he was succeeded by Joseph D. Sayers, who was the chief executive of the great state of Texas at the close of the nineteenth century.
 
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These years have been marked by many wonderful changes in Texas. Not the least of these changes has been the growth of the great public school system. The first free school in Texas was opened at San Antonio in 1844. A state public school system was organized in 1870. From these imperfect beginnings to the admirable system of to-day, when an army of earnest and gifted men and women are banded together in the noble work of teaching, and countless multitudes of children pass daily in and out of the schoolroom,—from that gray dawn to this blazing noontide, what a change!
 
The cause of education has indeed been ever in the minds and hearts of the people.
 
 
The Sam Houston Normal Institute.
 
An Agricultural and Mechanical College was founded at Bryan, and opened in 1876.
 
In 1879 a State Normal School for teachers, called the Sam Houston Normal Institute, was established at Huntsville, Governor Houston’s old home. A few years later the Prairie View, a normal school for colored teachers, was established.
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