Certificate of Election [Signed by Miriam "Ma" Ferguson]: Texas Department of State, 1933

• Title: Certificate of Election
• Author: Texas Department of State
• Date: 1933
• Condition: See description 
• Inches: Letter 8 1/2 x 14 - Covers 9 x 14 1/2
• Centimeters: Letter 21.59 x 35.56 - Covers 22.86 x 36.83 
• Product ID: 308314

“Ma” Ferguson Certifies Alternate Delegate to Texas’ 21st Amendment Ratification Convention

Typed document signed by Miriam “Ma” Ferguson, as Governor, and WW Keith as Secretary of State, Texas.  One page, stapled to buff blue covers with DEPARTMENT OF STATE | AUSTIN heading at top of covers, embossed with the great seal of the state of Texas.  The certification applies to C.P. Rogers of the 30th Senatorial District of Texas selection as an alternate to the state ratification convention.  As stated in the certification, Rogers was in favor of ratifying the 21st Amendment.  The ratification convention was held in Austin Texas on November 24, 1933.  As a result of the convention, Texas ratified the 21st Amendment on November 24, 1933.  However, due to a provision of the state constitution, this ratification had little effect in Texas.

The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on national prohibition was ratified by the Texas Legislature in February 1918 and by enough other states by January 1919 to become law. Enforcement was to begin one year later. In the meantime, in May 1919, Texans voted to adopt a prohibition amendment to the state Constitution, 158,982 to 138,907. In 1918, before prohibition, Texas had 10 wet counties, 43 partly wet, and 201 completely dry counties.

The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated a nationwide prohibition on alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment was proposed by the 72nd Congress on February 20, 1933, and was ratified by the requisite number of states on December 5, 1933. It is unique among the 27 amendments of the U.S. Constitution for being the only one to repeal a prior amendment, as well as being the only amendment to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions.

In August 1933, Texans voted for the Twenty-first Amendment repealing national prohibition, but it had no effect in Texas because of the 1919 state prohibition amendment. However, at the same 1933 election Texans voted in favor of allowing sale of 3.2 beer, 317,340 to 186,315. Sales of this lower alcohol content beer began in Texas within months.

It was August 1935 before repeal of the state dry law was submitted to the voters, who voted 297,597 for repeal to 250,946 against. In response to the vote, the Legislature was called to a special session in September to establish laws dealing with liquor control. The sale of alcoholic beverages became licensed in early 1936, although enforcement of prohibition had waned before that time. All counties returned to the same status that they had in 1918, until local-option elections could be held.

In 1970, the last vestige of statewide prohibition, the ban on “open saloons,” was voted out when Texans approved the sale, on a local-option basis, of mixed alcoholic beverages or liquor by the drink.

Miriam (Ma) Ferguson

Miriam Amanda "Ma" Ferguson, born in 1875 in Bell County, Texas, became the first woman governor of Texas and the second female governor in U.S. history. She entered politics as a stand-in for her husband, James Edward Ferguson, who had been impeached and barred from office. In 1924, she won the gubernatorial race with the slogan "Two Governors for the Price of One," promising to follow her husband's advice. Ferguson defeated the Republican nominee in November 1924 and was inaugurated in January 1925, just fifteen days after Wyoming's Nellie Ross.

Ferguson's first term as governor was marked by controversy and political strife. Despite fulfilling her campaign promise to pass an anti-mask law targeting the Ku Klux Klan, it was later overturned by the courts. Her administration faced criticism for increased state expenditures and irregularities in pardons and road contracts. Ferguson pardoned an average of 100 convicts per month, leading to accusations of bribery against her and her husband. These controversies contributed to her defeat in the 1926 Democratic primary by Attorney General Daniel James Moody. After an unsuccessful run in 1930, Ferguson won a second term as governor in 1932 during the Great Depression.

Her second administration was less controversial than the first, focusing on fiscal conservatism. She advocated for a state sales tax and corporate income tax, although these proposals were not enacted by the state legislature. Ferguson continued her liberal pardoning policies, which faced less criticism during the economic downturn. She made a final unsuccessful bid for governor in 1940 before retiring from politics. Miriam "Ma" Ferguson died of heart failure on June 25, 1961, in Austin, Texas

Provenance

Personal collection of Joseph S. Cullinan, founder of Texaco, by family descent, thence to The Antiquarium.

Condition

Signatures bright and strong, embossed seal with excellent high relief  and the faintest vestiges of gold leafing.  Typed page with mild age toning, covers with incidental chipping at folds.  Excellent.

References

 Norman D. Brown, Hood, Bonnet, and Little Brown Jug: Texas Politics, 1921-1928 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1984).

Ouida Ferguson Nalle, The Fergusons of Texas, or "Two Governors for the Price of One": A Biography of James Edward Ferguson and His Wife (San Antonio: Naylor, 1946).

Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary (4 vols., Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1971-80).

Women of Texas (Waco: Texian Press, 1972).