Are the fires a conspiracy to sway voters?

“What next?—We notice that some of our exchanges are attempting to enlighten the people as to the cause of the recent disturbances in those counties immediately above us, by intimating that it was gotten up for political effect, with a view to defeat the opposition. . . . How ridiculous that our citizens should fire their dwellings and business house—reducing themselves to a state of want and beggary; furnish their negroes with poison to be administered to them in their food, and then hang them for having it in their possession—all for political effect. . . . the insane idea never for a moment entered us, that the recent abolition plot was inaugurated for the purpose of defeating the party to which we adhere. . . .”¹

1. Interview Mrs. Pease, wife of a leading Texas unionist.
   
   
2. Listen to Governor Sam Houston’s speech about the Troubles.