 After the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States in 1860 , Chambers , a Democrat , served on two committees in Navarro County that drafted resolutions opposed to Lincoln and racial equality . He supported Texas 's secession from the Union in 1861 and adhesion to the newly formed Confederacy , but , being 44 years old at the subsequent outbreak of the Civil War , did not immediately enlist . Although he was exempted from the Confederacy 's military draft , Chambers thought the exemption unjust , and wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis to protest it . In 1864 , he did enlist for six months in the 1st Regiment of Texas State Troops , but saw no action . After the war , Chambers returned to farming but also became a half @-@ owner of Cleburne 's only bank from 1871 to 1875 . By that time , Chambers was the largest landowner in Johnson County . He also actively promoted the Dallas and Cleburne Railroad , working unsuccessfully to get the railroad to make its stock available to all local citizens . 
