The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1871-10-05
SENATE.
AUsIN, September 2

SENATE.
AUsIN, September %.
The Senate met according to ad.
journment. @ .-..
Roll calIed-quorum. Prayer.
The event of the morning was the
speech of Senator Matt Gaines, upon
the following resolution:
Resolved, That the office of State Printer is
and is hereby declared vacant.
Remarks of Senator Gaines.
Mr.. President, l have not the ghost
of shadow of hope that this reSolu.
ton will be adopted. l feel that 1 am
not member of any party that will
protect or support me. l do not be-
long to the Democratic party and hav
ing used me to get themselves into
office, the leaders of the Radical party
find that now my skin is entirely too
black for recognition, other than that
of abuse.
consider this State Printer as a
burning, eating cancer, preying upon
the vitals of the people of Texas, and
upon the Radical party itself.
Z / wish to call the attention Of this
Senate to the false, malicious and sour
.rilous attack again made upon me by
this, the official organ of our party. I
am attacked openly and abused by one
whom l and my race, the negroes of
Texas, have made rich--and this attack
is made in order to drive me into the
the ranks of the Democratic party, and
thereby kill my influence with the peo-
pie of my race. These attacks wound
my feelings personally, the feelings of
my family, and they tend to disgrace
myself and family. But l wish to say
that my skin is too black, and my re
cord as champion of my race is too
we'll established by the record of this
Senate to give them any good hopes of
success.
They charge me with having been
confined and imprisoned for rape. 1t
is we'll known that was arrested and
confined at the time and place stated
as an escaped slave; Tracy knew it,
and this attack is simply another proof
of my assertion that he is as Ku Klux
in heart as he was when he, Quick,
Gillespie and others were wrapped in
their rebel grey. -.
Gentlemen, I wish you to consid-
err this, as every man knows it to be
a fixed determination on the part of
the Governor, Tracy, Quick and
others, elevated by the hated negroes
to offices beyond their capacity or
ability, to either compel me to sing
their praises and to delude and de-
ceive the negroes of my district; to
tell them that these men and General
Clark are the great gods of the ne-
groes. I am to preach this, talk
this, lie night and day, on hilltop and
in valleys, to hold these men in pow
err, or l must be slandered, abused,
KU-KLUxED, MURDERED.
1 wish to tell them that the war
has been carried into Africa. I app
peal from Tracy and his crowd to
the peopIe--to my people-mine by
color; and by championship. l
fear no Democratic Ku-Klux. l
shall take my horse and atmy own ex-
pense 1 shall go over my district,
and until l am murdered by these
assassins, as 1 expect to be, shall
tell the negro, my people, that these
men are their foes, their bitterest
foes; that these men use them, the
black man, as tools to elevate them
selves to positions of honor and profit.
They use us to grow rich and naughty,
then the sight of a skin as black as
mine awakens no feeling of graft
tude in their heartless bosoms, but
feelings of contempt at our folly,
and disgust for our ignorance.
They may kill me-they must, or
lose the vote of the black man
for the interests of Tracy and the
leaders of the Radical party are OPP
posed to the interest of my people,
my race and color; and for my peo~
pie and myself, 1 enter this fight,
and shall die under this banner.
Resolution lost by a tie vote Of
II to II. When called to vote
Senator Pridgen said:
Speech of Senator Pridgen.
In consequence of the Finance Com
mittee failing to provide postage
stamps to place upon the papers, the
Senate had seen fit to suspend the tax.
ing of the State Journal-this suspen-
sion was to be until postage stamps
were provided. 1t was believed that
Tracy or the Journal office would, as
other publishers had done, furnish the
stamped wrappers, and receive their
compensation from the Committee on
Contingent Expenses and Printing,
who would have seen his account aud
tied and had the bills paid. Butthey had
net done it. The Senate had no copy
of the Journal, and if the members
purchased a copy on the street, there
was no report Of the proceedings Of the