The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1873-07-31

the school longer they can have it. But it
does not allow your money to be preyed
upon the entire year by supervisors and
teachers, wfo do nothing
We took from the Governor the power to
appoint officers, which the Constitution ex-
pressly declares, You shall elect
We passed several hundred other import
ant laws, of great interest to the country,
which I have not the time to notice In detail.
Finally, though we were elected for two
years, under the constitution, after having
discharged to the best Of our ability, our
duty, b. the election bin, We returned to
you the high trust you confded TO Us, con-
scious Of having performed our duty, sub
hitting our work to your candid Judgment
at the general election on the first Tuesday
in December, 1873.
That the Radical party should lind fault
with everything decent. or beneficial to the
country, that was done, was to be expected.
but it was not supposed that the same party.
who in the Senate and Executive chair re-
tarded our work, and prevented the accom-
plishment of many measures, demanded by
the country, would find men who claim to
be Democrats, that would join in this con-
demnation. 1t was not known before. that
men so remote from the place where this
work was going on, could accomplish so
much-that they could overcome difficult
ties, that others who were brought in daily
contact with these obstacles could not sur
mount
affirm what will not be denied by any
candid man who saw and knows what the
Thirteenth Legislature attempted to do.
That is, that no public body ever labored
more earnestly, and constantly, than the
House of Representatives. The same re-
mark will apply to a large number of Dem
ocratic Senators.
Now, fellow-citiZens, few moments to
railroad matters. The constitutional amend
ments came up for action. l found that it
had not been adopted in the mode pointed
out in the Constitution. This was my opin-
ion, as a lawyer, and In which opinion about
twenty-thTee other Democrats concurred.
had taken an oath to support the Constitu-
ton. We could not find it in our hearts to
take the advice of some over-zealous
amendment men and newspaper of
neighboring county, to throw the
Constitution aside, and disregard it..
Our denunciation of the Radical party
for the last few years had been too severe,
and repeated too often for us now to accept
and adopt the crime ourselves. There were
other reasons why oppose the amendment
DuJ IlllS WAS w neither WAS fl8DI
on that question, time will tell.
While the Twelfth Legislature was in ses-
sion, it pretended to pass two bills, giving
the International and Texas Pacific Com
panies each six millions of dollars, which
by the time they should be paid off, would
have cost the people of Texas about seventy
millions of their hard earnings.
Up to the time of the meeting of the Thir-
teenth Legislature, / had not heard one
Democrat say, that those debts were binding,
or that they ought to be paid. Indeed,
heard some of those, who, for some cause,
afterward became clamorLus to fasten those
great iniquities on the people. denounce
them In the severest terms. 1t was done
by every candidate before the people during
the canvass of 1872.
No man could have received the power
of attorney from the people as their law
maker that would have gone so far as even
to ask the question whether he should aid
in that great robbery.
None will deny that it was the duty of
the Legislature to ascertain what Texas
owed. To this end, the House of Repre-
sentatives raised a select committee, COM
posed of Judge Smith, of Colorado; Judge
Powers, of Cameron; Col. Anderson, of
MeLennan; Judge Morris, of Rusk, and
myself; the committee originally stood, Ire
land, Smith and Morris. Their meetings
were numerous, and their Investigations
thorough. From some cause, it became
whispered abroad that that committee would
report adversely to those bonds. Then it
was that another resolution was introduced,
and Anderson and Powers were added to
the committee. The dispatches that even
ing to the Galveston Neos, said: Grail
road men breathe easier since Anderson and
Powers were added to the select committee. y
The committee, with these additions, con-
tinued their labois from day to day, and in
about two weeks, the Nesos said:
ITO the great surprise OF many, 1t has
been ascertained that Powers and Anderson
will join the committee in the report adj
versely to the bonds"
Thus, it would appear, that these two men
had been selected for a purpose, and that
they so far forgot themselves as to totally
disappoint the expectations of those who
had them added to the committee. But
these two men were men of integrity, and
would not agree to say that the people of
Texas owed those bonds, when they were
satisfied that there was no such debt in ex-
istence. do not charge that the member
who made the motion to add Powers and
any other than pure motives. lido not now
remember who it was, and he was probably
requested by interested parties to do it. Of
the ability of that committee, (no reference
to myself, need not speak; they are well
known to be among the ablest lawyers in
the State, and men of great moral worth
What must they say? If they did believe
that Texas owed the bonds, must they re-
port lie? Or must they report as they be-
lieved2
From that day, subsidized press didits
dirty work of disappearing and misre-
porting everything myself and a few others
did and said. No matter how enormous or
revolving the demands of the monopolists
were, if we attemptedto smooth off a rough
place, or to clear an ugly angle in one of
their bills, we were charged with being OPP
posed to railroads. The lobby was con-
stantly filed with them, and the man who
asserts that they do not draw their bills so
as to secure every exemption, every privil-
eye, every power, every dollar, in money
and lands, with which they think it posi-
bic for their bill to be gotten through,
makes an assertion in the face of history
and facts known to every member of mod
ern legislatures. / know that il was as
serted by some of the press, that the Texas
Pacific got more than its friends asked for,
this is, and was known to be wholly untrue.
Every member of the committee before
whom that bill came, knows that the agents
Of that road demanded in committee, six
teen sections Of land, including the sixteen
miles reservation, and ten thousand dollars
per mile in money. Or, If all lands, then
forty sections to the mile were demanded.
It finally got twenty sections tn tie mile,
and a Reservation IN width Of eighty miles.
1 opposed. l thought it a great wrong.
l thought the old soldier or his heir
should have the right, If he wished to do
so, to 60 on any Of the public domain and
locate his claim. / thought also that It vio-
lated this clause Of our Constitutions
ssArt. 1. Sec. All men, when they
form a social compact, have equal rights,
and no man OF set Of men, is entitled TO ex.
elusive, separate public emoluments OF
privileges"
But pardon me, fellOw-citizcns, for return
ing to the International road a moment
TfThor, tl,sr matter rr-as ffr-f r,.o,fo1