The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1874-07-18

whose memory is held so dear by Tex
ans, wrong in laboring for this great
enterprise? Was Houston acting in
bad faith to the people of Texas in pre-
vailing upon them to bind up this
great body of land for the encourage
ment of this great enterprise? If so,
then have | wronged the people, for l,
in my humble capacity rs legislator,
labored to the same end.
After this introduced the Memphis
and Ell Paso charter, in order to have
this road through our section of the
state. This charter required S5OO,OOO
in stock to be taken, and ten per cent
of it paid in. Young, Morgan, Wright
and myself were the original charter
members of this company. l made
speeches asking the people to take
stock in this road, so that we might
have the line surveyed and located,
and attract the attention of capitalists
to its importance, with the abiding
faith that the time was near at hand
when it would become necessity, and
would be built. We had no hope of
building the road ourselves. We We're
not able to build railroads, but we
wanted to get the route surveyed in the
hope that others would then take the
matter in hand and build it. 1t will be
remembered by some, that after this
when the directors of this company
brought suit against all the stockhold-
ers in this state for the full amount of
stock subscribed, that | fought the suits
in the courts, in behalf of the stock
holders, because they were not in any
event to pay more than ten per cent of
| the amount subscribed.
[ will refer, fellow-citizens, to one
other instance in which L fought for
the interests of the people against this
road. The charter of the Memphis
and El Paso road gave them eight
miles of land on each side of the road,
along it's entire length through the
state, subject only to the claims of
actual settlers. In 1858 this company
came into the legislature and asked an
extension of their charter. l was then
q member of the senate. l came home
and consulted with my people, and l
found out that great many persons
had settled along in this reservation,
who had no valid title to their land.
Some had located their lands with
fraudulent certificates, and some had
no certificate, and the land which they
had opened up would go to the railroad
company. l went back to Austin, and
T said to the gentlemen conducting
that hill that thew must allow me to
amend tbe hill for relief so as TO give
these actual settlers twelve months
within which to perfect their titles and
where parties had settled without anv
certificates thew were TO have the
rirbt to Inv cartif;cotns and Locate one
hHnGrod and sivtv acres of their land,
TO include improvements. On this
nuastinn I had some of the members
rom tha cnunties east of this to fight.
hnt I succeeded in having the amend
ment made. and it stands upon your
statute hooks to-day.
Remember, fellow-citizens, that at
that time I was a stockholder in this
road. | ask you if in this | fought for
the railroad with which l was connect
ed, or if / fought for the people?
Subsequent to this, the Memphis and
Ell Paso company became bankrupt.
In 1870 went to Austin and asked from
the legislature the privilege for the
Transcontinental railroad company to
purchase the charter and franchises of
the Memphis and Ell Paso company.
l asked no subsidy for the Transcont-
mental, but simply the right to pur-
chase the Memphis and FL PaSo road.
This privilege was granted by the leg
islature, and at the same time subsidy
of $3,0O0,00U in bonds was granted to
the Southern Pacific and $6,0OO,OOO to
the International. l opposed this
money subsidy. An attempt was made
to induce me to advocate it. A large
sum of money was offered me to advo-
cate it, more than could have made
in year from the practice of my pro-
fessiOn, but l refused to do it, because l
believed it was not right to grant
money subsidies. After this the Trans
continental company purchased the
Southern Pacific line and congress con.
s0lidated the two under the name Of
the Texas and Pacific, with the name
of Marshall Roberts, of New York, at
its head. :.
The Texas and Pacific then applied
to the Texas legislature for consolida-
ton charter, and subsidy. l was not
at Austin at this time, but a printed
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