The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-01-28
INSECURITY or FRREDO1I AND OF
RIGHT IN TEXAS.


dition Of New Orleans, save through Kel-
logg and men like him, thinks that the Pres
ident should intervene in a States affairs
because there are ''said to be two thousand
starving, unemployed blacks wandering
helplessly over this country" what should be
done in the case of Pennsylvania For
ney's Press says that twenty thousand white
miners are ravagng and destroying the
finest districts Of the coal regions, and if a
Sheridan be required to guard the lives and
fortunes and repress the violence of two
thousand blacks, surely Grant himself will
lend the divine effulgence Of has imperial
presence and in his own person assuage the
griefs Of great Northern commonwealth.
II Louisiana must be cursed with the in
sulting presence of barbarous soldier-his
very presence significant of despotic vio-
lence and of government based on fear and
force-if Louisiana, with only two thou
sand supposed blacks, in a supposed state of
revolt, requires Lieutenant General and
the fercest in the ''paclz, " what resource of
Federal power can maintain order and the
supremacy Of law where twenty thousand
white miners are banded together to defy
it, Why this difference in the modes of
dealing with the two States The degree
of freedom incident to statehood in both and
the rights Of both, under the Constitution,
are identical. There is palpable infraction
Of duty or evident usurpation of power or
failure to execute the law IN the one case or
the other, and the plain, common people of
tins remote country would comprehend the
reasoning TO which statesmen resort in
order to justify the conduct of the govern
ment in its relations to Pennsylvania and to
Louisiana. This is no idle inquiry. We
cannot foresee, in Texas, when the Constitu-
ton is no longer the chart by which the
course Of government is shaped, the action
Of the President towards this State. Texas
may be stricken down at any moment. Sher-
idan may telegraph an order to his subordi-
nate, stationed in Austin, to drive out Gov
ernor Coke and re-enthrone DAVIS. There
Is practical necessity, therefore, for final
solution of these inquiries. The people
would gladly understand their precise status
under codes and philosophy of govern
ment now recognized at Washington.
There is no security for States, none for
individuals. Property values are affected
everywhere, and there is earnest anxiety,
when the conduct of the President is men,
toned, written legibly upon the face of
each thoughtful citizen. Life and liberty,
and personal and local freedom become,
when held by such uncertain tenure, utterly
valueless, and the central government, un.
der the pretense of self-preservation, is
simply committing suicide. The wound in
flicted here, and Of which we tell, as bleed
ing slowly but unstanched in Texas, is felt
in each American State. The ligatures
binding States together and making their
sensations and emotions simultaneous and
identical are countless, and then there is
love Of freedom, stronger than love
for Grant or Radiealism, born one hun
dred years ago, which has never become
extinct Grant is violating hourly this SEN
timent Of American brotherhood, and even
partisanship is paralyzed when it sees how
gross the wrong done the freedom Of
Louisiana, and how generous the cowar-
dice Of Grant when greater outrages are
done by the white rabble in Pennsylvania.
he sends thither no Sheridan, and even
dares not inveigh against deeds of violence
done IN the Keystone State. His execution
Of the law is periured, since it is unau-
shorized; lawless, sectional and uneonsti-
tutiOnal; it is cowardly, because his yio-
lence Is directed against the weak, and not
against the strOng-Pennsylvania offending
even more grossly than the weaker COM
munity in the South. Win not some one,
authorized to speak for our master, tell by
what tenure we hold the right to live and
breathe and make our own local laws in
Texasi And may we not humbly inquire
how long Is this consciousness OF insecurity
to be bornel How long must this people
i've not knowing through each successive
day that It is not the last, If Grant desire
50 70 shape events Of Texan freedoml
The central despotism is not more unjust
and cowardly in dealing with Louisiana
and with Pennsylvania than intolerable in
action 10 Texas.