The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-05-13
VOL. IV
FORTUNES OF TEXAS.

trade, will be greater than that Of New
York. Railway builders are the prophets
of commerce. They write verse afterverse
and chapter after chapter in the valleys and
on the plains, and carve the story of pro-
gress in tie everlasting hills, and recitals
Of triumph are recorded in letters Of iron.
They dispatch couriers that outstrip the
winds, and, breathing flame and smoke,
! compel the wonder and admiration of man
kind. These are the agencies employed by
railway builders, the great practical bene-
factors of the age, who have conspired to
make this the richest, most powerful, most
liberal and progressive of American COM
monwealths. Even from Northwestern
mountains, and from valleys and bOundless
plains, in which Pixies Peak, with its
changeless crown OF snow, is natures mex
tinguishable beacon light; and from towns
and cities that adOrn the banks of the Mis-
ever to the culture capita" Of the en-
pire, the products of industry in all their
varied forms will seek exterior markets
through Texan cities on the Mexican Gulf
Not only will the perfected system of Texan
railways, but necessities imposed by cll-
matte laws, must compel these results. Ma
ture made one country, IN its peculiarities
of soil and of temperature, the complement
of another. The deficiencies of one are
supplied by the redundances of production
in another, and thus there is established
among different peoples that diversity
which begets an indestructible unity rem
dering wars no more possible than desira-
BILE. Sooner or later all cereals consumed
in Brazil and Central America, and in
Southern Mexico, and in the West Indies,
will be supplied by Texan merchants from
fields of Northern Texas, and from
coterminous States and Territories.
1t signifies nothing to what points
trans-continental roads are directed
whether to New Orleans, Norfolk or
New York. These roads, to be self
sustaining, must bisect Texas. They will
hardly have entered the States confines
when inflexible laws of commerce will bend
| flexible railways to the nearest city by the
sea. And thus it must happen that in de-
tining future boundaries for the resources
of Texan cities we may we'll send surveyors
even beyond the loftiest peaks that lift
themselves above the clouds and mark the
eastern confines of the land of gold. There
are as rich treasures buried beneath the
mountains of Northwestern Texas as were
ever unearthed in California or swept down
| by any Pactolus from the Sierra Nevada
Copper and iron and marble and coal and
every resource of art and industrial activity
blesses this matchless empire of Texas. 1t
was deemed, when it surrendered a share of
sovereignty to a common fund " at Wash
ington, too broad for any purpose of local
sovereignty, and therefore it was agreed
between the State and the United States
that Texas might be subdivided. This was
well enough thirty years ago. Locomotives
were then in their swaddling clothes, and
political and social and commercial forces
of railways were not comprehended. The
breadth of Texas, as a commercial and po-
litical fact, now signifies nothing. Pro-
gressive railways give to the whole popula-
tion common roof tree, ready access to a
common capital and common centre of
trade. Diversities of soil and climate
and productiveness of different districts of
Texas, collocated by railways give perfec-
ton to the delights of our homes by per
fecting that unity of interest without which
one government would be impossible. 1t
Is not as commercial agency alone that
the railway system of Texas is confessedly
the greatest boon ever conceived by genius
and wealth and craftsmanship, but as
an integral political and civil force it
has done and will accomplish more in
giving unity and durability to the
State and its institutions than any
philosophy in law or enactment of state
craft. This railway system is slowly but
steadily accomplishing these tremendous
results. 1t educates the illiterate; sup
plants public schools where sparsity of
population renders the presence of the ped
agogue impossible; it transforms habits of
thinking and of industry, and liberalizes
provlnciaism which has been, in politics,
the chiefest curse of the South; it extends
indefinitely the commercial boundaries of
the States great cities; it gives unity, by
practically contracting the confines of the
empire, and enables one Legislature and
one constitutional convention to create and
maintain one government for wide-ex-
tended domains. If statesmen, like rail
way builders, do their duty, the principle
of local freedom will be applied not only in
government of the State and in its funda-
mental law, but these cities of to-day and
of the future will be guarded against de-
structive forces which Europe statesmen pro-
nounce the bane of republicanism in Amer
lea. They speak truthfullY of us who
speak most harshly. Southern local and
municipal governments are infamous, even
brutal. They arc without honor or decency
and beyond the reach of shame. Texas,
thus far, has escaped this fearful calamity.
Ignorance and vice have not been suffered,
in this fortunate commonwealth, to seize the
reins of power. But the evil threatens and
immigration makes its coming possible, and
luckily Constitution is to be formed even
now before the malady, that has smitten
other States so fatally, has paralyzed the
hand of honesty and of wisdom. Let US
restrict suffrage in local elections, as the
constitutional amendments permit, and
thus law-givers and statesmen, as wise and
benefcent as railway-huilders will make
Texas forever the greatest Of American
eommonwealths and the choicest abode Of
progressive civilization.
THE MErEORIo NEWSPAPER OF