The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-04-22
THE CENTENNIAL, AND WHY TEX
ANS SHOULD GO TO PHILADEL-
PHIA.


THE CENTENNIAL, AND WHY TEX
ANS SHOULD GO TO PHILADEL-
PHIA.
Perhaps, through successive centuries,
Texas will be part and parcel of the Ameri-
can Union. If the States be free, if local
legislation be left to do'lts perfect work,
and that greatest possible degree of local
freedom, consistent with the maintenance
of the Union, be assured each State, the
Union itself will be perpetual, and for the
reason that its operative forces will be pal
pablY essential to the peace and power and
well-being of all the States. Whatever
may happen, there is no possibility, during
our lifetime, of the separation of Texas
from the older States. This is fixed, un-
questioned fact, and therefore Texans
should participate in the centennial cele-
bration of next year at Philadelphia. He
who most abhors the Union, as shaped by
bayonets, despotic authority, nepotism,
and by malevOlent sectioHalism and abhor-
rent constitutional amendments, must still
confess its perpetuity as far as he himself is
concerned. Even if Grant convert the
Union into the empire, Texans and the
South are helpless. The North may never
revolt, and the surest mode of strengthen
ing Grants despotism would be found in
the violent resistance of the South. There
fore, there is but one resource left the
South. 1t is found in the practice
of patience-even when wrongs and
outrages are intolerable. But there
is even a wiser policy of positive
action. 1t is suggested by every fact,
association and incident connected with
this centennial celebration, which should
be used by statesmen and patriots to re-
store, in the thoughts and affections of the
whole country, that profound reverence
once entertained by the people and their
rulers for the country's organic law. Give
us perfect government at Washington, re-
store original Federal simplicity and honor,
liberate the States, lessen by half the cost
of being governed, and the aim of those
who most loved and most honored the
American Union will surely be achieved,
and the Union made perpetual. When rep
resentatlves of each State and county and
town in all this broad land are gathered in
Philadelphia, and people of all the States,
without the Intervention of false-tongued
partisan newspapers and politicians, may
speak to one another face to face, the whole
country's opinions will be changed. We
will find the Northern masses imbued with
the same impulses, the same exalted aims,
the same heroic inspirations which we our
of multitudes, the correction of false i'm
pressions, the adoption of new ideas and
liberalization of old, are the great practi-
cal and benefcent ends to be accomplished
by the centennial celebration. And if these
aims may be perfectly achieved, If Ameri-
can brotherhood and American freedom may
be evolved, the interest of Texas IN this
consummation is greatest because Texas's
future is the greatest and grandest of all
American commonwealth.
Aside from results affecting America
alone, and our relations to American States,
there are other considerations which should
impel intelligent Texans to ascribe infinite
value to broader consequences that will
surely flow from the convocation of the
nations at Philadelphia. We have SAID that
the worlds confines were rapidly contracted
and its absolute unity as rapidly perfected.
Even while these words are penned tele-
gram tells that a congress of nations sitting
in Paris would regulate coinage and postal
rates and weights and measures and make
them uniform for the leading States and
peoples of the Old and New World. The
maintenance of mighty ornaments by rival
kings and emperors cannot long be endured,
and ruinous peace is more terrible than
murderous, relentless war that abolishes the
intolerable cost of standing armies. These
must be dissolved and then comes the same
degree of unity among European, as among
American States. Differences of language
alone make homogeneity and the applica
ton of the philosophy of the phrase "EPIuri-
blts uaUn" more difficult and slower of
attainment there than here. But the unity
of States and the theory of local independ-
ence, sooner or later, must become supreme
in Europe as in America. The unity of
the nations, the community of popular
rights, the identity of popular interests will
be recognized and comprehended as never
before when intelligent representatives of
all nations stand side by side contemplating
the cradle of modern freedom ON the one
hand, and watching possible despot
digging its grave hard by-at Washing
ton--on the other.
Texans will learn in Philadelphia that, by
another name, there are Texans everywhere.
The Scythian of old, on boundless wastes,
imbued with boundless love of freedom
by the very boundlessness Of plains he
deemed his home, was not more thoroughly
animated by the spirit of independence
than the Texan or Californian of the South
and West, or the more phlegmatic Yankee
of Maine, or Kanuck of the Dominion.
Let all these and Representatives of the
honest people of all the nations meet, and,
face to face, without the false Intervention
of rulers or Of those interested in perpetu-
ating popular ignorance Of popular facts
and sympathies, and one vast stride viii be
made in effecting the unity of nations and
absolute freedom of the peoples.
Aside from these international considera-
dOns, this mighty worlds fair becomes an
invaluable agency for the diffusion Of in
valuable intelligence not otherwise attain
able. Why cross the ocean to see the world
when the whole may be contemplated at
glance in Philadelphia Z Why read tedi-
Gus books to learn what the worlds pro-
gress has been. in science and art and gov
ernment and civilization, when the whole
story IS before our very eyes, while millions
pass in review, and al that they have
achieved is subjected TO actual inspection.