The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-02-03
THE CONSTRUCTION ~ sEsEa.mnlA

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constitutional convention was found want.
ing. The learned and only really great
men of that body often defied the preju-
dices OF the many and asserted their love of
truth and illustrated wisdom in govern
ment; but the instincts of T1tttabagaism
assuming the shape of vulgar demagogism
bent before the rabble with degree of hu-
initiating turbulence that was even pitiabIe
as il was disastrous. 1t was fearful blow
at popular rights and popular freedom
when the creation of the Judiciary was left
in the hands of voters, very many OF whom
may be bribed and more fattered until the
cunning shyster may defeat tine accom-
| plished scholar and jurist. To render this
result in many districts almost disastrousIy
certain, the ignorant and incapable are suf-
fered to constitute majority of voters and
In such districts, of all asplrants for
Judicial honors, the worst Will be che
sen. To prevent this result districts
were gerrymandered, the purpose
being, in these elections, and properly
enough, to disfranchise the blacks by indi-
rectlon. In achieving this end districts
were elongated most absurdly, and few
blacks, not numbering, it was thought more
than a third of the voters in each district.
were assigned to each. 1t will cost Judge
certainly five dollars per diem to live and tra-
verse his endless circuit, and his personal
| expenses will be not less than $780, To
| feed and clothe and maintain family with
$500 will be difficult task, and no law yerof
learning and ability, having a family, will
seek the Office. Bachelors are thus pre-
ferred to married men and marriage-the
family-is the State, and no State can exist
or society be civilized in which every in
centive is not proffered in promotion of mar
riage, and every penalty provided for vio-
| latIons of its rites. The business relations
OF meH are thus to predetermined bylcheap
courts, and when they die their estates and
widows and orphans become the prey of
scheme of perquisites by which the helpless
and unsuspecting may be forever uncon
sciously robbed. d" s-5
But Governor Coke comes before us, and
while he is great party leoder and like
other men, loves power, and therefore loves
to inveigh against any share of freedom of
thinking inside the party, none having the
| right to think except the good men who
make the little contrivances called platforms
-GovernOr Coke appears and tells us, with
perfect honesty, if the new Constitution be
rejected there can occur no interregnum
or disturbance of society or government.
This true, should we rely upon amendments
by Legislatures and people, with all the
costly appliances and losses sustained in
elections and in maintaining legislatures
which never have time to dispose of current
legislation, or shall we reject the scheme of
Rutabagaism and perfect that in which 1t
fails so egregiously2 The good the Ruta-
bagas have done may be retained by new
convention and the evil rejected, and a
proper constitution could now be framed
in very brief session of body educated
by the blunders and hssty action of the
late pretended government trainers. Since
no harm can come to the State if we reject
the new code, and since there is no sane
man who would vote for-th Constitution
because Radicalism pronounces against it,
and the cheapest mode or reform necessari-
ly consists in convoking a new convention,
there is no reason, unless ascitizen would
do the greatest possible mischief to Texas,
why anyone, unless candidate for office
created by it, should vote for the adoption
of the new system of government.
The Democratic party, be it reniem-
bered, has disclaimed responsibility
| for the botchwork of Rutabagaism,
and the simple question presents itself, is
it better to inaugurate a government to be
repudiated and reformed piecemeal through
weary years and at infinite cost of legisla-
tive and popular action, or resort to new
convention, educated, as It must be, by the
follles and failures of the one now dis
solved 2 The reason given by johnson, of
Collin. for his action -in-the convention
surely cannot be approved by the people of
Texas. A correspondent of the aNssss re
calls his exclamation in the convention on
a memorable occasion, when he said:
"We are thirty-three and you are thirty
seven, and we have beat the talent of the
convention on every part of the ground
He did not speak for the Democratic
party, or for the people of Texas, and yet
in this he informed us how the instrument
was framed, and how absurd it is that the
people should feel themselves compelled to
vote for laws which are no system, and for
a framework of government which, is only
an awkward code of laws. The writer re-
feEred to says, properly, that .g;Is
1t delivers over southern and eastern
counties of the BLACK Belt, y once the rich
est and still the fairest of this fertile land,
| Inhabited by people unexcelled in inteii-
gebce and moral worth, hopefessly, ire
deemably, to African misru;e We sho1ld
vote against it because, by its Radical pro-
visions for the election all officers by.
universal suffrage, and ITS extrIvagant ex-
tension Of the doctrine of g home Tule,Y it
commits the government of the people Of
these counties to the hands of the ignorant
aud prejudiced class who were lately slaves
Under the Constitution ss Vt Is, in very
few years Democratic Governor and Sem
ate would put learned and enlightened
Judge upon our district bench. We hoped
that Legislature less inbued with, the fell
spirit OF demagogism than the last would
ameEd our Jury system so that ignorance
aud prejudice might no longer occupy the
jury box II the new Constitution is
adopted, there is nothing fer US but despair.
Our former slaves will elect our district
judges our county judges, our clerks and
shertftss our county commissioners and
Justices of the peacA