The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-12-14
SECESSION NO REMEDY AND
EBvER DREAMED OF By TEX-

The Times commends the many virtues
Of the STATESMAN. 1t approves
the 6TATEsMAS's persistent adhesion
to the policy Of peace, and finally says;
''The STATESMAN would quietly seize
the opportunity for separation" Very
certainly no such purpose was ever az
serted in these pages. The Times
should have.quoted, and given.the day
and date when tuch designs were con-
fessed. /. would be treason" and
treason has been made odious by setting
satraps over US, by subjecting us 10
the domination Of savages and of white
meA-xQrse than saYagss, by giving us
KelIoggs and Warmoths and Ameses
and Bullocks, and sending strangers
''to eat out our substance" and hold
all offices dispensed by Federal author
ity and those of which negroes could
dispose. Blacks were compacted into
loyal leagues, and when ku kluxism
came a. counter-irritaDt in some Of
the States, the one association was
heavenly in the eyes of ''Journals OF
Civilization" and the other, which
left neither COW. nor calf, nor poultry,
nor swine in wide districts ravaged day
and night by nomadic thieves, was be-
loved and blessed IN the eyes Of those
who pretend to adore a union with
people termed in derision ''secesh,"
and In the same breath "fellow-coun-
trymcn." Universal suffrage was given
us by the reconstruction committee of
ever-blessed memory, and it gave us
universal poverty. Property became
valueless because plunderers were in
power, and ignorance and vice supreme,
and taxation, like damnable social sys-
TENS, was intolerable. Ignorance and
stupidity were exalted and decency
repressed and brutalizcd until State
constitutions, made by supposed
white men of the South, have
-injecred- into them the philosophy of
Thad StevenssAd Re-. Butler. This
investiture of savagery with supremacy
was achieved not because the negro
was beloved or because he was the con-
fessed and greater sufferer, but because
the white man was hated. Men and
newspapers OF the North everywhere
declared that the fairest and proudest
women of the South should descend to
most mental tasks ADD that Wade
Hamptons should become the serfs of
slaves. The policy of the Federal
government has been shaped by rage
and hate and when We accepted
Greeley, the very impersonation of an
tipathy to everything in the South
which the North had the alleged right
to sbhor, Greeley was contaminated by
the "foul alliance" and spurned by our
good and gracious and generous fell
low-countrymen. The objection to
Tilden's investiture with power and
the reason assigned by those who so
love the Union that they are incurably
exasperated against the South, consists
in the fact that Tilden was unanimous
~ preferred by the whites and Hayes
by the blacks of the South. 1t is ar
Rued that Tilden's elevation is the re-
production of the.confederacy, while
we object to Hayes only because we
fear that his triumph is the coronation
Of satraps and Inauguration of universal
Senegambianism in the Gulf States.
But we have never dreamed of seces-
sionism. The Times should know that
we had quite enough Of that remedy,
infinitely worse than the disease
sought to be cured and than all evils
sought to be remedied. The Times
should know, moreover, that
more than half the people of the
South abhorred secessionism. Bell
and Douglas were the en-
bodiments of the idea of union.
But Douglas lived North, and Bell
was timid and superannuated, and
unionism in the South was without q
leader. Every placeman elected from
Office by Lincoln's election became an
infuriate secessionist, even as barna'
oIes of our time, for the came reason,
ere infuriate and belligerent adherents
81 Hayes. These are the blissful scoun'
rels yhn would Row go to war, and
acse are they with whom Texas will
never cooperate. We were most un'
wise in 1861, and cannot be induced,
ct this early day in the history Of
American blunders and crimes, to re
peat the process. We have the courage
to tell the truth, aud by every act Of
the people and of their Southern
rulers in the South to retrace our steps
and assert fidelity to the Union, bu
this does not lead us to accept rs oul
own calamities that may be precipi
tated by a class foEyhose existenc'
and crimes We are not responsible
That 70 contemplated, as asserted By
-<ne Times, the final separation Of
Texas from a body Of States destroyed
by party leaders and placeholders il
untrue. No such suggestion has beer
made by any sane organ of Southern
opinion. We have learned, If thu
North have not, that two or NOR
unions on this continent are by NJ
means desirable, and that their peace
full co-existence would be quite impos
sible. There is no question of interes
and habit TO separate us. and this pro
, posed war Of placemen would b
IN ephemeral evil, and should b.
local. We are not Of the Office
holding section, and represen
no class Of placeholders. Fedora
cold, even through Southern offices, i
showered upon Northern men alone
We have no property or rights dis
turbed by Hayes's or Tilden's election
We would have Texas grow great an'
rich and powerful, not that she ma,
govern herself outside, but all tn
States inside the Union. We woul'
have and will live TO see Texas WELD