The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-11-23
WHAT TEXAS Has WON EVEN IF
,.. -- WE LOSE TILDEN.


tion of bsyonets, and wherever blacks and
whites have been left free TO follow the
bent of their own ptedilections no deeds Of
violence have been done and no collisions
have occurred. Butthe most remarkable fact
is the foreknowledge of this condition Of
affairs in Texls and Alabama and Georgia,
confessed by the party 10 powe-, when it has
chosen to send soldiers, not into Texas
where we could exterminate the helpless
negro race in single hour, not into Ala
bama, where there are wide districts as
black as Wharton county or Wheatville,
and not where the Inter Ocean tells the
President negroes are hourly put to death
not into Democratic, murderous, rebel
States are soldiers sent to fnri the foul
flaunting bloody shirt, but into South Car
olina, where Sambo and Radicalism are su-
preme. Thither flock Grants armies, and
there deeds of blood are done and there
the races are in armed organized hostility
to one another. The acts of the party in
power give the lie direct to every speech OF
every representative leader of the party in
power. The President, when he ordered
the army to hold the capital of each county
in Chamberlan's bailiwick, never once
mentioned Texas. He either discredited
everything that Morton, Blaine and In
gersoll said of us, or believed the negro
States, in which Republicanism was domi-
nant, wretchedly governed, or he simply
proposed to use the army of the United
States to assure the election Of Hayes.
The President was not, whatever his mo-
tives, mistaken in the facts. HIS inter
vention, If necessary, was only needful in
pure African and not in white mans gov
ernment. II was conceded not to repress
dominant Democracy but to throttle Radi-
calism rampant. Murders that are perpe-
trated are deeds of blacks, and armed mobs
in South Carolina are uniformly black, and
lawless disorders are discovered in South
Carolina where Grant is cmnipotent, and
not elsewhere in the South, aud the pas
sions of the pet lambs of Ingersoll, Nor
ton and Blaine must be repressed by the
sword. @
The South has borne many wrongs and
much robbery and pitiable degradation in
having knaves set over it by Federal power
and, in local elections at the hands of saw
age blacks; but patience and plain facts
achieve for us even now, if Tilden be
beaten, great victory. At this hour
American public opinion is almost an unit
IN asserting the indefensble conduct OF
Federal power in the South. This moral
conquest of the North achieved by the
South came too late to assure, with abso-
lutte certainty, the election of Tilden to the
presidency; but such a moral victory has
never been won, and even if a Morton, in
stead of a Hayes, were Grants success
sor, local self-government and thus the
peace and prosperity of these States must
be conceded. Not only were no armies
sent where blacks are most impotent, and
therefore most insecure in life, liberty and
property, but local Radical placeholders
have been absolutely silenced, and there has
not been even basis for the superstructure
here in Texas on election day to horrify
mankind. There were no armed battalionl
moving about the streets of Texas towns
and villages, and strangely enough ther,
Federal marshals armed with authority, a
in South Carolina, to arrest and fetter anC
imprison. Texas, the very central seat o
bloody barbarism, where the local press, il
cealed nothing, has conceded the utmos
freedom of thought and action to the poor
est, most abject and unlettered and mean
est of her citizens. No clanking sabre
felt that they were slaves when voting il
Texas, as in Carolina, beneath the CLEAN o
bayonets. Negroes were not compacted her
by the shadow of despotism to which cow
ards fly, as in South Carolina. They votec
and, whether freemen or not, as freemen
and not one was obstructed on his way t,
the polls. These are now confessed facts
and must have their proper influence, anC
whether Tilden or Hayes be invested witt
the presidency, or Grant intervene and hav
himself proclaimed, as adventures and sol
diers have done in other republics, tn
countIy's master, the South has been tn
great gamer in the recent political contest
II conflict of arms must ensue, Northern
people refusing to be cheated by knavisl
systems in negro-ruled barbarisms, there
no need for our intervention. The who'll
people will array themselves on the sid
of honesty end right and the army ant
placemen can hardly resist. There are n
two sides to the question of right TO be de
termined, and the masses of the people o
the North and South are thoroughly homes
and devoted to fair play. However devou
ones adhesion to Democracy or Republican
ism he is strangely organized, who woul,
not prefer Hayes to Tilden as President
Hayes were fairly elected; and such is tn
deyotion of the masses of people to plan
honesty and right, that he must hav
greater power than Sheridan and Sherman
can weld, who would dare to violate tn
honest instincts of the American people.
1t is in view of this ultimate result Of tb
election that we deem the conduct 0
whites towards blacks in Texas especiali
fortunate. We havewcn moral victory tbs
enables US, even though we are of the South
TO demand justice and the right of locs
seli-government at the hands of our North
ern fellow.countrymeu We do not aopea
now, as some weeks age. at the bar of tn
worlds opinion, in the guiss Of murderer
and oppressors of helpless, harmles
negroes. We have shown that even i
Texas, famed for the devil-may-car
spirit of its bold riders Of the plnn;
the rights of the poorest and hun
bleSt citizens Of the United State
are as sacred in the eyes Of the people .
1 81 ~ shr