The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-07-06

NJ. Allison, of the House, has not fin
ished tasks he proposed to accomplish.
The brutal murder OF Miss Currier, who
went forth in bridal robes to grace the bri
corpse, and the practical liberation of
James White at the hands of the SapIeme
Court and the constant recurrence of deeds
of violence demonstrate the necessity for
more thorough reforms affecting courts
than any yet proposed. The branding iron
and whipping-pOst must be substituted for
the peniteDtiary and the haDgman of
the courts instead of mobs, must
otiiciate in suppressing horse and cattle
stealing. Elegant gentlemen, in or out of
office, who propose to right their own
wrongs ana avenge personal private insults
by tsking life and thus wronging the State,
that they may be righted, must be taught
the humanizing influence of the hangmans
rope. Murder, as a fashionable fine art,
whatever the preteXt for its practice,
must have an end in Texas, and
he is the Ssate's greatest benefactor
who, as a lawgiver, inculcates lessons to be
practically illustrated among gentlemen" as
well as among knaves and roughs and horse
thieves. Mr.. Allison leads the way, ana i.e
is wisest of Texan statesmen who goes far
the't in compelling reform not in action
alone but in perverted modes of thinking
that atil ct society in this and other nth
crn ana Western States. 1t would be a very
iortuna'e event, just now, In the history of
the comm onwealih, if two lawgivers fight
and one be killed and the other hanged
There would be happier moral results than
if an unlettered jury, despite the money of
the knave aud murderer, and despite the
el' qucnce of hired barrister, hanged the
bio ID stained, brawllng bully of a ward
meeting. The spirit and temper of the
people demand thorough reformation Of
codes of morals and Of laws alike.
The l"ftier the position of the murderer
the greater the benefcence of the hang
mans Intervention, and while Mr.. Allison
devotes himself to the task of Furnishing
and preventing crimes done by horse
thieves, vulgar robbers and wandering un-
known roughs, he should not forget that
his own class are worthy of infinite care
at the hands of courts and juries and of
the crimir al code. They will not steal or
lie, uut 1t is ''honorable" in their eyes, un-
der certaia circumstances, though the Con-
stitution forbid it, to- take life, and is it
-. IL
and wisely cared for than property? A jury
in civil suits must read and write; but
stoid ignorance, the growth and weight of
countless centuries, crushes justice out Of
criminal courts in Texas, and questions of
life and death, even by the law, are made
playthings of bribery, and of lawyers In
genuity and eloquence. He must read and
write who determines questions of dollars
and cents, but mans life or liberty is
esteemed of SO little value that both are at
the disposal of worse than Boo Dtian stu
pidity. Mr.. Allison, having put his hand
upon the plou2 u2hshare of reform should not
remove it till the very source of evil has
been excised and the jury system in criml-
nal, as In civil cases, relieved of its defects,
that make criminal trials, when the defend
ant is rich, simply farcical. The press
Should cooperate in this with Iawgivers,
and there would be an end of honorable"
and alike of plain murder; and until the
first be exterminatcd, the latter will grow
strong and indo structibe, and Texas must
yer be deemed, among civilized peoples,
the choicest abiding-place of red handed
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