The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-06-07
A CANADIAN QUAKER IN TEXAS

A godly man, said to be Quaker
and president of Dominion railway,
named Gilbert Moore, writes queer
stories from Austin. He says that oul
judges always give negroes long terms
in the penitentiary because the whites,
by this means, practically reproduce
African slavery. On the contrary,
white jurymen object and evade the
necessity for the conviction of negroes
on all occasions. Individuals, when
the negro is free, secure the advantages
accruIng from his toll; when he is en-
slaved in the penitentiary, the States
lessees are profted. The Canadian
Quaker has been victimized by every
body, but his stories will be printed
everywhere, beyond the great lakes,
and correction Is impossible. For
some years after emancipation it was
difficult to make white jury believe
that it was crime for negro to steal,
and recently these juries are averse
to convictions for petty offensea he
--use rue peculiar skill OF negroes in
gathering cotton and in making sugar
is in great demand. This Canadian
idiot was made to believe that the
South now hates carpet-baggers more
than ever before and because, as this
vsracious writer states, ''these adven-
turers cheated US out of Tilden's tri-
umph." The Canadian Quaker recites
these facts (O, when every sane man
in the South, who did not expect of
fee under TilGen, is forced to confess
that the triumph of Hayes was most
fortunate for the South. In fact, the
President has done more to obliterate
sectional prejudices and make the peo-
pie forget aversion to adventures and
carpet -baggers in the South than was
deemed possible. The restoration of
the carpet-bagger to respectability is
most fortunate for the negro since it
was this institution" that ignorantly
clothed the carpet-bagger with office
and power enabling him to rob the
rich and the poor and desolate
the South. An ignorant Quaker,
if honest and truthful and
averse in his heart to wrong-doing,
would hardly undertake to make the
recklessly untruthful assertions distin-
gushing this letter. He met squad
of State troops and because these were
most rudely clad-rudely in his Eng
lish eyes-he pronounced them worse
than Italian brigands. He says they
devote themselves to capturing and re-
enslaving negroes, and that they did
incarcerate one white man when
anxious to secure fresh supplies of food
and clothing. Rarely do these State
troops arrest q negro. The daring cat,
tie thieves of the West are not blacks.
They are exiles from all the old States
and even desperadoes from Canade
have been attracted by wild adven-
turous modes of life that delight these
Bedouins of the desert-the cattle
thieves of the border. A Quaker's pre-
judices and training in the midst ot
British civilization and modes of lift
discover many strange people and en-
counter many striking peculiarities o
dress and language in community
even like this of Austin. He shoulC
hardly write of state of society anC
mode of civilization necessarily mos
cosmopolitan and consisting o
elements of good and evil from ever,
quarter of the globe. The leather
overalls, broad sombreros and hunting
shirts and cleaning arms of the Stat
troops reminded the Canadian quake
of brigands he once encountered il
Northern Italy and yet there are North
ern and Southern men enrolled of thi
State force, who were graduated a
Yale and Harvard and adopt this mod
of life that they may be surely relieve
of pulmonary disease. There is n
such cure for the disorder of the Yves
and lungs of men as soldiers life in tn
plans of Texas, and if the Canada
Quaker would have his ideas of me
J and morals liberalized and give hi
countrymen proper conceptions c
Texan facts and character he will re
visit and remain longer in the capit'
of the commonwealth.