The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1878-04-25
VOL. VII.
TIE KAS THE LAST OF AMERI-
CAN REPUBLICS.

The STATESMAN has been condemned
because it objected to the interposition
OF any government, beyond the munic-
ipality, in the education of the people.
Government has the same right to
shape ones religion as his education,
AMI IL it must educate it should feed
and clothe, and personal independence
is lost in the central power, and to the
extent that the South and West is per-
meated by these Eastern and European
notions of the universally of govern
mental benefcence, to that extent have
We abandoned the principles and
theories, the reverse of those of En-
rope, on which our institutions were
founded. Democracy in government
means, in its last analysis, the absolut-
ism Of the people and the restriction
of the forces and purposes of govern
ment to the fewest subjects consistent
with its self-maintenance. Republi-
canism in America has degenerated II
the East into an sbsolutism of wealth. |
The Federal system is one of grasping,
ipsatiate consolidation rather than of
decentralization. Because States sought |
to secede, statehood has been stripped
Of its majesty, and even here in Texas
the highest local Offices are only valua-
BILE to the extent that they are stepping
stones to positions at the seat of Fed
eral empire. The republic of the fathers
has slowly merged into an imperialism
OF bondholders who. at this hour, acting
as a syndicate, paralyze the thinking
faculties and tongues of Congress and,
giving Sherman fifty millions of gold,
made the country and its congress for
get that the woes of the people are
results of Federal legislation designed
to aggrandize the few and impoverish
the many. Congress has been smitten
by fatal paralysis of genius and Inde-
pendence since the syndicate and bank
|
silver bill. Mammon is
king, and the people its slaves, and
the Federal government exists only to
register its edicts. 1t is time that the
people were aroused. Every valued
Institution transmitted from our fathers
and every conception OF personal and
local independence and of the value
Of local self-government, has been de-
stroyed either by the corrupt practices
Of the debssed system at Washington,
or by the cession of power in corpor-
ate institutions and towns to tramps
and illiterste blacks. The lowest
demagogues in this have co-operated
with the war-born aristocracy of the
East. 1t is hoped that Texas at least
will maintain the perfect purity of its
republican institutions. The sudden
conVers oa of slaves into citizens
and their mastery by brutal
loyal Leagues, and employment by
knaves, of high and low degree,
in governing towns and counties
have excited popular disgust to an
extent never known before. Here in
Austin, and in two-thirds of the pub
lie corporations of Texas, the people
propose to divest themselves at the
earliest opportunity of the right to tax
and govern themselves in local matters
that they may escape the domination of
vulgar stupidity or outright knavery.
Local independence and the right of
local elf-government have been di-
vested of charms by the criminal legis-
lation and policy of depraved or ignor-
ant demagogues in State and Federal
Why may we not go
back to first principles9 Why not,
when destroying old party organiza-
tions by means of the money question,
reproduce still older principles of gov
ernment defined by Madison and JEFF
ferson and apply them to Texas; and
il all the States save this be wrecked
by the pollutions and vices of the age,
let us at least never forget that this
great commonwealth sprang from the
womb of pure republic, and Its peo-
pie will never be Invested of the in
heritance of perfect personal and local
freedom. These dirty, incapable local
systems, generated by universal suf-
frage, only disgust us with the repub-
Of to-day. Revivified in all
its original purity, on the morrow we
will yet embrace and perpetuate its
blessings, ana learn to love as of yore
the local institutions and freedom In
herited from our fathers.