The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1878-08-01


SOUTHERN FEDERAL PLACE.
HOLDERS AND MODES OF AP-
P0INGMENT.
We would not assail an internal reve-
nue. officers uDjustly or improperly. To
them spotless reputation is every
thing. They are defenceless too, and
apt to be judged hsrshly. Their occu-
patton Is we'll calculated to make them
odious, and ignorance never separates
the officer from the man. He Is often
reviled when he deserves praise; the
more because he enforces faithfully
most odious provisions of absurd
statutes. But such stories have been
told Of Joe Forsythe. revenue detec
tive at Mexia, that his acts and charac-
ter should be Investigated. The Ledger
says he is drunken bswdy- house
pimP, maintained by a cyprian." He
and one Warren, we are told by the
Ledger, institute prosecutions and
make arrests when there was evil
IDENTIFY no design on the part
Of ignorant victims to violate Federal
statutes. Such are the Ledger's asser-
tions. Stamps are often left undefaced
on empty barrels and boxes by those
who never knew that a horrible
STAMP act" is operative, even in
America. OF ignorance and careless
ness, Forsythe and Warren are alleged
to take every possible advantage, and
the people properly abhor these men.
Unfortunately they are representative
agents, in popular eyes, of the central
government, and thus do they render
the government itself odious. I'm
happily for the South, the relations of
these States to the Union, and the
opinions of the Uuion entertained by
commonplace, untraveled people are
shaped by Just such Adventures as
Forsythe and Warren are represented to
be. The multitude of the South see
few persons invested with Federal au-
thority save those from remote States.
They are sent hither utterly ignorant
of the idiosYncracies of mixed South.
western populations. They hate the COM
monplace people and are soon most
cordially despised. This fact of itself
signifies nothing. But many of these
place-men are worthless knaves, like
the mass of villains thrus: by PARTISAN
ship into power In Louisiana. They
had done dirty work for some con-
gresham or cabinet officer. They
were not decent enough to hold Office
north of the Ohio and are sent into
honorable or profitable exile to hold
Office in Texas or other remote South
ern province of the empire. Such
were the facts during Grants and
.&Lsd Stevens's reigns, and such, to a
feHt-> are confessed evils which
president Ill., promised and sought
but failed to reform. Conkling, few
Democrats cooperating with him in
the Senate, interviewed to prevent the
extinction of Greeley's mournful
facts still rayaging the South from
Virginia to Texas. There would be
an apology for the concession of Fed
eral appointments to such people if
there we're no intelligent citizens of the
South, devoted to the Constitution and
Union, capable Of discharging honestly
and well the duties of any public office.
While there are such men, who adhered
to Sam Houston in 1S60-1-4, and while
these would invest here the wealth
they might acquire, and would never
make the Union odious because ,gno-
rant of the modes of thinning and
pr judices of the people. such men
should be preferred by the President
TO Rdventurers who often won high
Communications by unworthy acts, and
were advised by those who approved
them to go South "for their health"
II the Republican party tell the
truth, and really desire the restoration
OF the Union as a moral fact, if bonds
of union should consist of forces
stronger than those born of the bay
one,, men of the South should not be
dealt with as if they spoke falsely.
Honor and Cfice should be conceded
those whp, in their own history and
character and by their exercise of the
functions Of Federal plsce-holders,
would show that the Union is repro
duoed not only here but in Washing
ton. Toe war should be forgotten
North as well ss s nth.