The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-01-23
Address of Ex-Governor Hubbard.

Fellow-citizens OF Texas and Gentlemen OF the
Senate and House OF Representatives:
You have assembled in this Capitol
to-day to witness the peaceful trausi-
ton from one to another administra-
ton of the government of your State.
You behold the cares and RESPONSE
bilities of State transferred from those
who for more than two years have
borne the burden to other trusted ser
wants chosen by the people. Such a
change in imperial and kingly States
would be signalized by revolution and
bloodshed. Here, under the 1gis Of a
written constitution, protecting life
and liberty by the fearless and un-
bought ballot of freemen, our rulers of
to-day become the private cltiz rs of
tomorrow, and old public policies
even are forgotten or abandoned, or
new measures inaugurated, without
producing jar or discord IN the har =
mony of the government.
| 1 congratulate you, fellow-citizens
of Texas, that you have lived to wit
ness this suspicious day, and to have
welcomed this mornings sun rise upon
happy commonwealth Of nearly two
millions of people, whose liberties are
guarded by stable laws, administered
by incompatible judges and protected
by the legislative power, to whose
majesty we bow as Vitalize1 by the
voice of the people. May God, who
protected our fathers when they laid,
deep and firm, the foundations OF the
Republic and the subsequent State in
wisdom and in strength, continue to
vouchsafe the heritage which has
been transmitted from sires to sons
through the generations which have
gone before US. May sectional discord
never more rend our councils, State or
national, or ambition seek to pollute
the affairs whereon patriots and states
men have placed their offerings of love
and of life. The past is secure; our
history is full of the romance and chiv-
airy of knighthood, and illustrated in
civic COUNCILS, and on battle fields as
well, the noblest sacrifices of human
life and the Hottest exhibitions of hu-
man intellect and of human courage.
Let US preserve the trust as we would
the virtue of woman-with the risk OF
life itself in the breach.
Our steps are no longer feeble; our
voice is the voice of sturdy manhood.
Long before your heads have grown
gray or your old statesmen have passed
away, Texas will stand IN the national
halls side by side of the oldest ana the
greatest of the American States; no
longer a mendlcant, begging for favor,
but demanding her rights, becauFe they
are jlst, and because, also, she will
then have the power to command re-
spect.
During the years in which l have
held the reins Of power, have to
thank, out of full heart, my able as
socrates in the government, on whose
strong arms 1 have always relied, and
the great body of the people, who have
evInced their confidence always In my
devotion to the honor and interests of
Texas. l go hence without regrets,
leaving the helm in old and trusty
hands tried alike in peace and peril,
with the consciousness that as / re-
ceived the great trust, so it passes to
my honored successor, untaTnished by
my using. Now and here gladly lay
down the tolls and cares of sn arduous |
public service, invoking for the repre-
sentatives of the people and my sue
cessor a wise and happy administration |
of the State government.