The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1880-10-21
Hon. A. n. Norton. Of Dallas. Texas.
Tells What a Solid south Means.

Last Friday afternoon Judge y.
d. Norton, of Dallas, Texas, adj
dressed large crowd of our citi-
Zens on the political issues Of the |
dav. lie devoted his time TO re-
lation of the condition of affairs in
the South, with which he is thor !
oughly conversant, having been Adj
jutant General of the State of Texas,
and judge of the fifth judicial dis
trict of that commonwealth. 1t was |
a speech that made every honest |
mans blood boil with indignation |
and rage over the wrongs, outrages !
and murders perpetrated on Union
men by the unrepentant rebels of
the South. He said: They allow
no freedom of sentiment in the
South that Is not Democratic. They
have made the term carpet-bagger a
most obnoxious one, Yet here in In
diana, not two out of ten of the
older men but have moved in from
other states, yet woe unto YOU If
YOU are q Republican and move
into any state Of the South. Ispeak
of what / know and shall prove
every statement. | was the adiutant
general of Governor Sam Houston
when he refused TO go with the men
who attempted TO destroy the Union,
and published then the only Union
paper i'll Central and Southern
Texas, and they called meeting to
devise means to dispose of me and
posted public bills for that purpose
Later they called on me to resign my
seat in the legislature because was
ITniAY, t,,an This u-aa mat n la 1t-a,.
was commencing, and they SAID that
lady's cambria handkerchief would
stop all the blood that would be she'd
in the war. Texas since the war has
been a land of rapine and bloodshed
| which the authorities have been
powerless to control. Now it is
claimed that Hancock is a great
statesman because of his famous or
der. AS soon as Hancock Issued it
there WAS no law or order in Texas.
He turned Union men and all over
to the state authorities, Dotwith-
standing Congress said there was no
lawful government there. After
Hancock's order, mobs with bowie
knives and shotguus drove all be-
fore them. They blew up my Office
and fired into my house, two bullets
going through my wife's dress.
blood. Three hundred and fifty ku-
klux came to take me and hang me,
and emboldened by Hancock's Order
No. 40 they published paper called
the Ultra KukL,la;, and here is copy
of it holding up paper and reading
from it). They burned Union mems
houses and shot them to death; cut
off their heads and hung them ON
the public highway for their wives
and children to look at. They pass
ed public resolutions to kill all
Union men. We asked Hancock for
protection, but in vain. My neigh
bors were daily shot down in cold
blood by these fiendish kuklux
Democrats, and Hancock's Order No.
40 allowed them to do It. You men of
the North little know what this COM
ing election mean, to our homes and
lives. Yet men get up here and say
| that all Is peace and harmony. L
was judge of the fifth district under
Hancock's Order No. 40, and armrd
men tried to kill me on the highway.
While that order was in force muir
derers were openly trying to kill
| every jugde in the state. Despera-
does Overrun the whole country,
and Hancock's order turned judges
and all over to their tender mercies.
| have travelled the rugged road
and know it by experience. Order
No. 40 left us to be murdered
without protection. My Demo-
cratic friends, this is the truth. l
want you to think over it. Remem-
Der that the records of Texas show
that under Hancock's Order No. 40,
three hundred and thirty Union
men were murdered in q few
weeks, and that alone should
cover his name with infamy
and his memory with cXecration.
Listen to the wall OF the slaugE-
tered Union men of Texas; and this
they call craftsmanship. As | speak
memories of my murdered neigh
bors upon trees so thick that the
Brownsville Herald, the leading
Democratic paper, said the trees
| bore human fruit, and all hated
Union,' In one county they hung
forty Union men and boosted of it,
and no one dared 10 take the bodies
down, but they were left to rot in the
sun and rain, because they were
Union men. We of the South look
to you with fear and trembling.
What shall we expect? You have
the same old foe in front az during
the war; they have only changed
their leader. and you must vote as
you shot, so that the Union flag will
give protection to all so that no
rebel brigadiers will modest or make
them afraid y IYubnSh (Indl Plnin-