The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-08-08
A FEW WORDS WITH YOU, GOVERNOR
ROBERTS

AS some OF your adherents nave Deen
pleased to.-assume or to assert that the OPP
position the HERALD with its co-operators
has had to your denomination, is based upon
personal prejudice, while Others understand
ing our nature better, or more noted for
charitable dispositions, have asserted that we
misapprehend you in your policy, we have
thought it not inappropriate at this hour,
and on this holy Sabbath day, when ores
thoughts and feelings are, or should be,
turned in the channel Of good will and JUS
tice to all mankind, to put ourselves Alright,
and seek to have you do the same
in the general interest. Whatever
we have heretofore written for
these columns concerning your administra-
tion, your particular acts Hereunder and
your general policy. has been strictly on the
line of legitimate criticism and invariably
within the scope of journalistic duties un-
tinged by prejudice or such other thing and
always fringed with courtesy, for the HER
AID knows and will tolerate no other method
of treating public men and measures. What
ever has dripped from our finger tips
has come Of the quarryings from the depths
of a heart that has found its proudest throb
in the contemplation of the actualities and
the possibilities of our present and future
home, of Texas upon which ian eager
people have set the seal Of primacy."
We take II that the governorship
of any state, and the world, will pardon us
for adding, especially of this one SO immense
in its area, so varied in its interests is term
that involves the idea of responsibilities of
the highest order, the suggestion of great
power, large patronage and immense infu-
ence. and to be equal to these involves the
correllative idea OF statesmanlike abilities
and peculiar ..adaptabilties conseienticusly
put forth in direction to secure desired
benefits by the speediest and best methods.
That at the time Of your nomination, you
comprehended this responsibility, that you APP
preciated the magnitude and grandeur of the
trust, was evidenced by more than one of the
patriotic passages that illumine your admira'
BILE inaugural address. In that inaugural,
for instance, you said this: Having made
Texas the study of the flower of my
life to know how the rights
and liberties of her people could
be best preserved and her material interests
advanced, l now believe that the chief
reliance should be placed upon building up
great state, with all of Its varied interests
fostered and the rights of all protected by a
good state government, vigorously and
economically administered, so as to secure
permanently the confidence and love OF her
own people. Nothing less than a bold and
determined strike for that end will accom-
plsh il. If my services shall substantially
aid in fixing it upon the country as its per-
manent policy, the end of my political ambi-
ton will have been attained" And
truly these were noble sentiments
and broad philanthropic views, full worthy
the honored ex-chief justice of the state ard
Its esteemed executive. In another
part of that same inaugural you wrote "He
who looks back while the world moves on is
turned into pillar of salt" This is also of a
verify. We read it all at the time with the
feelings of heartiest endorsement, and we
loved you for the utte;ance, but what you
laid down in that inaugural, and your course
on many subject matters since
then, do not seem to tally ex-
acty, and we are disappointed at the fact.
As the head Of the state you have had right
not merely to the entertainment and the
public expression of your wishes, but to the
urging of their actual adoption, and no one
has ever gainsaid the purity Of your motives
in such regard, and you have had the SUI.
preme right to reconsider, amend or reverse
your views; but the value, the tendency and
effect Of your course, the voter soveregns of
this state and the press have the correspond
ing right to examine and TO critcise. The
state government and the press are, under the
genius of our government, equally the Gre
alton of that source of all power, the people,
and are both alike amenable to
the same parental judgment. Your depart
mant is, to employ the language of
an eloquent writer, San integral part of our
political system, while the press 10 an essen
tal element Of the safety and advancement
OF free government, and their respective
duties are harmonious as the seasons, which
so widely differ in their offices, but all of
which are the sources of wealth and plenty"
These are OF reasons which have influenced
US TO presume to speak few woris with
you, and, let 1t DO forever understood that
the spirit that moves us is Of that Roman
order, which gloves not Cesar less hut Roma
the more" We will saw ,b.,
we are at loss to reconcile what
seemed to be the clear convictions
ard firm purpose Of your mind in the matter
OF advancing the best interests Of the .tate
WIN the course you subsequently psrsue3.
W. know that the mind q,
man is fsarfully and wonderfully made )
ma 'nM atser all our boasts II 10 but bun.
.'s ~ inconsistencies and incongrui.ies. AND
~snow that the yellov.eyed monster sus.
rs.~' a '0msupnes germinses ideas and pro.
EA.I.