The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-01-26

W lulS law. nC " W
it relates was founded in its first
stage by the action of the 9TH legis-
lature, for specific object-the ben
eft of the colored race, in connec-
ton with and correspondent TO the
A. Il NJ. college that had been
established for the white race.
This was followed up with the same
object, by additional advantages
added thereto, and by a liberal APP
preparation out of the university |
fund, to insure said object by the |
sixteenth legislature, ut both the |
regular and the special sessions of |
1879. 1t was again persistently fol-
lowed up by similar appropriation |
out of said fund by the venteenth |
legislature, after the doubt as to the |
constitutionality had been present !
ed, and another course recon-
mended, in order to remove all |
doubts. Three governors have ac-
quiesced in, and acted on the re- |
spective parts of these laws, that eI-
isted and had 10 be acted on during
their terms of office. There being |
some confusion of expression in the
wording of the appropriation in the
acts of 1879, i, as president OF the
board of directors of the A. IL Nj.
college called upon the Comptroller,
Stephen III. Darden, and got his con-
struction of it, before one dollar of
expense was incurred under it.
He audited for payment all of the
accounts for the support OF said
school out of the university fund,
during all of the first session and
part of the second session of the
| school, up to the 18th of January,
| 1881; and you, as comptroller audited
| for payment the accounts for the
| support of said school, out OF the APP
preparation made by the sixteenth
| legislature made i'll 1879, from the
! 18th of January. 1881, to the end of
said second session in the summer of
the past year. How many accounts
for it have been approved during its
present session out of the last APP
| preparation L am not informed. l
am, however, informed by +. III. An
derson, the principal of said school,
that the accounts have accumulated
by the delay in auditing, or in re-
fusing to audit them, until they now
amount, as nearly as he can find out,
W 'Sl,OOO IT, w Hull UCOGS HuNO DCCu
incurred and arc now unpaid, and
owing TO persons who have furnished
supplies, material, work and SER
vices for said school upon the faith
that it was an institution of the
state, being carried on for years
past, and that such accounts would
be paid punctually out of the treas
ury of the state, as they had uni
formally been heretofore.
The directory of the A. and NJ.
college, that made all of the
arrangements and passed resOlu-
lions for organizing and car
rying on said school, under
the act of 1879, was composed of the
governor. Lieutenant Governor j.
ID. Savers. Speaker John I'll. Coch-
ran, Messrs. Pickett. Peeler, Durant,
Pfeuffer. Lyday and Dixon. They
raised no question about the uncon-
, stitutionality Of the law, under
which they were acting in provid-
ing for the disposition of a part of
the university fund for the support
of said school; nor has the present
board, which is composed of five in
telligent and respectable gentlemen,
IcSllCIlt III ulnCICHb pullo VI JuC
state.
The board of regents of the uni
versity, organized on the 18th of No
vember last, composed of Col. Ash
, bell Smith, president, and Messrs.
! Devine, Hubbard, Harw God, Rags
dale, Wooten, Camp and Edwards,
f who, it must be supposed, regard
themselves as the special guar
, dams aud protectors of the univcr-
sity and its branches, and the funds
, by which they are to be supported,
! as board, have passed no resolu-
ton, and done no act. calling III
question the cOnslitutionaliiy of
this appropriation out of the uni
I versity fund; but on the contrary.
acting through their nnr RT faW and
have approved such of these ac-
counts tor said schools as have
9 been presented.
Another consideration OF import
g ance under this rule of construction
, and action is, that, under, the faith
that this was permanent institu-
= ton of the state for the benefit of the
/, colored race, the only one yet fur
r nished that gives to few of them
= greater advantages than may be OBJ
: tanned at common school, TO fit
5 them to be instruments for the cle-
: Walton of their race, and which in
one sense is generous and noble
, charity, rendered by the state,
: tifty-one poor cOlorcd young men
: and women have been induced to
leave their homes and occupations,
| - Il. i
, every senatorial district in this large
/ state, and are there advantageOusly
receiving the benefits of SAID school,
, under the direction of three ex-
cellent teachers, who nave aban-
doned other employment, and have
! been employed by the year TO teach
, this school. If the means provided
by the law making power for the
support of this school, now in
the middle of tile session.
be withheld, and the school has
to be broken up ia cOnse-
quence OF it; ffty-one poor
young men and women will
, be turned out, many of them. per-
haps, without Il dollar to support
them and carry them to their dis
tant homes, but worse than that,
perhaps, the confidence that this
school, in its prosperous progress,
and splendid results, had begun to
inspire in the minds of the cOlored
race, that justice would be done to
them as a weak minority, by the
dominant majority in lis state, will
be sadly shaken, if not utterly extin-
guished.
All these considerations, an en-
lightened court of last resort would
ponder on long and anxiously, and
1T would be an uncommon thing in
the history of Jurisprudence, if they
did not find good and satisfactory
reasons for sustaining the law as
constitutional
You are aware that l have under
my control no appropriation from
which l can draw one dollar for the
support of this school, and have no
right to make contracts with any
one to furnish the means in antici-
patton of their being paid by the
legislature when it shall be con-
vened.
With the repeated and persistent ac-
ton of the legislature IN supporting
that institution from the university
fund, voted by large majorities in
both houses, on the one hand, and
you, standing at The door of the state
treasury, as comptroller of the state,
with the settled decision and deter