The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-01-26
OPEN EETTER.
Governor Roberts to Comptroller
Brown.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE,
- No. t., 90 1900


lon. W. NJ Brown, Comptroller of Public Ac-
DEAR SIR:-Some days ago l re-
.eived letter from Prof. E. II. An
ierson, principal of the Prairie
View normal school, dated on the
.4th of this month, in which he
stated that your decision in regard
% that school had placed him in
very unenvlable position; that it
nad been three months since any of
the accounts for the expenses of
said school had been paid, except a
few small accounts that have been
paid by money received from
boarders at the school; that he is
now without money and without
credit; that up to the present he has
given full assurance to creditors that
their debts would be paid; that
Messrs. Moore, Stratton Il Co., of |
Galveston. have been furnishing |
large bills of supplies, and have con-
tinued 10 do it even after the ques- |
ton arose as to by whom the &C
count should be approved, but he
knows not what they will
do in the future; that he
is substantially without team; that
he has on hand supplies for only
about two weeks; that the school is
now in a flourishing condition, and
expresses the hope that some way
can be devised to continue the
school. Since then | received an
other letter from him containing a
list of the accounts due and unpaid.
amounting to $1,S63.44, and stating
the number of students to be forty
five state students, and six pay
students as boarders, and two local
students that are not boarders, max
ing in all fifty-three.
The principal of the school being
colored man and poor. 1t is not to
be expected that he could exert a
personal influence to sustain the
school. The students are not able
to pay their way in the school.
Gov. f. B. Picket, president of the
board of directors of A. IL Nj. col
lege, has been sick and has died
within the last few days. l have
not been able to leaye my room to
attend to business for the last ten
DAYS, Under all these concurrent
circumstances of disadvantage, L
fear the school will be dismissed
| Your decision, as comptroller OF the
state, that you would not further
audit for payment, out of the treas
ury of the state, any accounts forthe
expenses incurred in support of the
Normal school at Prairie View for
the preparation and training of col
ored teachers, ON the ground that
the law contained in the appropria-
ton act of the seventeenth legisla-
ture, providing for the support of
that school out of the university
fund, was unconstitutional and void,
was entirely unknown to me pre-
vious to Saturday, l4th inst, when
accidentally discovered it from Its
publication in the Galveston Nelcs
while confined to a sick room from
the effects of vaccination. Had
know that such a question was be-
ing considered by you, the official
and personal relations between us
have been such that L should have
felt warranted in urging whatever
arguments and persuasions l could tc
have induced you at least to suspend
such decision and action until the
legislature shall be convened IL
special session, which will be only
few months from this time
While recognize fully your con
seriousness in the formation of you
Judgment, still l deem 1T not i'm
, proper before it is too late to pre-
sent to you respectfully the views en-
tertained by me as the chief execuiv,
ofthe state, whose constitutional dut.
r requires him to "Gause the laws to b.
{ faithfully executed" in the discharg
= of which he should use such powe
s8dr afg6Meh b sfveS Sff TO h agen II VIZ fhh
a presented these accounts to you
/, you say that "the school at Prairi
View Is i'll no sense a branch of til
university" do not suppose tina
: the members of the legislature VIII,
8 voted for that Appropriation under
! stood that it, in and of itself, was
branch Of the university, or that i
was the college or Branch Univer
Q sity for the instruction of the col
D ored youths of the state to be locates
by vote of the people," when tn
,, legislature shall deem its establish
ment practicable, as contemplate
in section IA, article z, of the consti
, tuition.
The affirmative fact upon whicl
you predicate your opinion of tn,
unconstitutionality of the law, is
that it is simply and only q norma
school for the education of coloreC
, teachers, or as it is expressed il
your own language: 1t is, as ex
pressed in the title of the act by
which it was established, "a norma
school for the preparation and train
ing of cOlOred teachers, and is SINH
lar in its course of instruction, III
methods and objects to the San
Houston normal school, established
7 at the same session for the training
ofwhlte teachers, and supported out
of the public school fund" Had the
large majority of members of tho
legislature, who voted for that law
agreed with you as to that fact, an
sure they would not have voted fol
an appropriation for that school out
of the university fund. They evi.
IDENTIFY differed with you, and predi.
Gated their action upon the fact that
1t was in its origin, and during the
changes in its progress, and still is
an enlargement of an addition to the
Agricultural and Mechanical college
with the normal school feature added
thereto, established for the benefit
of the colored race. The history of
the legislation, together with the
substance of the several acts them
selves, passed by the legislature, will
exhibit this fact most clearly.
The congress of the United States
had made donation to the state of
Texas to establish an agricultural
and mechanical college, that was in
vested in state bonds that drew an
interest of about fourteen thousand
dollars per annum. This interest
was devoted, by an act of the legis-
lature in 1875, to the payment of the
directors, professors and officers of
said college. The constitution of
the state, that went into effect on
the 18th of April, 1876, made that
college branch of the university,
and directed that the legislature
should appropriate forty thousand
dollars to complete its improve
ments, and to provide the necessary
furniture. The legislature had pre-
viously appropriated large amounts
for the same object, and did, at the
session which convened shortly af-
ter the constitution went into effect.
make the appropriation of FORTY
thousand dollars, as required
by the constitution. There
were III that legislature col