The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-01-02
TEXAS POLITICS.
Gloomy Prospects for the Growth o.
Republicanism i'm the Lone
Star State.
Negro Supremacy in the South Beyond
the Bounds of Possibility.
Correspondence Chicago Times

Correspondence Chicago Times
AUSTIN, Tex, Dec 28.-At the end of
two months travel in and study of Texas,
my, Indiana friends send me this pointed
question: What are the prospects of the
republican party in Texas? l answer
unqualifiedly:. The early establishment
of a healthy and hopeful republican party
in Texas is moral, social, and ethnolog-
ical impossibility. Il is idle to dream of
it, An opposition party there will be, OF
course, and you may. if you like, call it
republican, but a true republican party,
such as governs Iowa and Illinois, can
not gain strength in Texas for many a
year. The genius and spirit of the peo .
pie are against it; all their historic asso-
Citations are adverse to it; their inherited
instincts and habits of thought are hostile
10 it, and even if all these were overcome,
the particular situation Just now would
insure an immense democratic majority
for many years, or until the present issues
are permanently settled There are
towns and counties, however, governed
by republicans; but the state as a whole
has clear and fair maj jority for the dem.
ocrats of at least sixty thousand | will
present few of the reasons.
TO BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING,
the pioneers Of Texas were chiefly southern
democrats, bred in the Calhoun school;
and, more than any other people in the
world, except possibly the Irish. the old
southerners possessed the power of trans
forming to their own likeness all who
settled among them. 1t was said in the
eighteenth century that if the most frantic
English Cromwellian settled in South
Ireland and associated with the Celts he
was sure to raise a family of Irish
patriots Ht6erhiOreS Irish than
themselves. Similarly the young Yankee
or puritan who settled in the south in
1880 TO 1850 soon learned TO love the
genial southern manner, and by insensble
degrees became more southern than the
southrons themselves. So. despite all the
changes. thS impress of the southern
pioneer is still the base of Texan char
acter. AS soon as they had taken root in
this soil the Calhoun;st Texans displayed
.''"i- ~'-'c rights convictions by support
ing the federalistas OF mean. Ieta;,s,
Santa Anna and the centralis.s, When
the latter were victorious in the Mexican
Clval war Texas loudly proclaimed thai
| the compact between the Mexican states
had been violated, and, in the name OF
state rights, declared her independence
She won it, and for ten years was an in
dependent republic. When she surren
| dered her autonomy as nation to become
a state in this union she did it by a com
pact which distinctly recognized the
independence and sovereignty of the
state Of Texas" She
| KEPT ALL HER LAND
| and the United States paid all her debts
Furthermore, in the congressional debate!
on annexation this union was spoken OF
as ''confederacy," of which Texas was
| invited to become a member. If state
sovereignty was not distinctly recognizet
| by our congress by the annexation OF
| Texas, then / cannot understand the
meaning of words. Annexation was +,
| democratic measure opposed by tht
wings; so Texas came in almost unani-
mously democratic. For many year:
thereafter it was the state of refuge fol
| the unfortunate and criminal from othe
states, who, whatever their faults may
have been. were neither wings nor aboli-
| tionists Then came the slavery question
and finished the job. All things seemed
to work together to make Texas the solid
est democratic state in the union AM
vet it was almost an anti-secession stat
down to 1861. If Sam Houston had beel
ten years younger he could have issue
his proclamation from Austin. and all ives
Texas would have stood by him; he woul
have held the state in the union or had
civil war When the war ended the mort
unanimously Endorsed Andrew Johnso
as the severest man they could ask, an
Texas said: Now we know the wors
Whatever President Johnson demand
will be severe enough to satisfy the north
So they
FASTENED TO ACCEPT
his terms, and were rejected. Then cor
gress proposed the fourteenth amendmen
as an ultimatum, but before the Texan
could take action on it that propositio
was set aside.and negro suffrage adopted
Every old Texan looks on this as an &C
of outrageous and inexeusably bad faith
After that no lapse of time would eve
make them have confidence in easier re
publicans. The stupidity of reconstruction
and the petty tyranny of the first admin
istrations under it, made rcpublicanisn
disgraceful in many parts of Texas. Las
of all came the tariff, and Texas is un
questionably freetrade state. Its pos
| ton, its pursuits, and all its circumstance
make it such. Thus it is that the Who'll
whole history and situation of Texas seer
to be adverse to the republican party
Given the largest possible votes, tn
largest freedom, and the fairest count
and Texas would be democratic by a
least sixty thousand.
might add many more reasons VIII
Texas will grow more rather than less de
mocratic, and why negro suffrage drive
all classes into one party, but at this polr
| I desire to enlarge the scope OF this lette
10 apply to all the southern states, lnclut
ing Texas. l take it that the commo
sense of common men, unbiased by fana
tiasm. would decide that the establlshmer
of negro suffrage in the far south at th
time and in the way it was done was
frightful blunder But many mortimer
men congratulate themselves that the worS
ia mast: that the colored voter is about {
rise to the level of his white neighbor.
MISTAKEN SOULS
who dream of heaven The real evils
negro suffrage are Just beginning. Th
buildozing, the murders, the riots an
calls for troops were but as the disease 0
childhood the buying and selling OF vote
brought in by negro suffrage, is the deca
of manhood. Since the reconstructloi