The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-05-27
TERRELL.
A COMPLETE TEXT OF HIS
GREAT SPEECH AT
CLEBU RNE.
SHOWS UP A CLEAN RECORD AND
DEFINES HIS POSITION TO-
WARDS RAILROADS.
SPECIAL Telegram to the Statesman.

! Special ltltHIdln W llc otdleSlndn.
| CLEBURNE May 20.-Judge Terrell spoke here
to-day before large audience. No brief report
! can convey idea of his speech. Besides discus
sing questions of national policy, and announcing
views already known to the readers OF The STATES
| MAN, he said:
~ alone am sorght to be held responsible for
giving B. OO,OaO acres of land for new capitol
| Well, men rarely resort to lying when they have
| facts and arguments, and though ! have usually
looked above and beyond the shafts of calumny,
| this one will expose. The legislative journal
shows that in 1876, introduced in the senate bill
that passed. build the new state house BY selling
land in small quantities to the people. The house
refused to pass that bill. Two years after intro
duced bill to set aside 900 900 of acres to build
capitol, and that became law. The tenth sec
ton Of that law reads thus: 1T shall be the duty
| of the board (of whom the governor was one) to
advertise said lands from time to time for sale, and
sell the same for cash, and the rect in equal in
stallments of not exceeding one, two and three
years IN such size tracts as will enable them to
| realize for the whole reservation the best price
possible said sales to be ade for not less than
| fifty cents per acre
Afterwards, at the same session, an act was pass
ed to convey B. 0000 if necessary, to any contract
or who would build the house for the land. That
| idea was the work of the committee and was in
| Difference to the known wish of a unanimous SEN
ate. II was almost to man a democratic senate,
and every senator voted for that law. was repre-
sening the capital district of your state. Your
own state house had become rCostng place for
bats and its walls were crumbling. had lost over
two years in the effort to pass law to build the
new house by selling land in small quantities to the
people, and had failed | had seen over thirty
millions of acres gwen up to that time as present
to corporations to build roads where there were
but few people, and had opposed it, With only
six senator's to help me, had in 1876 opposed the
general law giving land to railways And now, |,
| who lived at Austin and had sworn to obey a CON
stitutiOn that required me to set aside three mil
lions OF acres in some way to build capitol, stood
almost alone in my desire to sell the land in small
tracts Looking this broad state my eyes could
rest on no public property to which our children
could point as the product of princely public do
main. The best lands of Texas were being spongad
out from the public domain by railway certificates
and raj, ways were building fast. Texas needed the
capitol and the constitution prohibited us from
building 1t except with land. What would you
have done in this race between Texas and the rail
ways as to which should have that 5000, 90? You
would have concurred with a unanimous senate
| and voted to survey the land and exchange it for
capitol. Every senator of Texas voted for that
BILL and, though am the only one who ever pro-
posed in open senate and urged in vain to con-
struct the capitol by selling land certificates of
small size to the people, only am sought to be
censured
There is in every honest mans heart desire for
fair play, and to that sentiment appeal against
the calumnies of this hour.
also am alone sought to be held responsible for
the fifty cents land sale act, which also passed
with but few dissenting votes If | possessed
half the Legislative influence ascribed to me by the
malignity of others, lwould no longer dstrust my
own capacity. Texas was pressed with debt and
her bonds were hawked around New York at dis
| count. Gov Roberts urged the sale of the land to
pay that debt. That land also, unless sold, would
soon be covered with railway certifcates for re-
| member that those who like me opposed railway
land grants we're in minority. | urged that the
land be sold at not less than Sl.;0 per acre and
| failed, and then voted for the bill.
At that time no corporations except railways mad
invested in Texas land, though the laws allowed
them. They could have covered it all with Certif-
| Gates at % cents an acre before the 50cent act
passed, If they had desired. AS soon as corpora
| hauon tn hVvt af md tnpl Ia,
market, and that is the whole of 1t. | do not think
that corporations obtained under that act 100000
acres But little over 3,0O0,oJ0 were sold in all,
| to individuals and corporations.
But what idiOtc folly is 1t that prompts men who
| live in glass houses to he throwing stones like
this at me! The journals show how earnestly |
attempted, session.. after session, to blot
| paper men who misrepresented me, are chiefly loud
in their praises of Gov. Ireland, whom they call
"Ox-cart john Have they forgotten that the
teenth Legislature, voted on call of the yeas and
nays for land grants to the score of
railways, .aggregating, if you will
measure their routes, enough to Absorb thirty mil
| lions of acres
The himsy excuse of the editorial brother-in-la law
| that he was voting fer west Texas railways will
not do for they were not all west, but nearly
all east of the Colorado. Never did vote to give
one acre of the peoples land to any corporation on
earth. The diff REM between the legislative tax
and my own is this lie voted to give thirty mil
lions or acres or land to corporate creations to build
roads to be owned by themselves, while l voted to
| swap three millions to natural men Gre
ated by the Almighty in return for a
capital to be owned by Texas, when
It appeared to be the one way to secure tue land
from railroad appropriation.
never could understand why the pres
ent governor Of Texas was call
that he once tried to Danish the cart from Texas
by building railway for other people with public
land along almost every hog path in Texas.
| The speaker then alluded to the democratic plat
| form, which demanded that the legislature should
regulate the rate of freight on railways and warn
ed his hearers that the people are tired of broken
| promises. Conventions can cOnventiOnize men out
| of their preferences among candidates, but were
| never designed to conventionize men ont of their
| principles The voice of the people must be heed
ed in controlling corporations or mischief would
| come of it. The governor of Louisiana only last
week urged the legislature to create railway COM
| mSsoners as the only means of protecting the
people against pools, determinations and oppres-
| sion. We need commissions, both state and fed
| eral When railways pool here in Texas their op-
preston is limited only by their caprice, for we
have no waterways to compete with them. To
| compensate for cheap, long haul to New York
they Cypress our local commerce, and stagnate our
coast towns.
No state can be truly great that does not float
| the products Of her own soil from ner own sea
ports, and Texas would not do this if she had fifty
feet to her whatves, unless we create commissions
both federal and state to control by just rules this
| network of railroads.
| Those who have invested millions in fixed values
at our porte, demand protection and are entitled to
| it.
am animated by no feeling of hostility to rail.
| ways. With us they have been the couriers of an
advancing civilization, hut, like all other human
institutions they are controlled by selishness, and
| the greatness OF their power only demonstrates
| their capacity to tyrannize when permitted. We
have given them 40 0O00O acres of our best land to
| establish them in Texas, and we must control
them, or they will tyranniZe over our industries,
and make or break towns, and men, at their discre
ton II is their capacity to tyral nize in
dustries, against which protest more than against
| its exercise.
| We can only expect change when the agri.
cultural masses take hold of this question. The
merchant Is too much in the power of the railway,
and, besides what he pays in oyercharges, he col
| lects back from bis customers. A change will
never come until you conscript your best men for
! Legislative honors Remember the spirit of civil
service reform, and require the men who live on
| executive patronage, and corporate favor, to at
| tend to their official duties, and let you alone
They had little furry in democratic ranks, lately
IN Tarrant county, and the first man whose advice
about party management saw quoted by the press
was the postmaster. Conquer the lobby by select
| Ing men whom you can trust with life and homo,
and give them their instructions before they 90 to
Austin. II all the people will do this everywhere
Texas will feel new inspiration in all her borders
and VIII move with new life and power to accom-.
plish her high destiny.
THE EVIDENCE CLOSED.
| THE 1'EI .EpIInNJI INNESTIf A,rINf,