The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1888-03-22

John NJ Meyer laws
II 4 Meyer Chas IIa
j Rint W G. Carpenter
THE GOVERNORS REPLY.
To &. c. Duncan and others, Wharton, Texas.
l have the honor to acknowledge the
recsipt of your protest against The pres
ence of rangers i'll Your county, and in
reply beg TO say that am unable to ap-
precate the fotce of your obj ctions.
Scarcely a week passes without appli a
ton bsiug made by many of the best aud
most law-abidirg counties for the services
of rangers 10 aid their OWL officers in
spec al cases of emergency, and, iG the
very mail br nging yout protest, Zee
celved petition from the officials and
good citizens of Mills county for aid from
this force. II every county in the state
held the same estimate OF them that you
do, AID objected to their presence as We
hemently, we should be compelled to
disband the force or send them
beyond ths borders of the state
until the law could be repealed.
RESPECTS HIS OATH.
They were sent into your county in re-
Spouse to the appeal of the district Judge
and district attorney, who were doubtless
fully apprised of the exigency demand
ing their services in aid of the local civil
authorities. At any rate, the first iuvocu.
ton which took upon my lips when as
Stunning the functions of the executive
Office, was TO maintain The constitution
and it eDjOins upOn me TO see that the
laws are faithfully executed, and a State
denies protection to the citizen as effect
uaily by not executing IS by not making
laws. Its expensive machinery becomes
Il mockery when no security is furnished
when laws are made only to be tram pied
On; when crime stalks abroad unchallenged
and unchecked; when the home is no
longer protection, but its sanctity is
violated with impuniry by ruffi4ns firing
the house at midnight and shooting its
unarmed inmates.
DO YOU MEAN IT
when you protest against the irritating
presence of a half dozen rangers sent
into your community with the best mo-
tives in compliance with official demands
of the local officers, charged with the ex-
ecution of the laws, and with Instructions
to act strictly in subord1nation to the
civil authorities in helping to detect
arrest and bring to oondign punishment
these bloody criminals. Surely you canno,
mean what your language clearly implies
when, as an appeal for some mitigating
judgment, you make the comforting
suggestion that "this feud viii
die out" do you mean to say
that you prefer to leave the solution oI
these troubles to the soothing influence o.
time, and trust to the potent charm o.
moral sussion for more complete ant
happy contamination of hopeful prom
ises? l imagine that this would prov,
but poor comfort to the surviving friends
of those who were the victims of tn,
most cowardly and inhuman murder eve
known in the annals of crime in our state
WHY DO YOU OBJECT
If the arresting power is fettered; tn,
witnesses silenced through fear or other
Wise; the laws annulled or the courts i'm
potent, by reason of any or all these sur
rounding circumstances, to bring the guilt,
to justice. Why should you, as law loving
cltizeos object to such additional aid a
the state can, in conformity with the Law
and constitution, afford in the premises
GREATER STIGMA.
The degree of security which the Law
confers is everywhere accepted as a very
fair comparative test of the moral anG
social progress OF community, and, while
we know that this foul deed has beer
neither oountenanced, nor approved by
the good people Of your county, yet, II
from lack of power or inclination the
perpetrators are not brought to the
bar of justice, submit, that il
will be greater stigma upon