San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1888-03-29
WHARTON COUNTY WANTS no RAN
GERS SENT THERE.
Governor Ross Reads Thirty.seyen Pro-
testing Citizens a Moral Lecture.

county against using rangers in that
county, They write;
We all deeply doplore the killing
at Spanish camp. It was feud be-
tween parties and their friends, fight
ing for tract OF land. The feud
will die out, but the action Of the
governor OF tho state in sending
troops to the county will live and
carry with it the impression that
Wharton county has not enough hon
est, law-abiding citizens to enable the
sheriff to preserve order in the coun-
ty, when, in fact and in truth, the
sheriff has never been resisted in one
single instance, and we challenge
proof to the contrary. Ask our sher-
if and he will tell you he has never
been resisted. Then is it right that
you should do us the wrong to con-
yey that idea to the world by send
ing troops here? We, for the sake
of our county, beg that you recon
slider your action in this matter and
not do us this great injustice,
The governors reply is as follows:
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Austin-J. G.
Duncan and others: I have the hon
or to acknowledge the receipt of your
protest against the presence of ran
gers in your county, and in reply /
beg to say that l am unable to appre.
ciate the force of your objections.
Scarcely week passes without APP.
plications being made by many of
the best and most law abiding coun-
ties for the services Of rangers to aid
their civil officers in special cases of
emergency, and in the very mail
bringing your protest, 1 received a
petition from the officers and good
citizens Of Mills county for aid from
this force. If every county in the
state had the same estimate of them
that you do and objected to their
presence as vehemently, we should
be compelled to disband the force or
send them beyond the border of the
state until the law could be repealed.
They were sent into your county in
response to the district judge and
district attorney, who were doubtless
fully apprised of the exigency de-
manding their services in aid OF the
local authorities. At any rate, the
first invocation which / took upon
my lips when assuming the functions
of the executive Office, was to main
tain the constitution, and it enjoins
upon me TO see that the laws are
faithfully executed. A state denies
protection to citizen as effectually
by not executing as by not making
laws. Its expensive machinery be-
comes q mockery when no security is
furnished; when laws are made only
to be trampled on; when crime stalks
abroad unchallenged and uncheck ed;
when the house is no longer a pro
lection, but its sanctuary is violated
with IMMUNITY by rutfians firing the
house at midnight and shooting it's
unarmed inmates. When you pro-
test against the irritating presence Of
half dozen rangers sent into your
county with the best motives, and in
compliance with the demands of
the local officers, charged with the
execution of the law, and with in
structions to act strictly in subor-
dination to the civil authorities in
helping to detect, arrest and bring to
condign punishment those bloody
surely you cannot mean
what your language clearly implies
when, as an appeal for some mitigat-
ing Judgment, you make the comfort
ing suggestion that "this feud will
soon die out Do you mean to say
that you prefer to leave the solution
of these troubles to the soothing IN
fluence of time and trust to the po-
tent charm of moral suasion for q
more complete and happy con6rma-
of hopeful promises? 1 imagine that
this would prove but poor comfort to
the surviving friends of those who
were the victims of the most coward
ly and inhuman murder ever known
in the annals of crime in orr state. If
the arresting power is fettered, the
witnesses silenced through fear or
otherwise, the laws annulled or the
courts impotent by reason of all or
nj of these surrounding circumstan-
ces to bring the guilty to justice, why
should you as law-loving citizens, OBJ
iect to such additional aid aS the
state can, in conformity with the
and laws, afford IN the
premises? The degree of security
which the law confers is everywhere
accepted as a very fair comparative
.est af the moral and social progress
IF community, and, while we know
This foul deed has been neither coun-
-enanced nor approved by the good
people of your county, yet it is from
ack of power or inclination that the
are not brought to the
oar of juslice. l submit that 1t will
pc a greater stigma upon Your coun-
y, aud prove more complete bar
Ter to the flow of capital and check
o the development of your resources
han the knowledge that rangers
nave been sent into your midst. Be |
tides. it would be n very stubborn |
which, after knowing of |
-our failure, would deny the substan-
ial fact that there Is a demand for
more energetic measures involving
Elements Of sufficient power and force F.
o vindicate the majesty of the laws
Hence il is the paramount duty Of
very citizen to lend his prompt and