The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1889-01-24
LATE JUSTICE,
A Texas Veterans Earnest Plea
for a Vested Right.
He Puts 1t on the Ground of the
States Honor.

OoOh VA WhOu bu0 uOuOIdUle D6N6ubc6ulu
legislature was pleased to compliment
with handsome donation of certificate
for ], 2S0 acres of land with the privilege
of locating the same upon any of the
public domain; as one of these veterans
who have, in accord with the terms of
said donation, located their certificates in
good faith on the only part of said do
main which was practically accessible
when said certificates were issued; who,
in compliance with the act granting to
them said certificates, received patents
for their lands thus located
upon; as one who, in good
faith has paid state, county and road tax
on his said land during a period of three
consecutive years of peaceable and undis-
puted ownership; as one of the same vet
Grams, who, these facts Notwithstanding,
have been deprived, without mpensation,
of those same lands by subse-
quent judicial and legislative ac-
ton, which deprivation l am compelled to
regard as a sore grievance; as one of said
veterans who have determined to petition
the honorable Twenty-6rst legislature for
redress of said grievance, respectfully
Grave permission to set forth in as few
words as possible, as reminders, certain
facts as reasons why such redress should
be granted.
Heretofore we have left the entire labor
of asking for redress to Colonel John M.
Swisher, who, as our agent, located said
certificates for US, and whom we re-
warded, as we thought, with one-half
of our said lands. He has performed this
duty as faithfully and as ably as it could be
perfor ned by any man; but, as his larger
| interest in those lands has excited, in some
quarters, an undue jealousy against him,
l, as an owner of but one of the smallest
interests therein, crave your permission to
present some additional reasons for asking
redress, from standpoint diverse from
the one which he occupies.
| If any one or more veterans ever asked
a legislature to make such a donation, l
have never become cognizant of the fact,
and do not believe that any such request
was ever made. My conviction is that the
Seventeenth legislature made this donation
voluntarily, from pure desire to do some
thing for as many, as yet lived, of the men
who had spent their youth, the prime of
their manhood, their inheritance, their
bounties' and their earnings in their
country's service, and that at their own
expense, most of whom had conse-
quently entered the stage of age
and decrepitude in poverty stricken con-
dition, together with the surviving widows
of such veterans who had died.
1 regard this donation as one of the
most magnanimous acts of any legisla-
ture. 1t was an act of gratitude by q
grateful people towards their greatest
benefactors.
Yet, most unnaturally, opposition to
the operations of this act began shortly
after its passage. The question has often
been asked: "What have these old fellows
done to merit such donationW Such a
question! Have the people not read the
history of their own historical state? Dc
they not know that these veterans and
their associates, who now rest in their
graves, Drawing all the dangers of frontier
life redeemed their country from the
domination of savage beasts and more
savage men, if men they may be called,
and rendered it a safe habita-
ton for civilized man? know
that the first settlers of every state
have done this; but these veterans have
done much more. During che revolution,
while more than two-thirds of the Anglo
American men of Texas fled the country,
the veterans-a mere handful of men
voluntarily met the overwhelming army OF
Santa Anna, whose avowed resolve was to
kill or drive out every Anglo-American
man, woman and child in Texas. Every
man in the Alamo died fighting for his
country's rights. None of these lived to
accept the donation. The garrison al
Goliad surrendered, and were coelly muir
dered, only few escaping. OF these, &c
far as / know, only William l.. Hunter
(now dead), N. W. Esstland, billiard Cooper
and John @. Duvsl lived to accept the do
nation. Those OF San Jacinto, the last
hope, defeated the enemy, expelled them
from the land and liberated their country
The refugees then returned home, and
other immigrants followed them in such
numbers that within one short year
the population of Texas had trippled.
Was this allY No. In later years the
men of San Jacinto and the volunteers OF
1886 constituted a large percentage Of
those who defended our frontier against
Mexican invasions and Indian raids. They
constituted fully one-half of the 300 mer
OF Plum creek, who, in 1910, encountered
thousand Comanches who had penetrated
to the very coast, burned the town OF
Lynnville and murdered its inhabitants,a nt
slaughtered 300 of those savages, drove the
rest beyond the frontier, and thus chas'
tised them so severely that they never
made another extensive raid. They con
stituted third of those, who, in 1912, re
PEELED the invasions of Basque and Vol
of the martyrs of the Dawson massacre
and of the Mier prisoners In fact, they
constituted fourth of the defenders o.
Texas in every campaign and battle
against Mexicans and Indians dur
ing her existence as separate
republic. And they were well represented
in the Mexican and Confederate wars. Ii
the latter war three of our noblest gen
erals had fought at San Jacinto. Two Of
/ these were slain in battle.
The results of their services are meal
culable. 1t is enough to say that, having
t virtually made Texas, it was theirs, anc
they had moral right to hold it exclu
sIvely for their own posterity. But the!
did not do 80. They invited and induced
strangers to come and share with then
the country which they had saved. Thes'
responded so numerously as to overwheln
them at the ballot box, and thus have tn
veterans rendered themselves and thei
descendants a numerically insignitican
D fraction of the Texans of to-day. Whethe
: this policy was wise or foolish, selfish o
: charitable, it matters not. This is thei