The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1889-01-24

| buClI dOoOLlOO Al buo oA
and in paying taxes. Every article, ex-
cepting a pony, that they then bought
cost them three or four times as much as
a similar article now costs. They we're
generally called from home to repel hos
tile raids just as they were ready to lay by
their crOps hence, they but seldom saved
produce for sale. Between campaigns
and necessary farm work they found no
leisure to raise large stocks of cattle,
as men have done in later years;
hence, they were compelled to sell
their lands, then scarcely worth 25 cents
per acre, at great sacrifice, to support
themselves and families and to purchase
campaign outfits, or to pay debts con-
tracted for these purposes. This is why
they have saved little or no land and why
they are now so poor. Hence those large
grants of land were less a gift than their
means of defending and sustaining their
country and government.
Then it seems to be no matter of sur
prise that the Seventeenth legislature, in
a spirit of gratitude, donated to each sur
| vivor of those veterans and to each sur
viving widow of deceased one a compli-
ment of 1,2S0 acres of land in the period
of their age and decrepitude, when most
of them were quite poor and suoh dona-
| ton, for the first time, seemed to promise
to them a substantial reward for their
dangerous and important hard services.
But, unfortunately, this reward came too
late to afford to them substantial help. At
the date of the law the state had already
issued to railroad companies more certiti-
Gates than enough to cover the whole of
her public domain, and, before the veteran
| certificates could be issued and located,
those companies had located all such
lands that were known to exist, outside OF
Greer county, which was then generally
regarded as no part of the state. This
rendered such certificates nearly worth
less, and many of the veterans sold them
at very low prices.
However, about 100 of them, including
myself, entrusted their certificates to
Colonel John M. Swisher, fellow veteran
in whose ability and integrity we then re-
posed, and do yet repose the utmost conf
deuce; to be located in Greer county, stipu
lating by contract that $40 acres of each
individual claim should be patented to
him, as compensation for his labor and ex-
pense in locating, surveying and pro-
curing patents and for investigating
and establishing the right of Texas to the
territory of said county, and that the
other GAO acres should be patented to the
veteran himself. In these contracts the
locator made the most liberal offer of the
kind that have ever known to be made
From the earliest settlement of Austin's
colony the custom had been observed, and
never changed, for the locator to receive
one-ha of the land for locating, survey
ling and procuring patent alone; but
in this instance, he assumed
the additional labor and expense
of searching out evidence of our right tC
to the territory after our state had prac-
tically ceased to urge any claim to it
Moreover, this was the only means offered
by which we could hope to make the do,
nation valuable to us, as the Seventeenth
legislature, which made it, evidently in,
tended it to be.
In making these contracts with US Colo
! mel Swisher did not shop around the vet
erans," as some one has said, but the trans
actions on each side were open, fair anC
square. He has faithfully performed hi
contracted obligations with US, and, il
doing 80, he has exercised devotional
fidelity to the rights and interests of thu
state.
Il When we located our certificates il
Greer county we thought, and yet be
lieve, that the land in Greer county was
reserved public domain, and that thu
veteran land act had repealed the reser
walton thereof, 80 far as it would
have barred us from locating oul
veteran certificates thereon. This wa
evidently what the Seventeenth legislator,
aimed to do when, by this act, it author
} lied US to locate our certificates upon an,
of the public domain, and repealed al
laws and parts of laws in conflict there
with.
But some gentlemen OF the legal pro
fession have discovered that we were mis-
taken, and that in locating our lands il
Greer county We have violated the Con
stitution, and that our highest stat'
officers have perpetrated similar viola
ton by issuing our patents. They hav
impaired this discovery to our courts, ant
thereby procured the annulment of on
patents. Thus, what has been donated t.
Us as greatful benefit has been converted
to a source of disappointment and sorrow
have no doubt that all men, fully .gni
zant of the history of our grievance, ex
cepting those most skilled in explaining
the law by the use of profound technical
ties, have shared our surprise, if not GU
grief.
Far from censuring the motive of on
courts. commend their stern adherence
to what they believe to be their duty a
prescribed by law, for know that wha
they understand to be law must be thei
!, guide, and that they can fall back HpOl
justice only when the Constitution and til
Statutes fail to direct them. But, outside
of the courts, opposition has arisen from
other than constitutional or statutory con
siderations.
Colonel Swisher located for us about on
hundred certificates con halves" whio
+ gave to him about one hundred sections
of land. 1t was objected that this wa
entirely too much land for one man to b
. permitted to own, and demand was sub
mitted to public opinion that the veteran
, patents must be snnulled to relieve hin
of his surplus real estate, his honest &C
+ quisition thereof notwithstanding.
little patience would have convinced tn
DIRECTORS that he would, as soon as prac
, ticable, have cold most of the surplus com
planned of to defray the expenses of hi
= great enterprise.
? There is one amusing feature In on