The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1890-05-08
CHIEF JUSTICE STANTON
IN A VERY LENGTHY OPINION DIS
SENTs IN THE FAMOUS VAL
VERDE SUIT.
His Construction of the Constitutional
Provision Setting Apart Public Do
main for School Fund.

val Nerue case IT,, II. " .. A. ny. 20. vs.
The State) was overruled in the supreme
court on Friday morning the 2nd inst, and
Stayton Q. j. diSsented i'll lengthy opin-
ion of which the following is a synopsis:
The magnitude OF the interests involved
and the broad divergence OF opinion held
by the members of the court furnish my
reasons for stating what consider the true
constructions of those parts of the consti-
tuition on which the decision must rest
for constituting constitution or any other
law the object sought is the true intent of
the law maker, which must be ascertained
from the language III which the law is
written, and IN considering this it is always
important to keep II view the object the
law maker intended to accomplish through
its enactment. The people of our State
have again and again declared the impor-
lance of education to their welfare, and
their language used in laws looking to
that end ought not to be lightly
weighed. The Father of the Republic
before Texas became a separate nation
atty declared the want of public system
of education one of the evils of Mexican
rule, and the same men in the constitution
then made declared that 1T shall be the
duty of congress as soon as circumstances
will permit to provide by law general sys-
tenn of education" When it surrendered
its nationality and entered the union it
preserved the fund now in question and in
used in the first section of the article in our
present constitution, on which the decision
of this case rests. In 1854 the system O
granting aid through alternate sections of
land began and when the people met again
in constitutional convention they repeated
the declarations of earlier constitutions on
this subject. The period of ''reconstruc-
| ton" came, and the constitution of 1869 was
adopted declaring (sec. g. what funds, land
| and other property should constitute pub
| lie school funds. Legislation from jan
uary 26, 1889, till the adoption of the pres
| ent constitution manifested the same deep
interest in the cause of public free school
education, and in view OF the persistent and
unfalterihg purpose not shown for any
other objects must be read the language
| found in the present constitution. On the
| Interpretation of sec. 2 rests the right of
parties, and we look to the language used
remembering that the intent to be ascer.
tanned is that of the people who ratified
the constitution. The sole inquiry is what
lands did the Language used appropriate to
and make part of the perpetual or per-
manent school fund? Does the section (2)
make an appropriation of the several
sources ofrevenue named in it? A fund
is said TO be appropriated when it
is reserved or destined by law
for particular named purpose
or cause. The declaration that the specified
u
school fund.- of itself leaves no doubt upon
the question and as if to place
it beyond controversy, there follows
the declaration that mo aw shall
ever be enacted apprOpriating any part of
the permanent or available school fund to
any other purpose whatever" No more
ant words could have been used to declare
an appropriation than are used in Sec. 3,
and 5, Art. 7 of the constitution. From
the moment the constitution became the
law, April IL, 1875, the appropriation took
effect and was binding on the people, and
every department of the government. We
now come to the question, are Secs. 2. and
5 of Art. self executing? for some respects
the appropriation made by the constitution
depended on contingency, in that itrested
on the will OF the legislature, but it does
not follow from this that it is not self exc
cutting. The instance before us is one in
which the people exercised their own
power, in so far as it was deemed expedi-
ent to firmly and broadly lay the founda-
ton and furnish the means to erect, through
details to be provided by the legisla-
ture, a structure to last for ages. Such
provisions in constitution are self exc
cutting, necessarily, in so far as they deter
nine and fix the fund with which public
schools are to be maintained, for they de-
prive every department of the government
of all power to diminish or divert it,
The sections OF the constitution bearing
on question here presented are not advisory
in character, but they declare right give
its measure the subj -ct matter to which il
attaches and assert 1t to be perpetual, and
where this state of facts is found to exist, the
law, which brings it into existence is nee
essarily self executing. 1t is proper how
ever, TO look to every provision of the con-
StltutlOn having even remote bearing to
assist us in our search for truth and right.
The language of sec. Is which n axes, as all
concede all absolute appropriation of land
for the university, is not more imperative,
and does not more clearly evidence an in
tent that it shall be self executing, than
d. Secs. 2, 4, and o, of the same article. in
so far as they make or recognize an appro-
priation.
In the one case as the other, the lands
are declared to be "set apart The appro-
priation for the university, even with the
declaration that the land appropriated
should be designated, was less certain than
as the appropriation of "one-half the pub
lie domain of the State" and the language
of section l6 cannot retain the proposition
that the one provision was self executing
and the other not. That the people, through
Sec. 2, Art. of the constitution, made
some appropriations absolutely to the pub
lie free school fund neither party denies,
and the vital question is, what did they
then appropriate? Each clause of
ton complete within itself when
considered with its necessary ~connec-
tons and by either contributing an ag-
gregate which the people have declared shall
constitute perpetual permanent fund.
Looked to as an entirety this seems too
clear to justify the construction, if separ-
ated into its parts the same conclu-
sions must be reached unless we DENY to
word their most bvious and usual meaning.
Applying the rules of construction that
have usually teen used under like circum-
stances to the declaration that zone halt of
the public domain of the State shall con-
stitute part of perpetual school fund"
and no other intent can be drawn
from them than that the people
intended absolutely to appropriate one
half of unappropriated public domain to
the school fund. The proposition that the
words lone half of the public domain
are not to be given their ordinary mean
ing does violence to every canon of con-
struction, for there is no word in the en-
tire section which shows the slightest in
tention to limit the meaning of these words
to less than one of two equal parts of the
whole unappropriated otherwise than by
the constitution. To make these words
mean some residue of the public domain
existing at some time after the adoption of
the constitution, when part had been
granted away is to make mean something
not Impressed by every word used in the APP.