The Waco evening news. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 1891-1894, 1894-04-23
The GIOrinuS Band Of Men
Who Made Texas.
And Left 1t a Heritage for til: Enjoyment
Of Futur:: Gen. ratiOns

very full synopsis of the speech de.
livered by Hon. Charles Stewart,
but at the request of mum Der of
the veterans the full speech is
printed today. Mr.. Stewart said:
There is no class of citizens who
! 80 much revere as | do the old
Texans-the veterans Of Texas
those who suffered the privations
and hardships incident 10 frontier
life, and who, with malchless cour-
age, led the van OF civilization and
made it possible for US to be here
today. 1t is difficult to estimate
the gratitude we owe them; and |
am sure it gives heasufelt joy to
every one to see so many of them
at this reunion. 1t was my priv
ilege to meet the Texas vetet ans in
the city of Houston one year ago,
and to me it is a matter Of great
pleasure to be with them again, and
to be permitted once more to look
into the faces of those who indeed
are the fathers and mothers of
Texas.
You have not lived in vain, for
though the hand of adversely may
have rested heavily upon many of
you, it was your proud privilege to
lay the foundation of civil liberty
upon which you erected the govern
ment of our Empire state-the
blessings of which are now enjoyed
by not less than three millions of
people. You are fortunate in hav-
ing survived so many of your co.
laborers in your great life work, for
to you is permitted at least partial
view of the fruition of your laborers.
The early settlers of Texas, for the
most part, were from the different
state of the United States and were
a liberty loving people. They had
never known anything but freedom
regulated by law, and had always
been taught to hold dearer than
life those great principles of human
freedom that had been enunciated
by Jefferson in the Declaration of
Independence, and as those safe
guards of civil liberty engrafted in
the federal constitution, as we'll as
in the organic law of the several
states. With such training and
convictions, it is not strange that
these hardy sons of liberty became
restless under the government of
the so called republic of Mexico,
but which in reality was despot.
ism, not of a monarch, but what
was far worse-the despotism of an
ill.regulated, irresponsible and revo-
lutionary government, the despot.
ism of anarchy, and in the Declare
tion of the Independence of Texas,
wherein the causes are set forth
which impelled Texas to separate
from Mexico, among other things,
it is declared that the people of
Texas had settled the country under
the colonization laws, by invitation
from Mexico, under the pledged
faith of written constitution, that
they should continue to enjoy that
constitutional liberty and republican
government, to which they had been
habituated in the land of their birth,
the United States of America, and
when this was denied to them, they
unhesitatingly declared their indie.
pendence and submitted the ques-
ton of freedom and constitutional
government to the arbitrament of
the sword.
Branch T. Archer, the president
of the consultation, in his address to
that body, said: "Let our achieve
ments be such that our mother coun.
try, when she reads the bright page
that records them, shall proudly and
jogfully exclaim, These are my
sons, their heroic deeds mark them
as such"" Grandly, nobly was this
admonition needed, and the page of
history on which is recorded the
leeds of the men of the republic of
Texas will grow brighter and brighter
,s the years go by, for there ia no
other page of history comparable to
t, save the one which records the
heroic deeds of Washington and his
Our revolutionary fathers made a
rand and heroic struggle for free.
Iom, and their sons in Texas, by