Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-10
AN APPEAL TO GOV. OATES,

To Hon. W. c. Oates, Govern or;
 SIR: 1 am not obliged to ask any mans leave to consider the wants of my country or to enlist in it's service unless l shall make vain parade of the endeavor.
 l am we'll convinced both by my own in- qures and such tests of truths as have been able to apply, and by the judgment of better and wiser men than l, that there has been gross aud deliberate violation Of the constitution of this commonwealth and the rights of this people by sworn om- cers and com missioned representatives or the people. Sir, no citizen Is so humble that he must remain dumb when the fair fame of his country calls to all for redress of the outrage forced upon ner.
 When you so lately throw away the scab- bard; when you in great concourses of the people hanging upon your words pledged your honor that victory for you meant free government, constitutional rights and set- tied principles of justice for this people, you did but ask for the opportunity certain to come to the governor ready to do his duty. The people are scorned at the foot of corporate power; the people are perse. cuted and derided. Do you doubt that they remember your pledges, or that they expect you to accept the evidences of their oppression?
 Sir, your excellency is face to face with a most hazardous public exigency An event in legislation has come to your door and knocks there, the very spectre of dead lib- erty if you admit it. Honest men detest it and brave men defy it. Here, l presume. all men agree that you are of that stamp or public official who may be relied upon to follow no rule of conduct save the dictates upon the facts before you. You would be wearied were this letter Reclamation nn- founded on argument or bare assertion barren of truth.
 Thus 1 come to your excellency in a serious state of mind, assuring you that the iniquitous bill before you, known as the "alien railroad bill,p is a measure creating profound anxiety and well-in- formed distrust in the minds of the good people of this great city. It is true that there is unanimous belief here that the governor alone stands between us and a great public calamity. The constitution of our state provides the power in the chief executive to rescue us and, as we believe, the whole people from this shameless scandal.
 Brought as we are against our will to the consideration of this strange and des . perate measure we are constrained to ask your excellency to recall the remarkable environment of the legislature pending it's passage. The Iobbies, the hotels, the streets were alive with strange faces from points near and points remote from the capital. Never before was a scene like it witnessed in Alabama. Does your excel- lency suspect the sources of the favors and the hard cash which men of small conse- quence in ordinary matters and of con firmed impecuniosity in every day life have been able to command and to display openly these few weeks past about the cap ital? Sir, you will find established head quarters whence these special favors and this sudden hard cash are nursed for use and dispensed with no pars simo onious hand {.
 This nhappy and disgraceful situation demands from you the exercise of your solemn and sworn duty to interpose, to the end that Alabama shall suffer no detri- ment from coordinate function of gov- ernment lost to her honor. Return, we pray you, this scar dalous bill to the house, where it originated without your approval, and receive the praises of more than 1G0 ,000 appreciative voters.
 Your constitutional prerogative IS to ap- prove or veto bills sent to you from bona tide legislation. Your constitutional pre- rogative of approval is limited to bona fide legislation. You as governor have as much right to cause the seal of the sover- eign state to be affixed to evidence of 6 horse trade at Court square as to evidence of a railroad trade by any parties thereto whatsoever. Venal legislation is void un : der the broad rule of government that al- legiance to law and protection by law are reciprocal in public policy.
 JOHN W. DUBosE.