San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-03-31
SELF PRESERVATION.

to rights or privileges within any
organization or government, as as
serted, they must be interpreted
not to mean any necessity or power
OF self destruction. Thus inter.
preted, the republican party is
faced to no action in carrying out
its declared principles that invol.
YES its own destruction. This Is SO
plain on the face Of it as to need no
Illustration. That the surrender
Of the republican party in
Texas into the hand of the
colored boss Of the state, who with
his command Of money outside
i 9 so well placed to corrupt the
purchasable vote of his race, and
command what he cannot pur-
chase by an appeal to their race
prejudices, that this surrender, is
destroying the republicanism of
the state is capable of positive
demonstration. Therefore, it is a
something that is not necesitated
in the relations that the colored re-
publicans sustain to the party.
The republican party guarantees TO
all its members the right to vote
as they please and to have that
vote counted as cast, whether in the
conventions Of the party or at the
polls. Beyond this guarantee
the republican party does not go.
1t never contemplated the con-
troll of the party by its worst ele.
ments, black or white, nor can it
be interpreted in it's declarations to
mean anything that faces it
towards its own weakening or de-
struction. For many years the
white republicans OF Texas, with
few exceptions, have decried the
waning power Of the party. Its
vote steadily decreased despite the
immense republican immigration
into the state and the increased
leaning Of fhe democrats of the
west to the protective policies of
the republican party, proves that
something is radically wrong with
the control Of the party. What
this something is every thinking
in the state knows. 1t
is the control OF the party by men
who are used as the tools of desin-
ing party managers in the north
ern states. To refuse these men,
and their tools in Texas, any parti-
cipation in the control of the con-
ventions Of the party in this state,
is a necessity, provided it can be
done by no infraction of the politi-
cal rights of any. The right Of the
colored voter to vote as he pleases
and have his vote counted in or
out Of the convention is asserted.
The right to control the conven-
ton is denied, unless he has a ma
jority Of that convention Ivote.
That he cannot muster a one
third vote in a convention Of the
republican party in this state is
absolutely certain. That he casts
twenty percent of the republican
state vote is denied. That he is any
strength to the party is denied.
That he is capable OF running the
republican, party in Texas and
building it up is denied. That he
adds anything to its decency or re-
spectability is denied. That he
furnishes the money for the cam
paigns Of the party is denied. That
the republican vote is largest in the
counties with the greatest colored
votes is denied. That any good
has ever come or ever will come by
the control Of the conventions by
the colored division of the party in
Texas is denied. That it is posi-
BILE for republicanism in Texas to
grow under colored domination is
denied. The inference is therefore
irresistible that the growth Of the
party in this state, under that
great law of self-preservation, de-
mands that the white republicans
take control and keep it.