Year: 1874

IN pursuance OF CDe call puDllsheu


in THE HERALD, very large gather


ing of the people of the city and coun-


ty of Dallas assembled in the court


house, on yesterday at eleven o'clock,
to hear Governor ThrockmortOn speak
on the issues now before them.


Other duties prevented our being
there at the opening of his speech, and
we can therefore not give any state
ment of the first fifteen minutes of his
remarks. When we entered he was
engaged in setting forth fully his course
in regard to the internal improve
ments of the state. He showed that
many of the charters of the most ini-
portant railroads of the state were in
troduced into the legislature by
him, and that in all his efforts
to spread railroads over the terri
tory of Texas he was but an humble
follower in the footsteps of Rusll, one
of the greetest minds this country had
ever known, aud of Houston and other
great men, whom all Texas delight to
honor. That if his connection with
the railroad enterprises of the state
could be known to all the people, and
the struggles which he, in common with
other members of the Legislature, ell
dured to secure this great measure,
that in place of the low, mean and con-
temptible falsifying of history that is
now resorted to in some quarters, there
would be the universal acclaim of
"Well done, thou good and faithful
servant"


The governor showed how he had
been the friend of the people in the
matter of the sections of land donated
to the Memphis and FL Paso railroad.
This road was granted by the legisla-
ture sixteen sections of land to the
mile. Within the area covered by this
grant were many settlers, who had To-
Gated there long before a railroad In
that vicinity was ever dreamed of, and
who had no title to the places on which
they had settled. In order to protect
these people from the hardship of being
robbed of these lands, he secured the
adoption of an amendment to the
charter giving these settlers the right
to relocate the lands on which they
were. In connection with this subject
l. =, r,,, 4, n b,,r,t of alonuanca opd in
dignantly hurled the lie into the teeth
of any man who dared to say that he
had ever proved false or recreant to
the people.


In reply to the statement of the
Sherman Courier, that he had only
been democrat since 1869, he referred
to the rolls of all the democratic con-
ventions that had been held both be-
fore and since the war, and said that,
while anything from such source was
unworthy of notice, such a bare-faced
assertion as this did not rise even to
the dignity of being contemplate. He
appealed with just pride to his record
as the standard bearer of the demo-
cratic party in 1866, when, i'm defiance
of threats of arrest, imprisonment and
trial by military commission, he bore
aloft the standard of the party, and
carried it unsullied and uncompro-
missed until stricken down by the hand
of federal power. He paid lowing
tribute to the little band of democrats
in the thirteenth legislature, and said
that through their efforts the people of
Texas had been enabled to regain pos
session of their state government.


The governor said he was present at
Austin in 1870, when the subject of
giving thesubsidy ofS6, 600, 900 to the In
ternational railro u was before the leg
islature, and that he was offered a
large fee to advocate it before the legis-
lature and the people; that while there
was no man in Texas that needed a
fee more than he did, he indig nantly
rejected the proposition because he re-
garded the scheme as an outrage upon
the rights of the people. He was not
at Austin when the question of giving
a subsidy to the Texas and Pacific road
was before the legislature, but he was
written to and consulted about it. He
replied to those consulting him by sug-
costing that the constitution should
be amended SO as to allow the
legislature to donate land in place of
money, that q tax of two or three per
cent on the gross earnings of the road
for thirty years should be laid, and
that the power of the legislature TO