USA > Texas > Governors who have been, and other public men of Texas > Part 9
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thirties, and as a practitioner and a judge had become thoroughly familiar with Texas law, and besides was learned in the com- mon law.
I hold him in grateful remembrance for the kindness and con- sideration shown me when an inexperienced neophyte I first ap- peared before him. His judgment in Lewis vs. Aylott was af- firmed. Judge Walker, as I recollect, was in a short while ap- pointed to the District Bench in his old district, and retired from the firm of Waul, Walker & Walker, which was formed after the Aylott case had been tried. The firm then became Waul & Walker and so remained for many years. It did an extensive and important practice, deservedly so, because both members were very capable lawyers and men of high character. As I have already said, General Waul died a number of years ago. Mr. Walker still lives in Galveston, but is much impaired in health. Appellees won their case, but their counsel knew they had had a fight.
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CHAPTER XIII.
The election in 1876, when a full state ticket and a legislature was elected, took place, as I recall, on February 15th, and all officials went into office on April 18th, Governor Coke was Gov- ernor and held the position until he resigned early in 1877 to take his seat in the United States Senate.
In either 1876 or 1878, I am not sure which, probably the earlier year, Thomas R. Bonner of Tyler, Smith County, was Speaker of the House.
He was a man of ability, and impressive appearance, and a very accomplished parliamentarian, and elegant gentleman. There was some legislation sought concerning the Texas & Pacific Rail- road and the bill was known as the Texas & Pacific bill. The opposition to it was very strong and the fight over it became very fierce. As I recall, some question of parliamentary law arose, and telegrams were sent to the Hon. James G. Blaine and Hon. John G. Carlisle, two of the greatest parliamentarians then in the United States, to get their opinions, and, as I remember, was sent as one message to both men.
During the parilamentary battle a very amusing incident oc- curred. The minority had adopted a plan of opposition often employed before, and since, of breaking a quorum, by leaving the hall and refusing to attend the sessions of the House. One of the members from Harris County was a well known lawyer by the name of Barziza, who was by his intimate friends and pro- fessional brethren generally addressed as "Bar," a term of affec- tion. He was black-eyed, and black-haired, and of Italian descent, and was bright, energetic, eloquent and interesting. He was, for many years, a law partner of the late Charles Stewart of Houston, which fact avouched him a capable lawyer. He was one of the bolters.
One of the members from Galveston was a very estimable man-a Jew-who had, as an importer of coffee and a banker, acquired a comfortable fortune, and who had the deserved respect of every man who knew him. He was inclined to portliness, and was dignified and inclined to keep out of the limelight. The per- sonality of the two men, Mr. Barziza and Mr. Kopperl, was as dif- ferent as it is possible to imagine.
The one was fiery, impetuous, bold, quick, and ready in speech, with a clear, ringing voice, and with the dramatic quality highly developed, the other slow and hesitant of speech, with no ora- torical gifts, and no self-assertiveness, but apparently timid, and with a voice which had in it no fire or fervor.
The Sergeant-at-Arms was instructed to arrest and bring in the bolting members. When he brought "Bar" in he stood by his chair. The Speaker said: "The gentleman from Harris will take his
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seat." The gentleman from Harris, with his black eyes flashing, and his sturdy figure tense and erect, said in clear, ringing tones: "I decline to be seated until compelled by force." "The Sergeant-at-Arms will seat the gentleman from Harris," the Speaker promtly replied, and the order was obeyed.
The gentleman from Galveston was in the line of "prisoners" right behind "Bar." He stood in the aisle opposite his seat with hands hanging at his back in the exact attitude of a school boy prepared to recite "The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck."
The Speaker said: "The gentleman from Galveston will take his seat." That gentleman had seen "Bar" enact the dramatic role and, to use a slang phrase, "get away with it," so he followed his example. In weak, piping, tremulous tones scarcely audible to all the members, he said: "I decline to be seated unless compelled by force." Quick as a flash, the Speaker said: "If the gentleman from Galveston prefers to stand he can do so," and bringing his gavel down with a ringing stroke, said: "Call the next name, Mr. Clerk," and the gentleman from Galveston was left standing, over- whelmed with embarrassment, and had to quietly sink into his seat without being "compelled by force."
The personality of the two men made the difference in the two cases. What was dramatic and interesting on the part of one, became unimpressive and absurd on the part of the other.
That indefinable and elusive quality, or element, in character called personality is defiant of explanation or analysis, but it has made and unmade the political fortunes of many men.
It is the essential element in what is known as personal popu- larity, and a large factor in eloquence.
It is said that when that great politician-yea more-statesman, William H. Crawford of Georgia was presented to the King of France as Minister from the United States, the King bowed to him twice-an act without precedent, but which was an involuntary tribute to the majestic and compelling personality of the great American.
I have heard or read somewhere that on one occasion a politi- cal rival made a very severe attack on that great orator, Sargeant S. Prentiss. When the attacking speaker had finished, Mr. Pren- tiss did not utter a word, but stepped to the front of the stage or platform, and leaning on his walking cane (he was, I have heard, a cripple) drew himself up to his full height, which was not above medium, shook back his long hair, and looked de- fiantly first at his enemy, then at the great crowd, and stood for a moment before them in perfect silence. Soon a shout went up that sook the building and his enemy was overwhelmed.
If he had spoken in reply the result would not have been sur- prising, because as far as I am capable of judging, though I never saw him, he was the greatest orator the world has ever seen since
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Paul preached on Mars Hill, but to have enthused and swept a crowd off its feet by merely standing in silence before it, was a triumph of the power of personality.
We are told in Holy Writ that when the Master in the garden beyond the brook of Cedron uttered the three simple words: "I am He," the band of officers who had come to take Him "went backward and fell to the ground." His was the awe-inspiring per- sonality of divinity incarnate, and it is of course not meant to even appear to compare any mortal man with Him who was "born in Bethlehem," but the instance illustrates the marvelous power of personality. It confirms the report of the soldiers who had before that gone out to arrest Him, but came back without Him, and when asked for an explanation, said: "Never spake man like this man."
Sanı Houston possessed the attribute of a most impressive per- sonality, combined with the dramatic faculty. Had he chosen the stage as his life vocation, he would have risen to a prominence in the field of the drama equal to that attained by Booth or For- rest. Shortly before his death his beard had been permitted to grow out and he had lost weight. He was sitting one night in the hotel which stood where the Rice Hotel now stands in Houston, his chair leaning back against the wall of the lobby.
A group of young Confederate staff officers standing near were discussing the cases of several men who, like General Houston, were Union men-two or more of whom had been arrested. The officers were in full uniform and the sleeves of their coats were covered with a profusion of "gold braid;" and though not one of them had ever smelled powder, or heard a bullet whistle, they were loud and coarse in their denunciations of "Union men."
At last one of them said: "Yes, and there is that d-d old coward and traitor, Sam Houston. I would like to run my sword through his heart." In an instant the old general's chair came down with a sharp thud on the floor, and he rose to his full and majestic height and placing the forefinger of his left hand over his heart, and pointing the forefinger of his right hand in the face of the dudish officer who had coupled his name with cowardice and treason, said in tones which thrilled and awed: "Here is the heart of Sam Houston, and the man who says it is the heart of a coward or a traitor lies in his teeth, lies like a dog that he is." In the twinkling of an eye the party of traducers van- ished, leaving the old man standing triumphant, the very incar- nation of defiant and towering rage. That "band went backward and fell to the ground." That man never lived who unchallenged, could impeach the courage, or fidelity to conviction, of Sam Houston.
After his vote on the Kansas and Nebraska bill, he went to
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the town of Brenham for the purpose of delivering a speech on the political issues of the day.
He could have gone to no place in Texas where opposition to the policies advocated by him was more intense. When he rose to speak in the courthouse he was, for the first time, refused a quiet hearing by a Texas audience. Derisive shouts and "cat- calls" greeted his appearance on the speaker's stand.
He paused, and bowing in his stately and impressive manner, said: "I beg pardon." His words seemed so irrelevant to the situation that silence fell upon the audience.
Again he bowed and said: "I beg pardon," and the silence became, if possible, more intense.
After a pause, he proceeded: "I beg pardon, I have no right to speak here. I am not a citizen of this county. I own no prop- erty here. I did not contribute by payment of taxes, or otherwise, to buy a brick, or a beam, or a rafter, in this building, and I humbly crave pardon for presuming to attempt to speak under this roof," and again he bowed.
Then stretching his majestic figure to its full height, in a voice that rang out like the notes of a trumpet, he said: "But if there be one man in this presence who desires to hear Sam Houston speak, if he will follow me to yonder sloping hillside, under the shade of yon spreading live oak, on the soil of Texas, I have the right to speak there, for I have watered it with my blood."
After a moment of utter silence, a shout went up that shook the building, and if any man had dared interrupt him from that time, the crowd that a few moments before derided and mocked the old man, would have torn the offender limb from limb.
A great man spoke at the psychological moment, and with a master stroke touched and stirred, and thrilled human hearts, and in a moment transformed a hostile audience into one ready to listen in respectful silence.
There have been many men who loomed large in the public eye and who exercised deserved influence on the public mind, who were in a certain sense always "boys" and who were addressed by thousands of people as "Bill" or "Dick" or "Steve."
Stephen A. Douglas was a great lawyer, a great orator, and a man of magnificent intellectual ability, and was once candidate for President of the United States.
Among his devoted friends was Beverly Tucker, a member of Congress from Virginia. It is said that on one occasion Mr. Doug- las came over from the Senate to the hall of the House and went to the seat of his friend Tucker and sat down on his lap and put his arm around his neck, and said: "'Bev,' old boy, what office do you want when I get to be President?" "Bev" said at once: "None at all, Steve." "Well, what do you want me to do for you?" Bev replied: "I want you to come and sit on my lap and put
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your arms around my neck and say: 'Bev, old boy, I love you.' That's all I want."
There have been, and are other great men who could not pos- sibly be actors in such a scene. It is impossible to imagine any man slapping Robert E. Lee on the back and calling him "Bob." The very idea is inconceivable.
He was courteous, kind, gentle, sympathetic, approachable, and possessed of marvelous grace and charm, but no man would ever have dared attempt any such familiarity with him as was in- dulged in between a great Senator and a Congressman.
I knew him when I was a mere boy at college. His kind and gentle nature was clothed with an indescribable dignity and re- serve which imperatively forbade familarity. His majestic per- sonality, translated into words, appeared to say, "So far and no farther."
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CHAPTER XIV.
I did not recall what counsel represented appellees in the case of Lewis vs. Aylott referred to in a previous chapter until I chanced to see their names in the report. The leading counsel who actually tried the case, Major James M. Burroughs, was a unique character and an able lawyer. Judging by his garb and his manner of speech, he would have been placed as an uneducated backwoodsman, but he was far from it. He was utterly indiffer- ent to style in garments and just as careless in speech. He often said: "seed" and "heerd," but was in fact a man of both educa- tion and brains, besides of comfortable fortune.
As trial lawyer, he was able to take care of his case against any man. He had practiced in the border counties of East Texas, where law books were not abundant, but he was bed-rocked in the fundamentals of law. On one occasion I chanced to meet Colonel Thomas M. Jack on the street after the adjournment of court. We passed the customary salutations and he said: "I am very tired. I have been fighting Jim Burroughs in the court- house all day, and the man who does that will need no rocker on his bed when night comes."
Thomas M. Jack was the most skillful, ingenious, resourceful trial lawyer I ever saw. His accomplishment in that line was only equalled by his fairness and chivalric grace and courtesy. Major Burroughs was a member of Hood's Texas Brigade during the war of 1861-5, and when that is said all men know he was where the fighting was the fiercest, and he worshipped at the bier of the "young and storm-cradled nation that fell," with all the fervor of devotion of the Moslem at Mecca.
He was never "reconstructed," but bewailed to the day of his death the failure of the cause in defense of which he dared death and danger. It may be that my liking for him was somewhat in- fluenced by that fact. Republicanism, or as he termed it, "radi- calism" was to him a term of offense. He treated all the appoint- ees of the party in power with that measure of respect due the stations they occupied, but for being in those stations they were in his eyes "anathema," especially if they were Southern citizens when the war came on.
The Federal Judges appointed by President Grant and other Presidents, and the District Attorneys, were objects of his special dislike. One April night there came up a very severe blow which rose to the dignity of a storm, and it covered with water several blocks of ground the Major owned between Broadway and the beach. I happened to be called out in that direction, and saw the results of the blow, and on my way back met the Major, or perhaps overtook him, when he was taking his usual morning stroll.
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The Federal Court at Brownsville was due to begin the spring term the next Monday, and the, Judge and District Attorney had to go by steamer from Galveston to Point Isabel to get to Browns- ville. The boat had sailed about twelve hours before the storm came. I said to the Major: "That was a pretty stiff blow we had last night, and I see it put a lot of water on your blocks on Center Street." "Yes," he said, "I woke up and heerd that wind a-blowin' and you know what I said to myself? I said 'Old (calling the name of the United States District Judge) and that d-d carpet-bag district attorney started to Brownsville last night in the boat, and if the wind blows the boat and both of 'em to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, I am willing for it to blow all my property away or cover it with water, and I won't complain a bit.'"
He was a rare old character. He has a nephew yet living in the sand hills of Leon County, in a small village, who was like his Uncle a gallant soldier in the ranks of Hood's Texas Brigade. He has retired from active business and professional life on account of his advanced age, but in the days of his professional activity, though he lived for a large part of the time in the woods twenty miles from a railroad, had no superior as a physician and surgeon or as a true thoroughbred gentleman in the ranks of the medical profession in Texas.
My cherished recollections of friends of my early days, which I felt constrained to set down as a tribute justly due them, led me to apparently lose sight of Governor Ireland and drop him ab- ruptly, but I had no such intention.
As was said a few pages back, he had the appearance and the reputation of being a stern, cold, dispassionate kind of a man who was not moved by or responsive to the gentle and tenderer in- fluences which so forcefully affect many men, but who ever judges him to have been so, does him injustice. He was fond of pleasure and congenial companionship, and to be in his company, in his periods of relaxation from the burden of official cares, was a very great pleasure. He was utterly free from affectation or pretense, and was a delightful companion.
I recall that upon one occasion when he had his office on the ground floor of the temporary capitol, I dropped in one evening to pay my respects just before leaving the city for my home. He received me with dignity, but courteously and cordially. I de- clined a proffered chair, but he said: "Oh, sit down. It is rain- ing and blowing and disagreeable outside, and we can be com- fortable here by this open fire. I have nothing to do."
I remained, and I do not recall that I ever spent a more de- lightful half hour. A few days before there had been a very worthy young white woman-a wife and perhaps a mother-as- saulted and murdered by four negroes in, I believe, Anderson County. The crime was chracterized by peculiar, indeed un-
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precedented brutality and atrocity, and the four negro men and a negro woman were quickly hanged by the horrified citizens of the community.
I said to the Governor: "That was quick work on a large scale in Anderson County the other day." "Yes," he said, "It was very bad. As John Ireland, Governor of Texas, I emphatically condemn such action-and as John Ireland, the man, I think they did exactly right." No doubt in these words John Ireland ex- pressed the real feeling of every Governor, North or South, who has red corpuscles in his blood.
John Ireland had one characteristic that more than any other revealed the inner man, and that was his love of little children, which I have heard was with him a passion, and I care not what a man may be apparently, or in fact, if he loves little children and enjoys their companionship, and finds pleasure in caressing them, there is in that man an inextinguishable spark of the divine.
Among the jewels of immortal beauty, which gem so thickly the teachings of the divine and tender Christ, there is none more beautiful than His words: "Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
During one summer while Governor Ireland was serving his last term as Governor, I came to Austin and brought with me my second son, then a little tot about 3 or 4 years old. He was a blonde and his hair hung in ringlets down to his shoulders. His skin was fair and he was becomingly dressed. I met the Gov- ernor on the street and we shook hands, but he at once dismissed me from his thoughts and said: "Kittrell, what a beautiful child," and stooped down and picked the little fellow up and kissed and caressed him and held him as close to his breast as if my boy had been "kindred to his blood." The act was so manifestly spontaneous and sincere, that it revealed what manner of man he was.
He had certain habits that may appear to the "Unco Guid," and rigidly righteous to be wholly inconsistent and irreconcilable. He was the most faithful church attendant I ever saw, yet he under- stood the great American game, and while he did not gamble for money, he enjoyed the diversion of a game for small stakes. I had a friend who represented an East Texas County in which I at one time lived-in the House one or two terms. He told me that on one occasion a party of members, he among the number, were playing a quiet game when Governor (then Judge) Ireland entered the room. All the players began to hide cards and pocket chips, and in every way possible conceal what they had been doing.
The man who told me the story said Judge Ireland walked in with that dignified carriage that he always maintained, and with
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a cloak or cape around his shoulders (I cannot recall that I ever saw him with an overcoat on) and looked like a Roman Senator, and that the crowd were ashamed to have him detect them.
They did not deceive him. He said: "Keep your seats; don't let me disturb you. I know what you are doing. Go on with your game. I did not come in to play, but I will watch you a while," and he stood behind the player who related the story. The re- newed game had not proceeded far when the Judge said: "Bill, you don't know how to play poker. You have been losing your money ever since I have been standing here. Get up and give me your seat, and go out and walk around the block." "Bill" obeyed his directions, and the Judge took his seat. The player who walked around the block said to me: "When I got back the Judge was pulling in the stakes from long taw, and had me out of the hole."
While I do not gamble, and hold gambling to be a very harmful, dangerous habit, yet John Ireland could have done many worse things than sit down and help a friend get back money he couldn't afford to lose.
There were two places to which Judge Ireland rarely failed to go, and they were to church and to the theater. I chanced to be in Austin on one Sunday while he was Governor-indeed was there for several weeks. The particular Sunday to which I have reference was a very cold one. The streets and sidewalks were coated with ice, and the the mercury was unusually low. Looking south from the temporary capitol, as I recall, I saw but one person on the street and that person was the Governor. His cloak was drawn around his shoulders, and he was walking carefully to keep from falling, and was making his way to St. David's Epis- copal Church. Any man who ventured out on such a day to go to church must have felt in his heart a sincere desire to worship.
I have no doubt that there were hundreds, if not thousands of church members in Austin that day who believed a card was a ticket to hell, but who did not go to church to do homage and render thanks to God for His mercies. The Governor of Texas did.
I do not recall that I ever knew a more inveterate theater goer than was Governor Ireland. He rarely missed a performance. He was a man of comfortable fortune and could afford to go. I was told some years ago by a relative of his-a brother lawyer-that Governor Ireland never drew a dollar of his salary while in office, but drew the whole for four years when his last term ended. I do not know such to be the fact, but think probably it was.
He was especially fond of comedies, melodramas, farces, and negro minstrels-any kind of a performance that furnished fun and relaxation. In those days I was very fond of the theater,
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but have attended but one in ten years. I was sitting across the aisle from the Governor one night when some laugh-producing play was on, and when a hit was made which brought down the house, he reached across the aisle and slapped me on the knee as he laughed uproariously, and said : "Kittrell, ain't that great?"
I was instrumental once in bringing about a meeting between Governor Ireland and that accomplished actor, Lawrence Barrett. Mr. Barrett was playing a two-night engagement in Austin-the characters portrayed being Hamlet and Richelieu. I saw the first performance, but have forgotten now, which of the two plays was put on. I went into the Governor's office next morning. I said: "Governor, did you see Mr. Barrett last night?" He said: "Oh, no; I never go to see a tragedy played. I see enough of the pathos and tragedy of life here in this office. What I want is diversion and relaxation." I said: "You will miss a great treat if you fail to see Mr. Barrett and, by the way, he is upstairs in the Senate Chamber, and I have no doubt he would appreciate being permitted to call." The Governor said: "Certainly, I should be delighted to meet him." I had met Mr. Barrett, so I went upstairs and said: "Mr. Barrett, I should like to have the pleasure of presenting you to Governor Ireland." He seemed greatly sur- prised and said: "Oh, I could not think of presuming to intrude myself upon the Governor of Texas." I replied: "My dear sir, it will be neither presumption or intrusion. It will be a pleasure to the Governor, for he has just so said to me." Mr. Barrett was evidently more surprised than ever, but was manifestly gratified at what I had said. He considered it a most unusual honor to be invited to call upon the Governor of a great state, because in the North Governors and other public officials are by no means as accessible to the private citizen as they are in the South. They evidently up there believe more in the adage that "some divinity doth hedge about a king," and are disposed to keep the average man at a distance.
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