USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 2 > Part 35
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the power and patronage lodged in the hands of Gov. Davis, by the newly elected legislature, composed largely, for the first time in the history of Texas, of men hitherto unknown to the people, with a considerable number of recently enfran- chised negroes, and perhaps one-third of honest and substan- tial citizens.
The Governor was also authorized to declare martial law, at his discretion, to appoint military commissions to try accused persons, and to enforce this power through the military subject to his command. He exercised this power in a number of counties in the State - Marion, Hill, Lime- stone, Walker and others, ordering to Groesbeck, in Lime- stone County, a body of negro troops from Marion county, to enforce his mandates, and white troops to the other counties. He ordered men to be tried by military commission, several of whom were sent to the penitentary. In Hill a tribute of $3,000.00 was levied on a farmer by the adjutant-general, Davidson, who afterward fled the State with $40,000 of State funds. The State police, with some honorable exceptions, became a terror wherever they were located, murdering numerous citizens at their will, and, deterring some of the best citizens of the country from sleeping in their own homes, for fear of assassination at night. This condition of affairs speedily united the great mass of the people, in a bond of union, and caused newly arrived immigrants from the north and the west to assimilate with the people of Texas.
It is but another illustration of the evils and extremes grow- ing out of civil wars. Every intelligent person surviving that period, realizes the fact that the unholy assassination of President Lincoln so inflamed the northern mind that, for a time, the south could get no voice in that quarter. Yet, in truth, no southern man of ordinary intelligence failed to com- prehend the fact that the murder of President Lincoln was an overwhelming calamity to the south, for it was universally believed that with their surrender and return home, he would
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so shape the policy of the government as to shield them from proscription, persecution and wrong. In regard to Gov. Davis and his acts it may be said, that while he was a man of strong personal predelictions and animosities, he was unflinching in the prosecution of measures deemed by him to be necessary to enforce the authority of the United States, and that he believed (or so claimed) severe measures were necessary to protect the enfranchised negroes, in their newly acquired political rights. He was never believed to be guilty of personal dishonesty, and that he was a man of good private character, and gentlemanly deportment as a citizen has never been denied by those who knew him. But most of his advisors were men wholly unworthy of being such in such a crisis. He forfeited the friendship of some of the most able and honest men of his party.
CHAPTER XLIII.
TAX-PAYERS' CONVENTION IN 1871.
Some persons may incline to the belief that the preceding arraignment of the Davis administration may have been in- duced by prejudice, but it is strictly based on published official acts and laws. The evidence otherwise is conclusive on that point. The Tax-payers' Convention was held at Austin, on the 22d, 23d and 25th of September, 1871, in response to a call issued August 5th, signed by ex-Governor Pease, George Hancock, J. H. Robinson, Senator Morgan C. Hamilton, Dr. R. N. Lane, all well-known Union men, and many others without distinction of party. Ninety-four counties of the State were represented. Governor Pease was unanimously elected president. Among the delegates were ex-Governors A. J. Hamilton ( Union man ) and James W. Throckmorton and John Ireland. It was emphatically a non-partisan convention. Governor Throckmorton offered the following resolution, which was adopted :
Resolved, That a committee of seven be appointed to con- fer with his Excellency, E. J. Davis, upon the subject of the reduction of the expenditures of the State government, and to invite his co-operation in securing that object; and that the same committee be authorized to confer also with any com- mittee which the Honorable Legislature [then in session] may appoint for a like purpose, and that such action on the part of the legislature be most respectfully invited.
A committee of twenty-one, with Governor Hamilton as chairman, was appointed to consider and report business for the convention ; also a committee of six on statistics, of which
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Columbus Upton of Bexar was chairman, and Senator M C. Hamilton of Travis, Clement R. Johns of Travis, George B. Erath of McLennan, M. C. McLemore of Galveston, and D. M. Prendergast of Limestone, were members.
On the 25th (Sunday having intervened ) the committees made two reports to the convention, which were adopted by that body, and from those reports the following extracts are made :
" The committee appointed to take into consideration and report the several violations of the State and Federal consti- tutions, and other flagrant violations of law by the present administration of the State government, beg leave to submit the following report :
The violations of constitutions and disregard of law have been very frequent and are very numerous; but, frequent as they have been and numerous as they are, we have been unable to find a single one, of either class, based on an honest desire to accomplish good to the people of the State, or to secure prosperity to the country. On the contrary, their apparent cause seems uniformly to spring from one grand purpose, viz. : to concentrate power in the hands of one man, and to emasculate the strength of the citizens of Texas as a free people.
However hopeless such a design might have appeared, and however little feared by the reasoning and intelligent mind eighteen months ago, yet at this day, we must confess, the scheme has far progressed toward consummation, and the people stand stripped of many of the inalienable rights of freemen, while he who is now clothed with these lost rights of the people, gloats on their humiliation and congratulates himself on the possession of kingly power.
We may safely state that the practical effect of each of the acts we shall name has been, and is now, to abridge the rights of the citizen, and to enlarge, solidify and confirm the power of the Executive.
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And, 1. Duly elected and qualified members of the legis- lature, in both houses, have been expelled or denied seats, to give place to persons who were not elected by a majority of voters, and who were not in law entitled to seats. (Case of Alford in the Senate. Case of Plato in the House, et al. )
2. At a time when measures of grave importance of them- selves, and of vital interest to all the people were under dis- cussion in the Senate and not matured, the majority in the State Senate, arbitrarily and without authority of law, placed nearly all the minority under arrest and deprived them of a voice in behalf of the people, and so held them in arrest and silent until the militia law, the police bill, the enabling act, the registration act, and the election law were passed, and until nominations for judicial and other important officers were approved of ; all of which measures go to the oppression of the people; and many of the officers confirmed were un- qualified as to capacity, corrupt as to morals, and entirely unfit for high position in any State.
3. A multitude of new offices have been created, and of- ficers appointed to fill them, without the consent and against the will of the people.
4. Important and useful legislation to the country has been postponed and delayed at great expense, until odious and oppressive laws were fastened upon the people.
5. Without authority of law, and in violation of the consti- tution, the term of office of the present members of the leg- islature has been extended one year. They were elected on the 30th day of November and 1st, 2d and 3d days of Decem- ber, 1869; and now, under an act passed and construed by themselves, claim to hold until a general election in the year 1872, notwithstanding Sec. 4, Art. 3 of the constitution [i. e., for two years].
6. The Executive has omitted and failed to order elections to fill vacancies in the legislature, caused by death or other- wise, within the time prescribed by law, and has thus, for
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many months, denied representation to large bodies of the people, although they were taxed, and have been forced to perform militia duty. (Sec. 19, Art. 3, Constitution; Sec. 11, p. 130, Laws of 1870. )
7. The present State administration bases its authority on the claimed results of the general election held on the 30th of November and 1st, 2d and 3d days of December, 1869, and yet has omitted and refused to order and provide for a gen- eral election until the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 1872 ; thus throwing the second general election nearly three years from the first. (Sec. 4, Art. 3, Constitu- tion ; Laws of 1870, p. 129, Sec. 7.)
8. The State of Texas is practically left without a legisla- ture from December, 1871, until November, 1872, and that, too, while the Executive is clothed with despotic power.
9. Newspapers have been established in the several judi- cial districts of the State to bolster up the present despotism, and to familiarize the people with Executive usurpation, and, through forced patronage, to gain great profit, and thereby help to impoverish the citizens. (Laws of 1870, p. 74.)
10. The courts of the State are effectually closed against the approach of the citizen, and prohibited from extending relief for an existing wrong -in this, that though the judges of election may willfully and corruptly refuse to permit a qualified elector to vote, yet the courts are forbidden to ยท compel such officers to do their duty, or refrain from the commission of a wrong by injunction, mandamus, or other- wise. (Laws of 1870, p. 132, Sec. 22 ; Constitution, Sec. 11, Art. 1.)
11. An election law has been passed, and is now enforced, which breaks down in practical effect all the safeguards of the ballot, and places in the hands of those who receive and count the votes, the unrestrained power to defeat the will of the electors, and to substitute their own instead ; it authorizes those who have the handling of the votes, on one pretext and
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another, to cast out large proportions of the votes and to an- nounce partial and untrue results ; it, by the non-identification of tickets voted, prevents fair and full investigation in cases of contested elections ; it requires electors to travel long dis- tances, to undergo heavy expenses, and to consume much time needlessly to exercise the right of suffrage, thus compelling the citizen to forego the exercise of the elective franchise, or else to submit to exactions, oppressions and wrongs to person and property. (Laws of 1870, p. 130, et seq. )
12. The enabling act places great power in the hands of the Executive, in palpable violation of the Constitution, in that it authorizes him to appoint various important officers who are charged with responsible duties, who under the Constitution are elective by the people, and to remove others, who are alone removable by due course of law. (Laws of 1870, pp. 17, 18 ; Constitution, Sec. 12, Art 5. )
13. The terms of the Police Bill constitute of themselves an authorized violation of nearly every private right of the citizen. The police force is chosen by the Executive, and placed under his command without restriction or responsibility ; it is always ready for action, with arms in hand, having for its duties the part of spies, informers and detectives, circulating through the whole community. The very vocation of such a force renders them odious to the people, and unprincipled of themselves ; they are dangerous as hirelings to the reputation and lives of the people. The practical workings of this force, raised un- der the pretense of securing peace and quiet, and to arrest violators of the law, has demonstrated, beyond doubt, that it is a body of armed men, massed to overawe the citizen and to give an active arm to the Executive, to uphold and sustain him in his usurpations and exercise of the unlawful power con- centrated in him. Its work has been a succession of wrongs, mingled with blood ; its continuance is death to every private right, and in innumerable instances, to life itself. (Laws of 1870, p. 19.)
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14. Large amounts of money have been subjected and appro- priated to the use of the Executive, obtainable on requisition, and, on the sale of State bonds, to be held and used by him without any of the restrictions and safeguards which the laws require of all others who handle public moneys. (Laws 1870. )
15. Under the authority of the Militia Law, now in force, and being daily executed, the Executive is vested with unlimited power. He may organize a standing army in a time of profound peace ; in the face of heavy pains and penalties, the citizen is required to perform military duty, and to form part of such standing army. A. State Guard is provided for, the men and officers of which are chosen and selected by the Ex- ecutive, thus creating a special organization of great strength,
composed of the pets, favorites and tools of the Governor, whose interest is to maintain him in his unsurpations, and to enforce his orders, whatever they may be. This is an armed body of men, who may be thrown into any city or county of the State, and there with rapidity and unscrupulousness, execute any order the Executive may give. He is clothed with the power to declare martial law on the most paltry pretexts. He may, to all intents and purposes, suspend the writ of habeas corpus when there is no rebellion, no invasion, and when the public safety does not require it. With martial law declared, and the writ of habeas corpus practically suspended, the Executive becomes Dictator in Texas, and his will the sole guide to his action, he may take property or life, and be responsible to no tribunal of justice in the State, so long as he remains Governor under existing laws. (Laws 1870, p. 11; Constitution, Sec. X, XVII, Art. 1.)
It might possibly be said, that though such unlimited power is with the Executive, yet that all the probabilities are that he will not call it into exercise ; but already, under the arbi- trary power conferred, he declared martial law in the county of Hill, and through machinery rapidly extemporized, gathered by the hands of his adjutant-general, large sums of money
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from citizens, while under duress, and without a judgment of any court of competent jurisdiction; and under the same arbitrary power, martial law was declared in Walker County, and then, under like machinery, gathered large sums of money from the people, and, in addition thereto, incarcerated a freeman of the State of Texas in the penitentiary; and all this in a time of profound peace, when there was no rebellion, no invasion, when the public safety was not threatened, and when the civil officers in the respective counties were fully able to execute all process, and to arrest all violators of the law. And again in the county of Bastrop, martial law was time and again threatened, and held in terrorum over the peo- ple thereof, with intent to force the grand jury of said county to indict, by false indictments, the good people thereof, and thus forge a reputation for that people, of being a lawless and criminal people.
These things have grown into history, and are now recog- nized as authentic occurrences of the times.
16. The Executive is now enforcing the execution of a repealed law, and thereby greatly increasing the taxes de- manded of the people, and gaining the possession and control of enormous sums of money, the distribution whereof is subject to his will, in connection with those about him, who hold position by his appointment, and whose terms of office depend on his pleasure.
I. - 1. The act entitled " An act to organize and maintain a system of public free schools in the State of Texas," (laws of 1871, p. 59,) was presented to the Governor for his approval 12th April, 1871. (Senate Journal, p. 748.)
2. In absence of approval the bill so presented would become a law in five days, if not returned. (Constitution, Sec. 25, general provisions. )
3. The bill so presented was not approved, nor was it vetoed ; so on the 17th April, 1871, it became a law.
4. The fifth section of said act provides that " The direct-
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ors of each school district shall have the authority to levy a tax not exceeding one per cent, for the purpose of building school-houses and maintaining schools in their respective districts."
II. - 1. The act entitled " An act to give effect to the several provisions of the Constitution concerning taxes," (laws 1871, p. 51,) was presented to the Governor for his ap- proval on the 20th day of April, 1871. (Senate journal, p. 847.)
2. Said bill was approved on the 22d April, and from that day became a law, five days after the act first named became a law under section 25 of the Constitution, before cited.
3. The 8th section of the last act named provides that " A direct ad valorem tax, for the year 1871, of one-fourth the amount of the direct ad valorem State tax, on all real property situate, and all personal property owned in each school district in this State- shall be levied and collected " to provide the necessary school-houses in each district, and insure the education of all the scholastic inhabitants of the several districts."
4. The 22d section of the act repeals all laws and parts of laws in conflict therewith, " except such as authorize special county taxes and other special taxes."
5. Section 5 of the first law and section 8 of the last law are in conflict, or, at least, the one supplies the other, both being intended to raise a fund by taxation for one and the same indentical purpose.
6. The repealing clause repeals section 5 of the act first named, and thereby reduced taxation for school-house pur- poses from one per cent, to one-eighth of one per cent.
. But, notwithstanding the record shows the foregoing facts, yet the Governor appended his approval to the law first named on the 24th day of April, 1871 - seven days after it had be- come a law - and thus, of his own will, sought to change the dates of laws, and to give them force and effect, in a reversed
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manner, and by his signature to revive a law which had been repealed.
This repealed law is now being enforced, and under its pro- visions a tax of seven-eighths of one per cent. on all the prop- erty in the State of Texas, real and personal, sought to be collected.
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17. The people have been disarmed throughout the State, notwithstanding their constitutional right " to keep and bear arms." (Constitution, Sec. 13, Art. 1. Laws 1871, p. 25.)
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The police and State Guards are armed, and lord it over the land, while the citizen dare not, under heavy pains and penalties, bear arms to defend himself, unless he has reason- able grounds for fearing an unlawful attack on his person, and that such grounds of attack shall be immediate and pressing. The citizen is at the mercy of the policeman and the men of the State Guard, and that too when these bodies of men embrace in them the most lawless and abandoned men in the State, many of whom are adventurers - strangers to the soil - dis- charged or pardoned criminals, forgetful of law - unrestrained by the customs of society, and without interest in or ties to the State.
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18. The Election Order, under the operation of which the near approaching election will beholden, is a monstrosity, and could only emanate from a mind deliberately determined to insult and humiliate the people to the last extreme, on the one hand, while on the other, it willfully orders the violation of the constitution, by the agents who are to carry said order into execution. It forbids the assembling of the people on the days of election; it prohibits free speech ; it forbids the free and lawful movement of the citizen in person ; it forbids the citizen the right to advocate the election of the candidate of his choice ; it authorizes the judges of election to close the polls on the merest pretexts ; it subjects the citizen's motives and purposes to the judgment of policemen; it authorizes policemen to disperse bodies of citizens without warrant of
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law, and when they have been guilty of no violation of law ; it subjects the citizen to arrest and detention while in attend- ance at an election, when he has not been guilty of treason, felony, or breach of the peace ; it is ordered to be executed as a criminal law of the State when it has not a single feature of a law ; it is the unlawful will of the Executive, enforced by him through the power of an armed police upon an unarmed people; it is the will of a despot and the act of a tyrant overriding the supreme law of the land. (Sec. 2, Art. 3, Constitution. )
19. By orders executed through his armed bodies of police, the Executive has taken control of peaceable assemblies of the people, called together for peaceful and lawful purposes, and there suppressed free speech, under threats of arrest, and subjection to punishment as criminals. (Galveston case.)
20. The Executive has deliberately disregarded the solemn judgment of the District Court, and ordered his policemen to contemn the court, and by force, with arms in their hands, to defy the court, and to execute his will in a question of law where the court had decided the case and entered its judgment of record. (Brownville case. )
21. For the purpose and with the intent to retain the power they now hold, and to avoid having the free will of the people expressed in the enactment of laws, the Executive and others in authority contemplate (and are now actively engaged to accomplish their object ) so apportioning representation in the legislature as that only the voice of a small proportion of the people shall be heard. It is proposed to give some localities much larger representation than the population thereof law- fully authorizes, and to take from other localities representa- tion to which their population entitles them. It is purposed to ignore local representation and to make large areas of ter- ritory representative districts, to the end that the sentiment of the population of a few localities may control the voice of the State in the enactment of laws. (Bill in both Houses. )
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While, sir, we have not specified all the acts of the present administration enfracting the Constitution, in violation of law, and in willful disregard of the rights of the people, nor en- tered minutely into the features of those named, yet we think we have shown enough to call upon all men for the most seri- ous reflection, and to show the tendencies of the present administration of the State Government.
Without enlarging, we may say that the power which in Republican government is supposed to rest in the people, is fast departing from the people of Texas and concentrating itself in the hands of one man -the Executive. That the people of this State no longer govern themselves, but are governed by E. J. Davis, as completely as if there were no Constitutions, State or Federal. While in form we have a Republican government, in substance and in fact we have a despotism, which constantly becomes more and more absolute, and will certainly end in unqualified enslavement of the people, unless some check is interposed.
We find that the appropriations made by the legislature of 1870 for the ordinary expenses of the State government for the fiscal year, from the 1st of September, 1870, to the Ist of September, 1871, was $756,383.
The entire appropriations of that legislature, for all pur- poses except the subsidy to the International Railroad, amounted to the sum of $1,632,270.50. The appropriations of the legislature that met in the early part of this year (1871), for the ordinary expenses of the government for the fiscal year, beginning on the 1st of September, 1871, and ending on the 31st of August, 1872, were $1,072,662 ; for schools for same years $504,500; for deficiencies for fiscal year, ending 31st August, 1871, $364,743.45 ; for all other purposes, except subsidies to railroads, $178,699.83, making the entire appropriations by that legislature, exclusive of subsidies to railroads, $2,120,605.28.
It will be recollected that the legislature of 1870 also voted
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a subsidy of $10,000 a mile to the International Railroad, which will impose upon our people a debt of at least $8,000,- 000, if the company complies with the terms of the law ; and the legislature of 1871 granted an additional subsidy of $6,000,000 to the Trans-Continental and Southern Pacific Railroads.
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