TEXAS OATH OF OFFICE
The oath of office in Texas is the same it is in Illinois; and yet it
seems to have little power to save the country from the curses of the
dueling spirit. It would seem that the "code of honor," so called, is
a good deal demoralized in Texas, in comparison with its status in the
older Southern States--if such a thing can be demoralized. It assumes
more the form of open and secret assassination--shooting a man down
behind his back, or in the dark, or on sight, with the simple warning,
"Take care of yourself."
A duelist can not hold office in Texas, but he can defeat a good law
by turning assassin, and committing a crime that eclipses the one
forbidden by the oath of office.
It may be that the criminal reports of Texas can show that a man has
been hung there for killing a man, but it is doubtful. But many a man
has been hung for stealing a horse by "Judge Lynch." The horse thief
is generally disposed of in this summary way without judge or jury;
and even when tried and sentenced by the courts to the penitentiary
the officer having charge of the prisoner for safe delivery there, by
collusion or otherwise, reports him "escaped," by which the knowing
ones understand he is rescued from the officer by a mob and hung to the
nearest tree. _Shame_ on such law and order, even among barbarians. But
such are the issues of life and death in Texas, and a man is a little
nearer death there all the while than in any other country we wot of.
As an example of the jeopardy of human life, and how crime against
society maybe committed with impunity in that country, we will give the
case of a leading business man in one of the cities of Texas, and a
prominent member of a leading religious body (whose name we withhold),
who, some years before the war, had a personal difficulty with a
citizen, who had threatened him with personal violence. He had him
placed under arrest, to be bound over to keep the peace; but when so
arrested, and in the hands of the officer of the law, and at a moment
when he was most harmless, the meek follower of _Him_ who "resisted
not evil," drew a pistol and shot him dead! And would you think it,
to the disgrace and outrage of religious decency, and law and order,
no notice was ever taken of it by either the courts or the church. He
has been an acceptable member of the same religious sect ever since,
worshiped at her altars, taken her sacraments, said her prayers, and
mingled in her fellowships. We have frequently seen him taking part in
religious service, but could never set eyes on his reticent cast-iron
face without seeing the mark of Cain upon him. In the murderous act he
gave the clearest evidence of both physical and moral cowardice, and
hellish revenge.
But after all, why should such a state of things be thought so very
strange, when laymen have the example of the priest. "Like people, like
priest," is true in more senses than one. There is a certain Doctor
of Divinity in Texas who is said to be a man of profound learning and
intellectual refinement, President, before the war, of ---- University,
located at C., and named for a celebrated ecclesiastic. This divine
was considered and admired by many as the leading orator of the State.
He had been imported from the State called the "Mother of Presidents,"
a few years prior to the war, to push forward and build up the
educational interests of the State, and especially of the religious
denomination in which he was a shining light.
But when secession was sprung upon the people he switched off on that,
and became the most violent advocate, perhaps, in all the State, of
the right and of the duty of Secession. He canvassed the State in that
interest. The war opened, he raised a regiment, was made its colonel,
and went to the front. It was not long before reports came back that
the Doctor was drinking, and had been seen intoxicated more than once.
Meanwhile his ambition was struggling for a brigadier-generalship,
which he never reached. Two years passed, and the Confederacy was
meeting heavy reverses in the field; and now the time had come to give
a few more turns to the thumb-screws of conscription, even to the
extent, as General Grant said, of "robbing the cradle and the grave."
The Doctor was just the man to send home from the army to canvass
the State by way of bolstering up a sinking cause, and preparing the
people--what were left of them, the old men and women and babies--for
the new movements of military despotism. We heard the Doctor in a
labored speech of two or three hours' length, in which he attempted
to show that the Confederacy had never been more promising of final
success. That though some appearances were unfavorable, such as the
loss of New Orleans, Vicksburg and the command of the Mississippi
River, and some other _un_important points, yet the spirit of the
Confederacy was unbroken, the armies were withdrawing from all
unimportant places, except Richmond, and concentrating on important
ones, located off the principal thoroughfares of the country, little
towns among the by-ways and hedges, out of harm's way, where the enemy
could not reach them, and where strategic movements could be planned
without molestation from the enemy, and from whence dashing surprises
could be executed upon him without fear of a return of the compliment
with interest. A policy which, the speaker said, was quite the
reverse of that of the Union armies, as they were obliged to scatter
in proportion as the Confederates concentrated, in order to garrison
the points and occupy the country thus vacated. The argument looked
plausible to the green ones, didn't it, reader? It is always easy to
make people believe what they want to believe.