Capitol Dedication Ceremony
17 MAY 1888. Austin Daily Statesman.
THE DEDICATION. Magnificent and Imposing Military Pageant.
A Brilliant and Ever to be Remembered Spectacle, Witnessed by Thousands.
Doings on the Grounds Yesterday, and Programme for TodayâDrill Notes and Important Pointers for Various Committees.
Yesterday was a day of jubilation and rejoicing.
Never in the history of the city, never in the history of the state, was there another such a day.
The city was crowded with visitors. From center to circumference it was literally jammed.
It was Dedication Day. It was a day of jubilee, and people from all parts of the state, people from other states, and from the sister republic were here to participate in and do honor to the occasion.
The programme for the day was announced to commence at 8:30 in the morning, and long before that hour men and women and children began to appear on the streets in scattered groups and strolling parties tending toward the new capitol building.
At 7 oâclock there was a very material increase in the number, and at 8 oâclock there was a steady stream of people pouring into the Avenue from all directions.
Whence they came nobody knew. They were there and they were there bent on seeing and enjoying all that was to be seen and to be enjoyed.
At the new capitol people crowded into the spacious structure, and every window on the south side was soon surrounded by eager sight-seers. Men climbed out of the windows and perched themselves on the projection which extends around the second story of the building. All the available space inside of the building, from which a glimpse could be had of the grounds was quickly occupied.
Immediately in front of the capitol a vast crowd assembled, while the hillsides vast and west of the grounds were thronged with vehicles of every conceivable size and shape, and all were filled with people eager to witness the brilliant and imposing military pageant and the consecration of the new capitol.
In the main entrance, and under the beautiful and towering triumphal arch which spans it, seats were arranged for the governor and distinguished military and their guests, while immediately in front of the vestibule a large platform was erected, on which the Grand Lodge of Masons were to perform their ceremonies. From the main entrance of the capitol, looking south down the broad Avenue, the scene beggared description. Hundreds, yea, verily, thousands of flags and streamers hoisted in the air, and beneath them, as far as the eye could reach, was a surging mass of humanity. There was a solid phalanx of moving [âŚ] opening looking out upon the Avenue was filled with people.
They were everywhere. They were as thick as hops or blackbirds in spring time. Gracious! whence did they come? As said they were from everywhere. Old men and young men. Old women and young women to the manor born, were in the Capital City for the first time, and they were from every nook and corner of the state.
Bless you, who knows? There were scores of estimates and none fell under 8,000, on the grounds, in the capitol building and on the hillsides.
Mind you, the estimates did not include the vast aggregated conglomeration on the Avenue and in the buildings facing on it.
All in all, experts and knowing ones positively assert that 20,000 pairs of eyes at one and the same time were gazing at the soldiers and the new capitol.
THE STATESMAN believes the estimate about correct.
At about 9 oâclock the military left the drill grounds and marched up First street to the Avenue in the following order:
Mounted police under command of Marshal Lucy.
Col. C. H. Smith, commanding Nineteenth U.S. Infantry.
Nineteenth Infantry Band.
Three companies Nineteenth United States Infantry.
Battery of U. S. Artillery under command of Major Burbanks.
Four companies Third United States cavalry, under Major Young.
Pettyâs Galveston Band.
Adjutant-General King and staff.
Brigadier-General Stoddard, commander of the encampment, and staff.
Montgomery (Ala.) True Blues.
Jacksonville (Ill.) Juvenile Band.
At Seventh street the Masonic Grand Commandery and the Grand Lodge of Masons of Texas filed into the Avenue, escorted by Colorado Commandery No. 4, of Austin, and proceeded up the Avenue, followed by the military procession.
As the procession moved up the Avenue under the thousands of waving banners the scene was magnificent and one never to be forgotten. It was grand, and every heart thrilled with joy as the gorgeous pageant with bands of music, flourish of trumpets, beat of drum and blast of bugle marched by.
At the entrance of the capitol grounds Governor Ross, Gen. D. S. Stanley, United States army commander of the military department of Texas, and General Henrico Mexia a distinguished military officer of the army of Mexico, reviewed the procession, and made a circuit of the capitol grounds.
At the entrance to the grounds the Masonâ left the procession and proceeded to the stand prepared for them in front of the main entrance to the building.
On the platform and in the vestibule of the capitol the Texas Veteran association occupied seats. Many of them showed evidences of being profoundly impressed with what was transpiring around them. In the long ago when struggling for liberty they never dreamed of witnessing such a scene. What stupendous changes have occurred within the memory of the old veterans, and yesterday as the brilliant pageant and the throngs of happy, prosperous people moved before them, what memories were recalledâwhat a contrast between now and the days when they were suffering and enduring to establish the independence of the states. The old veterans felt it. They also felt, as they gazed out upon the beautiful daughters of Texas and the vigorous, gallant citizen soldiers and the intelligent manhood of the state, that they had left the fruits of their labor in good hands, and that the liberties of the people will be preserved forever.
The glorious scene witnessed in this city yesterday can be witnessed in no other country on earth.
The regular soldiers of the great republic, representative of its mighty power, the citizen soldiers and the citizens mingling together on a grand, peaceful, festal occasion, is not seen outside of free America.
The military display was inspiring, and impressed upon the hearts of all that the United States, while mighty in peace, can be mighty and powerful in war. We hear a great deal of the military power of other governments, but we rarely stop to think that, if Uncle Sam gets his back up, he can marshal as great if not greater army of the best soldiers in the world, within sixty days, as any of them.
At 11 oâclock Governor Ross and his distinguished guests drew up to the main entrance of the capitol. Hon. T. S. Maxey, Hon. John Hancock, Dr. R. M. Swearingen, Major Geo. W. Littlefield, Ike T. Pryor, esq., Gen. W. R. Hamby and Hon. A. P. Wooldridge met them and escorted them to their seats.
On the right of the governor sat Hon. O. M. Roberts, Senator, Temple Houston and the judges of the supreme court. On his left were General Mexis, General Stanley and Hon. A. W. Terrell.
In addition to them, the following distinguished gentlemen occupied seats of honor; General Santos Benavides, representing the governor of Nuevo Leon, Mexico; Hon. Frank Gonzales, Mexican consul at Galveston; Doctor Ornales, Mexican consul at San Antonio; Colonel Richardo Villaneuva, of the Engineer corps; Lieutenant-colonel Emiliano Corolla, special staff officer, and Major Manuel Rivera, of the Engineer corps, all distinguished officers of the Mexican army.
After all were seated Governor Ross rose and opened the ceremonies by saying: âWhen I see such a vast concourse of people around me called together for the noble purpose of dedicating this mighty and beautiful structure, my heart swells with pride and I feel like turning and offering my profound gratitude to the author of all good. It is meet and proper to do so, and I take pleasure in introducing to you this grand old Texas patriot, Rev. J. C. Wootan, chaplain of the Texas Veteran association, who will offer prayer.
Dr. Wootan then offered an impressive prayer.
Hon. A. W. Terrell. Was then introduced by Governor Ross and he spoke as following:
We rejoice that we are permitted this day in midst of peace to dedicate the capitol of a free people. You who belong to Texas as need no welcome here, for this capitol is yours; but to you who have [âŚ] beyond our borders. I say in the name of Texas, welcome! thrice welcome to the capitol! The ground on which you stand is historic. More than fifty years ago Mirabeau B. Lamar, weary from chasing the buffalo, drew his bridle rein on this hill, and looked westward to the mountains of the Colorado, and then to that stream which here breaks from its mountain gorge and glides through fruitful valleys to the gulf. His prophetic ear heard the hum of a triumphant civilization that would soon people all the land, and he then proclaimed to his ranger escort that this should be the seat of empire. One year afterward, as president of the republic, he appointed commissioners to select a permanent seat of government and advised its establishment here.
It was a strange destiny that directed hither the footsteps of the soldier pioneer. Around him, far as vision could extend, nature reposed in beauty, and invited by her charms the men who claimed dominion. Here they came and erected a rude statehouse for the republic. Through a stormy revolution its walls echoed to the eloquence of Houston and of Rusk, of Van Zandt, of Mayfield and of Potter, and from its front door on Februaryâ 19, 1816, was proclaimed the treaty of annexation. Old men still remember the joyous throng, who, on that bright morning, listened to the proclamation of the marriage bans. Never in all the march of time did the sun shine on bolder men than those who gave Texas to freedom and civilization. They numbered but twenty-five thousandâtheir enemies were eight millions, and no ocean rolled between. Yet, with one hand they crushed the pride of Mexico at San Jacinto, and, while beating back the savage foe with the other, they established here their capitol on the hunting grounds of the Comanche.
Whenever a people cease to reverence the names of those who gave them both land and freedom, they become unworthy of both. If the achievements of Washington and his comrades are remembered at each recurrence of a federal jubilee, surely the names of Houston and of Rusk, of Austin, and Burleson, of Antonio Navarro, and their companions should not be forgotten when Texas dedicates a capitol in the midst of a land made illustrious by their valor, and preserved by their statesmanship. Let the bickerings which often separated them in life fade from memory above their graves. It was my good fortune to know most of them, and look where you may their like will not again be found. They left the abodes of plenty, where greatness was already being measured by cash, and sought in the wilderness and on the plains for room in which to establish the boundaries of a new empire. Laying deep the foundation of their laws in the great principles of Magna Carta, they yet knew that parchment bands, alone could not preserve the freedom of a state, and so they engrafted a Magna Charta, another right under which patriotism becomes the outgrowth of home. When they shielded the homestead by protecting lass against the world they knew that freedom could not long survive the peonage of poverty, and that the citizen never moves with alacrity to repel an invader unless he owns some interest in the invaded land. How wisely they built is now manifest unto all men. The homestead laws which Texas contributed to the civilization of the century now protect the helpless in every state. The greed for financial power in the great marts of trade, where capitalized credit and trust combinations dwarf individualism, finds here a guard over two hundred thousand men, who own the homes in which they dwell, and who protect civil liberty by enforcing equal laws.
Whatever you now behold that is admirable in the policy of this favored state, had its origin in the wisdom of the men who created Texas. With them our system of public education began, and the refusal of Mexico to educate was given prominence in their declaration of independence as one of the causes for revolution. No exclusive patronage of common schools dwarfed their love for man. They knew that could only be preserved by statesmanship; that statesmanship reposed as knowledge, and so they demanded the establishment of a free university, in which the born thinkers of every age, whether rich or poor, could be equipped for leadership. On yonder hill stands the University which they demanded.
The grand leaders of the Texas revolution were all from the old south. Nurtured on her bosom, from her they drew the inspiration that made them great.
âA king once said of palace struck down,
âTailor he looks in death;â
The words that he spoke are as true as then,
For âits after death that we measure men.â
Sam Houston learned both of peace and war from the lips of Andrew Jackson. From the hour when Houstonâthen almost a beardless boyâled the volunteers under Jacksonâs eye over the Indian breastworks at the battle of Horse Shoe, they were bosom friends. Rusk was educated by John O. Calhoun, and Lamar was the protege of General Troupe, of Georgia. From the old south they learned not only their lessons of self-reliance, but a lofty faith that the American white man was born to tread this continent without a poor. During ten years of war they defended the cause of the republic, refusing the protectorate of both England and France, and when they had won recognition as a sovereign people, they voluntarily added their star to the federal galaxy. Not as a victim of conquest, but from choice, Texas became a part of the old south. That old south is still dear to her, and no son of Texas, to the manner born, whose heart does not beat faster when he remembers the grandeur of her men and the virtue of her women. Let others bow with blind adoration before the physical achievements of this ânew south,â we reverence the memory, and will teach our children the untold virtues of the âold.â
But this new south is ours, for we ourselves have made it, even from the depths of territorial vassalage into which we were remanded by defeat. This new south is ours, and we know its value; but we know also the unsolved problems that threaten it. How they will all be solved we know not, but this much we do know, that the broken chain that fell from the limbs of the African slave, will not be riveted either by anarchy or by the combinations of corporate power on the necks of American white men here in the new south, until Texas shall have received, if need be, the baptism of another San Jacinto. This stately edifice typifies in its strength and fair proportions the unity of a mighty state. On its lofty dome you behold the statue of liberty holding up in her hand a single star to blaze amid its sister constellations, fit emblem of the aspirations, the grandeur and unity of Texas. It rose above the massacre at Goliad to typify redemption. Its luster is for all the land from Red River to the Rio Grande, and from New Mexico to the gulf, and for a people who will preserve this state one and indivisible forever. The faith of the federal government is solemnly pledged by treaty never to carve from the body of Texas a single state without her consent; and let parties and politicians scheme and barter as they may, that consent will never be given. If I could now utter one word of admonition to every man in Texas it would be this: Watch the disappointed office-seeker, whose only hope for preferment is in the division of Texas, for the unity of this state will be of more value to you and your posterity than can be the success of any federal party now or hereafter.
The mighty chieftains of the old republic are no more, but we rejoice that we can bow to-day before the aged remnant of the heroic band who followed them to victory. Here are those who, at the storming of Bexar, at the Grass fight at Plumb creek and at San Jacinto, drove back the invader, and who, with Jack Hayee and Bell Ban McCulloch and Walker, made the name of Texas Ranger renowned. You once stood as conquerors on the broad land, and it was yours to parcel out among yourselves as William did England among his barons at Hastings, but you reserved it for homeless men and the education of children, and rejoiced in your ability to give. Not the Black Prince at Crecy, nor Dick Dowling at Sabine Pass, conquered over greater odds than you. The heart bows with reverence before this battle now remnant of a race that is almost gone, and rejoices that you are here.
Around you are the survivors of another revolution who have heard from your lips how you delivered Santa Anna still red from the massacre of the Alamo, at the feet of Houston, who with princely magnanimity restored him to a hostile republic. Thus, taught by you, the uses both of victory and defeat, we know how to respect men on both sides who died for their convictions, and we now look down with lofty scorn on the camp following vultures, who, after twentyâthree years of peace, are still preaching over the graves of our dead the religion of sectional hate.
Let it be proclaimed this day from the capitol which we dedicate to Liberty, regulated by law, that nowhere in all this world are the true man who wore the blue more welcome than here.
See them come with implements of husbandry, and self-sustaining manhood, and they will find thousands of their comrades already here, who will tell them of a hospitable welcome; that rejoice in a restored union, in its teeming population and its marvelous progress, and are ashamed only when it bestows its blessings with partial hand, or prostitutes its power to deepen the chasm between wealth and poverty. Locked arm in arm, the true men of the north and south stand here to-day, listening to the music of a restored union, and are disloyal only to those who forget that a written constitution is its only covenant. But this temple, which we dedicate to the freedom of man and the majesty of law, stands in full view of the graves of Ben McCulloch, Bill Scurry and of Albert Sidney Johnston. Never did crusader, battling for the sepulcher of Christ, fall with purer faith in the justness of his cause than they, and when Texas loyalty can be shown only by apologizing for its convictions, it will not be worth the price, for loyalty will have lost its virtue.
We bid you welcome, thrice welcome, to this imposing capitol of our state. Whenever, in all time, a son of Texas shall behold its vast proportions, pride will come around him like a mantle and crystalize devotion to his state. He will remember that he also is a Texan, and will be proud of his state, proud of her heroic past, her vast domain, her great resources, her fruitful fields, as a glorious promise of a prosperous future.
We envy no state. We hate no people. No matter from whence you hail, if you but maintain the dignity of man, we clasp you in the arms of a universal brotherhood, and bid you welcome.
Colonel Abner Taylor was then introduced and presented the building to the state in the following neat and appropriate address:
When I received notice that I was expected to say something on this occasion it was with an intimation that if I desired I could select some one to speak for me.
After assuming the responsibility of building this magnificent edifice, and now that it is complete (so far as to be accepted by the state), I desire to say that I have selected a proper representative for me, and that representative is the one to whom I shall leave my speech.
This one I have selected with great confidence, and he will do me and my associates justice. I have listened to my distinguished friend from Travis with great pleasure, and expect to listen with equal pleasure to my friend from the great and far northwest portion of the state. The one who speaks for me to-day will live and be remembered long after their voices are [âŚ] and   I am forgotten. He will speak when you and I have passed away to be known among men no more forever. When year after year, when generation upon generation and century after century have rolled by and been forgotten, the one who speaks for me to-day will still be remembered. He needs no introduction. There stands my friend and orator (pointing to the building, which caused great and prolonged cheers.) That magnificent and grand building must and does speak for me. Nothing I can say can add to that monument, as everlasting as the hills themselves, which speaks for itself.
It is not only in keeping with the prestige of this grand state, whose destiny has been entrusted to your care, and whose freedom was planted with the richest blood that ever flowed from patriots veins.
No one will dare to prophesy what the future of this great state will be. [Applausse.]
I desire in this public manner to express my thanks and the thanks of my associates to the state officials who have been connected with the erection of this magnificent building, for the kindness and courtesy extended to me and my associates. There are always difficulties incident to great enterprises, but all have been fortunately adjusted to the satisfaction of all parties concerned. They have been adjusted in this case satisfactory, and I believe in every instance the state always got the advantage. [Laughter.] But I donât complain, for we have acquired a large interest in the state on the other side. Now the time has come when this magnificent structure must pass from my handsâthis building with which I have been so closely associated for the past six years, I now turn over to you, governor, for the people of the whole state of Texas. But, in a curing this connection, most sacred one, I am glad to know we have obtained, and shall retain, a larger interest in it than you or any association of the same number of members, and we expect to contribute, and will gladly contribute still more, to have it properly taken care. [Great applause.]
In the name of my associates and myself, I desire to tender to you, governor, and the other officers of the state, this magnificent building, and I ask you to accept it and care for it as its merits demand, and may you and I see that it stands as a monument of pride to the people of this grand state. [Applause.]
Governor Ross then introduced Hon. Temple Houston, who delivered the following brilliant address, receiving the new capitol.
SPEECH OF HON. TEMPLE HOUSTON.
The greatest of states commissions me to say that she accepts this building, and henceforth it shall be the habitation of her government. When the title to the noblest edifice upon this hemisphere thus passes from the builder to Texas, reason ordains a brief reference to the deeds and times that eventuate in this occasion. Texas has changed the site of her government oftener than any other state in this union, or any nation on this side of the globe. Prior to the transfer to this building the site of government of Texas has been changed eleven times; to-wit: San Felipe, Washington, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco, Columbia, Houston, Austin, Washington a second time, Houston a second time, and Austin again, having been the successive seats of government of Texas. The state which to-day enters this building, stands:
sixth in population, and seventh in taxable wealth among the sisterhood of states that comprise the American Union. And when the tribes are numbered in 1890, she will stand third in population and fourth in wealth, and sit peerless even amid the proudest. She has a history all her own, wild, romantic, heroic. Minstrelâs lay never told of deeds more daring than her sous have wrought, nor over in castle hall hath harp of bard hymned praise of purer faith than that her legends bear. Child of storms, the nursing of revolutions, the twilight of her history made her soil the battlefield of freedom, her children the crusaders of liberty. Situated at a remote angle of the gulf, midway between the Aztec empire and the valley of the Mississippi, she for a while felt neither that spirit of Spanish conquest which laid in the dust at a blow the throne of Montezuma and the empire of the Incas nor that gentle spirit of colonization which marked the footsteps of France and Britain upon this continent. But this
In 1522, shortly after the conquest of Mexico, the royal standard of Spain was unfurled upon Texas soil. DeNarvez and his glittering cavalry swept from the Rio Grande to Mobile. He paused not in his path. In vain might fairest valley smile or noblest landscape woo him but to stay; gold alone was deemed worth the Spaniardâs while, and in this fierce quest he pillaged all the isles of the ocean and the two continents from California to the Patagonia. However, if the occupancy of the Pueblo of Isleta by Coronada in 1540 may be regarded as permanent, Texas was the first state of the American union to be settled, and within her borders began that process of change that has transformed our country form a wilderness into an empire. But Spanish ascendancy remained inactive until excited by jealousy of French encroachments. On January 1, 1685, Le Sieor Robert Cavaleir De La Salle, under commission from Louis XIV, landed upon Matagorda bay. The object of the French was to establish colonies at the month of the Mississippi. The piercing mind of La Salle saw that from the great lakes the trend of the watershed indicated the presence of
in the center of this continent, drained by the mightiest of rivers, and he knew that this valley was the seat of empire. He knew that the measureless current on whose clam grandeur De Soto gazed, was the same which Marquette saw, and De Soto, like Columbus, died in pathetic ignorance of the extent of his discovery. How sad that so knightly an one should sink to sleep in the bosom of that great stream which he had perished to find, and know not whence came nor whither went the dark waters that over him rolled.
Winds and currents swept LaSalle westward and he saw Texas where the gulf in vexed magnificence breaks upon Matagorda peninsula. The Frenchmanâs colonial scheme was futile.  Dissensions among his followers, want of support from the home government, hostile and intractable Indians [âŚ] fate he did not quail. Upon the banks of that great and mysterious river be would find the faithful De Tonti, and from him he would get the aid which the ocean failed to bear him and which he had lighted might not expire. Toward the upper Mississippi and the great lakes, he therefore bent his steps. He crossed the Lavaca, the Colorado, the Bernard, Brazos, San Jacinto, Trinity and Neches. In the bottoms of the later stream the cavalier was assassinated by his own followers. With him fell the last hope of French dominion in Texas. He, like the cavalier that he was, gave his life to his king and his God. Never crusaderâs cross blazed on a braver breast, and in knightliest tourney there rode no nobler spirit. In all the chivalry that shone around the throne of Louis, there flashed no fairer soul than him whose murdered form sleeps in the unknown wilds of the Neches forests, but his life and efforts were not without their results.
At colonization roused the activity and jealousy of Spain. Grasping and ruthless as she was, Spain ever set religionâs seal upon her conquests, and as soon as she had quenched the last spark of French settlement within the borders of Texas, she began the establishment of missions, resulting in the erection of about twenty Institutions, dotting the valleys of the San Antonio, the Neuces and the Guadalupe, also, at Nacogdoches and on the San Saba. The noble order of the church, the Franciscan Fathers, reared their missions. Those fathers, half priest, half knight, and all courage lend a mingled air of piety and romance to the annals of Castilian conquest. In those missions showed both the censer and the sword, the mitre and the helm, for those pious fathers in the spread of their masterâs faith, dared the wilderness, but whosoever opposed their path felt the thrust of lance or the stroke of sword.
Nor did their name or deeds belle the martial name of their loveliest missionsâSan Juan de Espals. Within the portals of those missions might dwell saintliest abbot and holiest nun, but from their walls frowned Hisponiaâs artillery, and at matins and vespers floated the melody of her bugles.
For more than 100 years, from the destruction of LaSalle colony until the stars and stripes rose above the Crescent city, upon the purchase of Louisiana, these missions were the seats of Spanish power and the centers around which settlement clustered. Standing desolate, yet beautiful, grand even in ruins, these old missions appeal to us with an eloquence beyond all words. They are the landmarks of a vanishing era, the boundary stones of a receding empire. They are the monuments of the mistaken zeal of a powerful and pious order.
The extension of the limits of United States to the Sabine river caused the concentration of Spanish military forces upon that stream.
THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE PURCHASE
of Louisiana and the settlement of Texas by Stephen F. Austin is filled with turbulent events, but not sufficiently important in results to admit of extended mention here.
The same year which witnessed the final liberation of Mexico from her 300 years of Spanish rule, beheld the inception of the plan which resulted in the freedom of Texas, the colonization by Stephen F. Austin. The interval of fifteen years between the arrival of Austin and the independence of Texas is filled with events to which such brilliant and exhaustive reference has been made by that scholarly jurist, orator and statesman, who has preceded me, that any allusion from me would but mar the delightful memory that must linger of words that fell like pearls from lips so sage. But I will avert to one feature of that period. On March 1, 1836, the convention of the then province of Texas assembled at Washington on the Brazos. On the second day of its existence, that convention formulated a âDeclaration of Texas Independence,â which in literary merit challenges comparison with the finest productions of our language. That same body of men in fourteen days prepared the constitution of the Republic of Texas which remained for nine years, without a suggested amendment, the organic law of Texas.
IT SHOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN
that this constitution was framed amid an overwhelming invasion, that participation in the proceedings of that convention was threatened death, and that those who drafted that constitution laid down their pens to grasp the sword; that it was indeed born amid the clash of arms and rocked in the cradle of war. The beneficence and perfection of its provisions, the rapidity with which it was prepared and the reverence with which it was obeyed, make the constitution of 1836 one of the evidences that the Anglo-Saxon race is capable of self-government. The men who devised that constitution were the apostles from Runnymede, they were the disciples of Jefferson, they were the evangelists of liberty, for, wherever that race breathes, on land or sea, oppression ceases instantly.
The principles which they proclaimed at Washington on the 2d of March, 1836, they, fifty days later, at San Jacinto sealed with their blood.
between the Latin and the Teuton. It had been fought between the armies of Arminius and Varus. It had been battled when the Almada was dispersed, and at Trafalgar and Waterloo, and fate had decreed that the Anglo-Saxon should triumph, for wheresoever on the face of the earth this knight errant of liberty plants his foot victory has greeted him and Christianity has been his companion. [Great applause.] When the last hour pealed, its sounds rang from a spot where the Republic of Texas died, where the state of Texas was born. On yonder hill where that clock chimes each fleeting hour, once stood and historic buildingâwhich now only lives in the memory of a venerated few. In a log building on that hill, the pioneer legislators framed the constitution of 1845, under which Texas was admitted into the union. When the seat of government was located here in 1839, this point was beyond the extreme outposts of the frontier. But the sublimity of the scenery, the majestic beauty of the spot, marked it as the place ordained by fate as the capital of Texas, and such shall it ever remain. [Applause.]
are indebted to United States Senator Charles B. Parwall and his brother, John V. Parwell  of  [âŚ] of Chicago, and Colonel Abner Taylor for not only for best state house in the United States but  especially [âŚ] notice, by agreeing to build the house for the 3,000,000 acres set aside for that purpose. It will be recollected that these lands were offered for sale at 50 cents an acre, without attracting purchasers, while the building has cost nearly three times 50 cents an acre, and is really worth more than five times that amount, if we are to measure its value by the cash cost of similar buildings in other states.
The state and the Farwell syndicate are to be congratulated on such a result as demonstrating, beyond the power of successful criticism, the wisdom of a contract which made it possible. The state, because she has realized for these lands much more than she could have done under her land laws for their sale and got them under tax, and at the same time secured the use of this noble building for all time, which probably would never have been built in any other way. The syndicate, because they have obtained 3,000,000 acres of the best land in Texas, and will in due time cover them with prosperous farmers and increase their wealth of the state by hundreds of millions of dollars, instead of leaving them for the free use of foreign cattle companies whose earnings would not have remained in the state.
EVERY TRUE AND HONEST TEXAN
must rejoice that the Farwells have found a way to turn over previously useless land into such a state monument as we are this day dedicating, and that they must from self-interestâif from no other motiveâcover these lands with farmers as soon as railroads have opened them up. From every point of view, therefore, I say emphatically, as a true friend of Texas, whatever may have been thought by critics, that we have but did better than any of us thought, and the Farwells are justly entitled to our thanks, and this celebration by this vast concourse of our citizens is the best expression of our feeling toward the men who have made it possible. This magnificent building will speak for their skill thousands of years after we have ceased to speak. And when the state, in its citizens, shall realize a value in these lands, improved and settled up, of $10 to $75 per acre, no one will say that the Farwells were not entitled to every dollar they will make as a just reward for benefits received by the state.
In 1852, by the sale of her title to New Mexico, Texas occupied the capitol which was destroyed by fire in 1881.
by that old structure. Its halls knew so much of the grief and glory of Texas, so much of her splendor and her sorrow, and so often saw her destinies alternately flit between triumph and ruin. Within the walls of that old capitol, whose buried foundations rest yonder, the government of Texas was administered for twenty-eight years. Beneath its roof were assembled thirteen legislatures and four constitutional conventions. There were framed the constitutions of 1861, of 1866, of 1869 and of 1886, the organic law under which we now live, and containing the provision for the erection of the capitol in exchange for 3,000,000 acres of the public domain. Within those walls, since wasted by fire, passed much over which the historian of Texas must ponder. It was there that the fair fruits of annexation withered beneath the simoon breath of war. Here, too, in frantic haste was consummated the act which shattered the golden links welded by sixteen years of union, and hurled Texas into the vortex of secession. And after
had wrecked itself against the might of the union, that same old capitol on whose ruins many of this multitude stand, saw reconstruction plait its crown of thorns around the weary brow of Texas and press the sponge of bitterness to her lips. Yet that same old building saw the departed acepture return to Judah when the Fourteenth legislature calmly grasped the reins of power and submitted the constitution under which we live. In the adoption of that constitution, you, the people, decreed the erection of the building which you to-day accept and dedicate to your use. It decrees the eternal union of Texas. Hereafter let no man seek to put asunder that which the fathers united. Let the fiends who wait upon the lost hiss their hate and shriek their curses in the ear of him who would plot the dismemberment of Texas. To day is an era in our history. The survivors of the early struggles who view this building realize that all which they did was not in vain. Texas stands
PEERLESS AMID THE MIGHTY,
and her brow is crowned with bewildering magnificence! This building fires the heart and excites reflections in the minds of all. It stands alone the haughtiest type of modern civilization.
In other lands the hand of man hath reared walls as stately as these and pierced the sky in prouder heights. The architecture of a civilization is its most enduring feature, and by this structure shall Texas transmit herself to posterity, for here science has done her utmost. The quarry has given its granite and marble, and the mines have yielded their brass and iron, and an empire has been passed as an equivalent for this house. All that enlightenment and art could do has been done. Were I to repress the reflections that occur to me now, I would be untrue to my convictions and to this occasion. It would seem that here glitters a structure that shall stand as
to gaze upon passing ages, and, surviving, shall mourn as each separate star expires. Were we to feel thus, precedent would justify us. Those who builded the Pyramids thought Egyptian empire eternal; those who reared the Coliseum boasted that it was a pledge that Rome was everlasting. More solemn lessons are taught at our own doors. Great races have swept oâer this continent like waves oâer the bosom of the deep, and left traces almost as faint. Who reared the Pyramids of Uxmal, the palaces of Palenque, the mausoleums of Malta? The splendors of towered Tuloom. What is the date, the origin, the fate, of those mysterious civilizations that have vanished forever in the forests of Mexico and Central America, and that flee from the searcher like those illusive lights that flash and fade above the silent tomb? They were our predecessors. Shall oblivion fling her darkening pall over us? Ah! we are but one of that vast procession of races which it was decreed should pass across his hemisphere. We have no right to say that our own is the first or the last of those civilizations whose [âŚ] perpetuity it differs from any of its predecessors. If the lessons of the past have not been taught in vain, they tell us that the future holds in hand an hour when the carious antiquarian shall wander through
amid the shattered arches and fallen columns of all this imperial magnificence, and ask when were these walls rearedâwas this edifice, palace or prison, tomb or temple? Does it seem impossible? Balbecâs marble columns are as proud as these, yet who chiseled them? Who carved the hieroglyphics that plead for interpretation from the sculptured walls of Palenque? The past hath a fearful lesson of the instability of earthly greatness. Men dwelt upon the earth thousands of years are they ascertained its shape. They shed seas of blood before they learned that a drop of it circulated. They proudly claim an existence of 6,000 years, yet their annals do not include half of it. They cannot explain their diversity in language or the secret of their existence. The destruction of public virtue caused the decline of other civilizations, but does our civilization carry with it the means of its perpetration? Under certain conditions it may. It possesses characteristics that mark none of its predecessors and particularly can this be said of the State of Texas.
THE CIVILIZATION OF TEXAS,
of which this proud capitol is one of the voices that shall speak to after ages, is beneficent. The form of our government is the creation of an expressed wish of the people whom it affects. The officers are elected and are the servants not rulers of the people. We have no obligatory form of worship, our rights of free speech have no limitation; before our laws all men are equal; our government is a subject of criticism, not of hideous dread. Our armies and fleets are for the protection, not oppression, of the people. Our institutions enjoin an education of the masses, and assume that the government is not the heritage of one man, but the property of the people. Texas says to whomsoever casts his home within her benignant realms, she tenders his off-spring an education without money and without price. This education is given to whatever child that abides within her border.
may shame its origin, or what reproach clouds its birth. Texas pledges 35,000,000 fair acres and 12½ per cent of her taxable values, amounting to millions, that every child that asks it at her generous hands shall receive a free education. The first government of the earth to enact the homestead exemption in favor of the family, she stands pre-eminent in her beneficence to the helpless. Within sight of this structure are the grand charities which Texas bestows upon the blind, the deaf and dumb and the insane; she also has remembered the orphan, and her statutes provide for the indigent. All these would indicate a perpetuity of public virtue. This noble edifice is a fit seat for such a government. It and the features of our civilization are all we can leave our posterity, and, even should they prove unworthy of our bequest, we can at least pass from lifeâs stage with the proud reflection that we leave behind us a purer civilization and a nobler edifice than has been bequeathed to us by preceding ages.
The Grand Lodge of Masons, with Grand Master Anson Rainey presiding, then dedicated the building according to the ancient rites of Masonry. The following are the grand officers who assisted: T. U. Lubbock, grand commander; Dr. N. J. Thomson, eminent commander of the Brenham Commandery No. 15; J. P. Rucker, eminent commander of the Colorado Commandery.
This closed the ceremonies, which passed off smoothly, pleasantly and satisfactorily to all.
The following is a description of the building, and visitors should take a copy of it home with them:
For the past few years much has been written both in the local press and the press of the country in regard to the state house of Texas, the plans, specifications and perspective drawing for which were the creation of an able designing architect, combined with the intelligent co-operation of public servants of practical sagacity, and the construction of which requires on the part of the builders and supervisors special technical knowledge of a high order. It is somewhat difficult to present such a full description of this colossal structure as will be readily under stood by the general reader, for, the truth is, it is well worth a trip to Austin, even from a distance, to visit and examine this granite house of state. In order, however, that the stranger may have some conception of its grandeur and magnitude, an outline is here submitted.
In coming up Congress avenue from the Union depot, the stranger will notice, directly at the head of this broad and stately street, some eight squares distant, situated on a beautiful hill, originally selected for the capitol of the Republic of Texas, a monumental red granite building, running at right angles with Congress avenue, its third floor line being 115 feet above the Union depot, and the center of its main front entrance facing south, being on a line with the center of Congress avenue, which runs north and south. A short walk up Congress avenue, which is to Austin exactly what Pennsylvania avenue is to Washington city, brings the stranger upon Capitol Hill, where he can view the largest red granite building in the world, examine its magnificent proportions, and see the wondrous beauty of its interior finish.
To erect this magnificent structure required the services of over 1,000 men daily for over four years, and a great part of this time work progressed night and day. The granite used in the construction of the building was a gift to the state from Hon. W. H. Westfall and Sam Lacy, of Burnet, and Col. A. L. Norton, of Austin, owners of the Burnet granite quarry. There are 4,000 carloads of granite in the building. In addition to this there are 11,000 carloads of limestone, iron and other material, making 15,000 carloads of material used in the construction of the building.
The building cost the contractor within a few thousand dollars of $4,000,000, and had the granite been purchased, and had not some 400 or 500 convicts been used at a nominal hire, its construction would have cost over $7,000,000. The contractors and experts say it cannot be duplicated anywhere in the United States for less than from $7,000,000 to $10,000,000, Texas [âŚ] on the Doric, or, as it has been termed, a new Greek style of architecture. In form it approximates the Greek cross, with projecting center and flanks, having a rotunda and dome at the intersection of the main corridors. From east to west it is 562 feet long; from north to south 287 feet broad, and the height to the apex of the dome is 311 feet. The area of the building covers two and one-fourth acres.
The granite of the exterior of the first story is in large blocks, lying lengthwise with the large window jams standing up-right, all being rough rock face work, showing the native richness of the material, while all the margins, including the window sills and their bases, are smoothly dressed, and the cornices are an imposing variety of smoothly dressed and rock face work. The exterior of the second, third and fourth stories have also considerable rock face work appropriately distributed, including the bases of the pilasters, the imposts, mullions and window jams, but the stately feature of these upper stories is the numerous tall, clear cut and smoothly dressed granite pilasters that extend the full length of these stories, there being 176 of them around the building.
The basement is 11 feet 6 inches in height, the first story 22 feet 1½ inches, the second story 20 feet 10½ inches, third story 20 feet, and fourth story 19 feet in height.
The height to the first colonnade, or promenade, around the exterior of the dome, above the roof is 126 feet; to the second colonnade above is 162 feet, and to the colonnade around the lantern of the dome is 217 feet, while the base of the bronze statue of the Goddess of Liberty, that surmounts the lantern is 285 feet, the height of the status being 19 feet, and to the
TOP OF THE LARGE SILVER STAR
emblematic of the Lone Star of Texas, which is secured above the statue, is 311 feet above the earth line of the building, which, including the elevation of Capitol hill above the city, places this star at a height of 376 feet, when viewed from the business portion of Congress avenue.
In the basement there are sixty-three rooms, to be nicely finished, and which will be used for storage of records and other purposes. The first floor is set apart for all the executive offices of the state government; the second floor for the legislative, and the third for the judicial departments; while in the fourth or central story there are a large number of handsomely finished rooms not set aside for any special purpose.
The entire building is lighted by gas and electricity and heated throughout by steam from a boiler house, erected a short distance to the east of the capitol grounds and connected by a tunnel with the main building, through which the steam pipes pass. Passenger and freight elevators of the most approved style are provided for in the building, and every improved appliance and convenience used in any other complete modern public structure will be found in the new state house of Texas.
The distinctive feature of the main front entrance, facing south, is the triumphal arch that spans this entrance at a height of seventy-two feet, underneath which, in the vestibule of the first floor, supporting a granite balcony, stand two magnificent columns, their bases and shafts being of polished granite, with bands and caps of polished black and white marble. In striking contrast with this ornate entrance is the massive granite portico that dignifies the entrance on the opposite or north side of the building, facing University hill. The supports of the first story of this portico are large, rough blocks of granite lying lengthwise, while the columns of the second and third stories above are smoothly dressed. At the east and west ends of the building are open balconies with granite balustrades. In the four pediments of the building there will be large glass stars, with appropriate carvings in the granite around them, which, together with the star on the dome of the building, are arranged to be illuminated by electricity.
All the broad and stately corridors throughout the building are laid in encaustic tiling of various appropriate colors and attractive designs. Each of the offices on the first floor has a large, fire-proof vault for records, and the state treasurerâs office also has
A TREMENDOUS CHROME STEEL MONEY VAULT.
The two grand stairways are situated on both sides of the rotunda, near its east and west entrances to the long corridors that run the full length of the first floor; and these grand stairways ascend to the second floor near the entrances to the vestibules leading into the senate chamber in the east flank, and the house of representatives in the west flank of the building, while the entire north projection on the second floor is occupied by the state library, and a large portion of the south projection is taken in by the governorâs public reception room. These are the four grand state apartments on the second floor, and adjoining this last named room is the postoffice of the house and senate. West of the house of representatives, and also east of the senate chamber, in the two end pavilions of the building, are numerous rooms for the officers, clerks and committees of the legislature, and opening into the state library is a portrait gallery.
The house of representatives is ninety-four by ninety-six feet, and the senate chamber ninety-four by seventy-nine feet. Both these legislative halls are open to the ceiling of the third floor, with galleries on the third floor line completely encircling their interior, the ceilings above being heavy, polished, cut stained plate glass, embossed and flashed, of superb design and color, and directly above these ceilings are the immense skylights on the roof of the building, while opening into the house and senate from the north and south are a double tier of windows. It will thus be seen that these two legislative halls receive an abundant supply of natural light, which will render them the most desirable assembly rooms that could possibly be constructed. The state library is sixty-eight by one hundred and twenty-four feet, and is also arranged like the house and senate for procuring an ample supply of natural light. Immediately above the state library, on the third floor, are the supreme and appellate court rooms, law library, attorneysâ rooms and clerksâ offices, and in the front projection of the building, on the same floor, are the judgesâ consultation rooms. In the fourth or central story are twenty-three rooms not designed for any special use. There are in the entire building 256 apartments. Connected with the second, third and fourth floors of the building is a balcony five feet in depth encircling the interior of the rotunda, sixty feet in diameter. The center of this rotunda, on the first floor is of heavy plated glass, to give light into that portion of the basement directly underneath. There are also additional balconies in the interior of the rotunda, above the fourth floor of the [âŚ] and is the interior crown of the dome there is a canopy or [âŚ] circular in form, to be prepared  [âŚ] the reception thereon of allegorical [âŚ] paintings. There is flight of stairs leading from the fourth story [âŚ] exterior of the dome, and from [âŚ] altitude the variety of picturesque scenery in and around Austin will be interesting for the visitor to contemplate.
The dome of the Texas state house is the tallest of any capitol building in America, and the national capitol at Washington and the New York state capitol at Albany are the only two capitol buildings that can stand a comparison with the Texas state house, either in point of grandeur or magnitude.
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