Speech #450115495

He was a lifelong- earnest advocate of internal improvement. and while a member of te State Legislature was a zealous friend of State patronage in behalf of railroads. and afterward in the National Legislature he favored a liberal policy on the part of the General Government in support of feasible schemes for extending iron thoroughfares of travel and trade across the country. with ramifications to the remote borders of the country. fully realizing that such modes of rapid. easy. and constant communication between the widely separated portions of our extensive territory would tend to the promotion of a just equilibrium by keeping up a brisk and healthful circulation. and to the mitigation of a narrow sectionalism by affording opportunity for free intercourse and personal contact. The veryfact that Mr. ScarasiHacaa was born and lived the first score of his years in a foreign land. qualified him to comprehend the nature and necessities of that large and useful class of emigrants which every year swells our population from Europe. A large proportion of his constituents were his own countrymen. who. like himFEBRUArIY 17. self. sought homes in. America where they and their descendants might enjoy the privileges of free government and reap the abundant rewards accruing to wellbestowed industry. For that class of intelligent. frugal. industrious. lawobserving Germans. which are an acquisition to any community. and which form a considerable element in the population of that part of Western Texas. he was a most able and faithful exponent. at the same timerepresentingwith equal fidelity and exact impartiality the interests of all other citizens of the district. Transplanted at so early an age from the Old World to the New. his sympathies struck deep root in the eternal principles of free government and drew their inspiration from the pure fountain of political liberty. He was. in fact. a thoroughly naturalized American citizen of foreign birth. and loved the land of his adoption with all the strength of his exceptionally strong nature. I Personally he was a favorite wherever he was known. While the unquestionable integrity of his character was calculated to inspire confidence. the strong Teutonic elements of his nature were lubricated and softened by a deep and inexhaustible flow of humor. that attribute of charactr which has somewhere been called the ofispring of a union between wit and good nature. partaking in a modified degree bitt in an equal measure of the qualities of both parents.