The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 57, July 1953 - April, 1954 Page: 67
585 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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T. L. Nugent, Texas Populist
. . . with its pretense of free trade and free silver in the south and
west, and its identification with protection, plutocracy and the gold
standard in the east-how can this party . . . be trusted to . . . bear
the hopes of toiling and struggling humanity ...?6
Although without the dogmatic superficiality that characterized
some others, Judge Nugent then subscribed to Populist orthodoxy.
He believed that a voice in affairs could be had by the rural and
laboring elements only through the agency of a new party. He
believed that the "money power" so feared by the Jacksonians
of sixty years before had triumphed or was about to do so and
that the "live and let live" democracy held so dear by Jefferson
had been, or was about to be, pushed aside. The industrialists
and the financiers had made the mad pursuit of wealth, the
ruthless pursuit of wealth, their summum bonum. They had
captured not only the Republican party but the Democratic
party as well in order to suppress opposition to their ideal and in
order to further the pursuit itself. The judge hoped to contribute
something to the breaking of the grip of the "get rich" men
on society and also to the wiping out of their ethic.
Even though Judge Nugent did not leave the Democratic party
until 1889, his "radicalism" had been evident since the 1870's.
As a member of the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1875, he
had supported constitutional restrictions requiring that the re-
maining Texas public domain be used for subsidizing small
farmers instead of subsidizing railroads.7 To the assembled dele-
gates of the Texas People's party seventeen years later, he claimed
to have advocated government ownership of railroads in an
address to the Farmers' Alliance as early as 1882.8 One who knew
him well testified that he was an ardent supporter of the Alliance,
although never a member, and that he frequently attended its
meetings in his home county of Erath.9 That he became the
16Speech at San Marcos, July 21, 1893, in Nugent, Nugent, 164, and Dallas Morning
News, July 22, 1893.
7Speech at state People's party convention at Dallas in Dallas Morning News,
June 24, 1892; "Report to President of the Constitutional Convention by a Special
Committee, T. L. Nugent, chm.," Proceedings of Constitutional Convention (Austin,
1875); Dallas Morning News, August 15, 1892.
slbid., June 24, 1892.
oDr. Marshall McIlhany, president of Stephenville College, in Nugent, Nugent,
99. Miss Laura King in a letter of September 12, 1950, to W. A. (MS. in writer's
possession), says that Dr. McIlhany was often present at the Sunday afternoon ses-
sions in the King home.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 57, July 1953 - April, 1954, periodical, 1954; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101152/m1/85/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.