January 12, 1875 - March 15, 1875

Leadership

Governor: Richard Coke -  Vetoes

Lieutenant Governor: Richard Bennett Hubbard, Jr.

Speaker of the House: Guy Morrison Bryan 

Special Session Topics

  Messages

• Additional amendments to subject to the special school and other county taxes, the property of railroad corporations, and the lands of non-residents. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Additional arrangements for the custody of convicts. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Adopt and forward to the Congress of the United States a memorial, setting forth the grievances of the State regarding defense against Indians, and asking appropriate relief. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Amend the law regarding public printing so the committees having this matter in charge, be required to certify the printing accounts to the board of public printing for examination and approval, and that samples of the work be required to accompany the accounts. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Amend the law regulating the fees and dues to be paid into the General Land Office to an amount that will certainly produce funds sufficient to defray all the expenses of the office. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Amend the law, and make either the sheriff of each county, or the presiding justice, the assessor of taxes of their respective counties, until an assessor and collector is elected at the next general election, and that the commissions for assessing be graduated. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• An amendment to the school law, which shall fix one half of one percent as the limit beyond which no special county or district tax shall go for support of schools. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• An amendment which shall designate the distance in miles from the county seat in each county in the State, to Huntsville, to establish a rule for the inspector in issuing vouchers for mileage for transportation of convicts to the penitentiary. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• An inquiry through a committee into the complaint of the Commissioner, of the insufficiency of the clerical force allowed the General Land Office. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Appointment of agents in the cities of New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Norfolk, Atlanta and New Orleans to distribute publications and diffuse information about Texas. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Appropriation as requested by Mr. F. Voigt, appointed under the act of April 29th, 1874, to take charge of the public buildings, furniture, library and grounds at the capitol. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Appropriation for a printing press, and so much material as may be necessary to be used in teaching the printer's art to pupils of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Appropriation for a watchman for the General Land Office building. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Appropriation for Judge Ferris, as special Judge. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Appropriation for payment of the officers and men of the Galveston company, and Capt. McNelly's company for service in DeWitt County. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Appropriation for the construction of a workshop, and for the purchase of additional musical instruments. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Appropriation for the employment of an oculist to treat curable cases in the Institute for the Blind. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Appropriation in the power of the Executive, should the emergency require it, to fill the battalion to its original proportions. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Appropriation to continue the work of Mr. S. B. Buckley, State Geologist, on a scale commensurate with its importance. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Appropriations made as suggested in the report of the Board of Commissioners of the Agricultural and Mechanical College. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Authorize the execution of an indemnifying bond from Texas, by the Governor, if necessary. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Careful revision of all laws under which special taxes of any character are allowed to be imposed by county authorities. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Consideration of a report of Major John B. Jones, commander of the front battalion; also a supplemental report of Adjutant General Steele. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Consideration of extending the education of the pupils of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum to some useful mechanical or other trade. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Consideration of the able and learned report of Hon. O. N. Hollingsworth, Superintendent of Public Instruction, for such changes of the present law as he deems necessary. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Consideration of the report of Dr. Rainey, of condition and requirements of the Institute for the Blind. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Consideration of the report of Dr. Wallace, the superintendent of the asylum for the insane. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Consideration of the report of General J. B. Robertson, Commissioner of Immigration. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Consideration of the report of Hon. A. W. DeBerry, Secretary of State. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Consideration of the suggestions and recommendations of Hon. J. J. Groos, Commissioner of General Land Office. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Establishment of a "House of Correction," convenient and adjacent to the penitentiary grounds, to separate youthful offenders from older and more hardened criminals, place them under good influences, and turn them out of prison educated for good, not for evil. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Immediate repeal of the law of last session, grating pensions to the revolutionary veterans of Texas, with a saving in favor of those whose applications are now on file. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Legislation as may be necessary to enable the Executive to continue a protecting force in this section of country. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Make a comparison of the cost of public printing under the law of 1873, under which a public printer was elected, with that of the law of 1878, which provides for letting it by contract. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Make provision by appropriate enactment for assembling at the earliest practicable day, a convention to be composed of delegates elected by the people, to consider of and frame a constitution of government for Texas. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Make provision for the purchase of land and the construction thereon of another penitentiary. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Make provisions for a complete abstract of titled and patented lands. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Memorialize Congress, and set forth the losses of life and property in the country on, and adjacent to the Mexican border, the constant terror under which the people live, of murder and robbery, by brigands and robbers from Mexico, and the consequent damage to every interest… [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Modify the restrictions upon the first class of convicts so that only the more heinous of that class and those condemned to longer terms be included in it; and if safe guards are necessary, it is suggested that the employment of such of that class... [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Provide by law that the superintendent of the asylum be required to make quarterly reports to the comptroller of Public Accounts of all moneys due from counties, for patients in the asylum, and of all moneys due for private patients, and that the Comptroller be required… [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Provision for the issuance and sale of as many bonds of the State as may be necessary to raise money to pay off the entire floating debt, as well as the contemplated deficiencies mentioned above so that the State may enter upon the fiscal year commencing September 1, 1875, unembarrassed with the debts of previous years. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Put on the statute book a stringent enactment which shall brand these transactions with the stigma which should be affixed to them, and put upon all parties concerned in them, such penalties as will protect the State and people against their depredations in future. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Reduce rates of public printing by twenty percent, except those for printing in German and Spanish, and that a provision be made for translating these laws from English into those languages. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Renewing a recommendation for action regarding the report of the board of directors of the asylum for the insane. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Require the board of public printing to make a detailed and itemized report of all the public printing done for the State and the cost of the same, to whom paid, etc., so that the Legislature and the country may know whether this branch of the service is being properly administered. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Settle matters associated with the suit brought against the state by International Railroad Company. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Suggesting a law authorizing the Governor, when disorder and lawlessness prevail to such an extent that the ordinary authorities are unable to execute the process of the courts, preserve the peace and maintain the law, to select from the body of the people a militia to serve as the sheriff's posse. [Tue Jan 12, 1875]
• Requesting that Texas join other states in an appeal to the American people, to come to the rescue of Louisiana, and lift from her neck the iron heel of despotic power and restore to her the blessings of a free constitutional government. [Wed Jan 20, 1875]
• Returning House bill No. 546 without approval and asking its reconsideration. [Tue Jan 26, 1875]
• Appropriation of one thousand dollars or so much thereof, as may be necessary to pay for the proper defense of a claim for about $7000, presented against the state by Mr. Edmund Coffin. [Tue Feb 2, 1875]
• Remove doubt as to the power of the Executive to dispose of controversy regarding the sales of State bonds. [Tue Feb 2, 1875]
• Returning House bill No. 675, without approval and asking its reconsideration. [Thu Feb 25, 1875]
• Returning House bill No. 638, without approval and asking its reconsideration. [Mon Mar 1, 1875]
• Returning House bill No. 748, without approval and asking its reconsideration. [Thu Mar 11, 1875]
• Returning House bill No. 746, without approval and asking its reconsideration. [Mon Mar 15, 1875]
• Returning House bill No. 788, without approval and asking its reconsideration. [Mon Mar 15, 1875]

Journals

The House Journal and Senate Journal for the 14th Second Session are available from the Legislative Reference Library.

Rules
Senate Rules (14th R.S.)