Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/233

Rh Missouri Compromise as a binding force upon this country. The astute statesmen who managed and controlled its adoption, Clay and Webster, never contemplated its repeal." He proceeded then to show how the affiliation of Abolitionists and Free-Soilers with the weaker party, the Whigs in the North, would bring in dangerous partisan combinations, and exclaimed: "This is an eminently perilous measure; and do you expect me to remain here silent, or to shrink from the discharge of my duty in admonishing the South of what I conceive the results will be? What, if a measure unwholesome or unwise is brought into the Senate, and it comes from the party of which I am a member? While its introduction is an error, is it not my duty to correct that error as far as I possibly can? When every look to the setting sun carries me to the bosom of a family dependent upon me, think you I could be alien to them? Never! never!!" Satirizing then the idea that additional territory for the introduction of slavery was proffered to the South, he pictured Jacob proffering a share of his booty to Esau, and Esau's reply: "I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself," and he added: "If this is the only offering tendered to the South, we will not ask it; we do not want it; the people will be angry if you give it. If you are indebted in anything to the South, all I have to say is, that you might find some other occasion when it would be more agreeable to cancel the obligation.' Replying to the objection that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, he said: "Mr. Jefferson confessed that he found no constitutional authority for the acquisition of Louisiana." He asked if the acquisition of Florida or of Texas was constitutional; and replied that "compromises, like compacts, are legitimate matters of legislation." In closing this branch of his subject, he said: "I had fondly hoped, Mr. President, that having attained to my present period of life, I should pass the residue of my days, be they many or few, in peace and tranquillity; that as I found the country growing up rapidly, and have witnessed its immeasurable expansion and development, when I closed my eyes on scenes around me, I would at least have the cherished consolation and hope that I left my children in a peaceful, happy, prosperous, and united community. I had hoped this. Fondly had I cherished the desire and the expectation from 1850, until after the introduction of this bill. My hopes are less sanguine now. My anxieties increase, but my expectation lessens. Sir, if this repeal takes place, I will have seen the commencement of the agitation; but the youngest child now born, I am apprehensive, will not live to witness its termination. Southern gentlemen may stand up and defend this measure. They may accept it from the Northern gentlemen who generously bestow