Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/418

 upon them as I look upon other speculators. I look upon them as I do on men who go into the market every day—men who wish to make, in their estimation, honest gains, and who would not have their consciences smitten if they made one hundred per cent, every day. That would not involve their honor, but it would, in their estimation, sustain the honor of those on whom they make the one hundred per cent. I want no more sympathizers with Texas. I do not want them to appeal in behalf of Texas, to rescue her honor. Her honor, her safety, her existence, her liberty, her independence, were once involved, and I did not see, in her direst need, and when clouds enveloped her in darkness, the face of one of those men who now claim to be her benefactors or her sympathizers. It was not until the last enemy had marked her soil—it was not until our star had risen in the east, and until it was attaining something like its meridian splendor, that the speculators were attracted by the hopes of gain. Then, in that proud day, they were willing to unite their destiny with her; but to grope their way in darkness, to peril their lives in conflict, to confront and grapple with the enemy, not one was there. Let them not talk of Texas' honor, Texas' renown, and Texas' escutcheon cleared. She cleared them herself, sir. It was not a speculation; it was a real transaction; and she will keep it clear. It is her best guardian under the segis of the Constitution. I desire justice and liberality to all who aided Texas; and no matter how they have acquired their demands, give them an earnest for everything they have, and upon that earnest give them interest, and, if you please, be liberal, but let Texas have the credit of doing justice to her creditors, and let not the United States intervene to save her soiled honor, as it is called. She will take care of that article herself, and she will take care of her money, too, I trust, and make a useful application of it in paying all just demands, but not the demands of Shylocks. Sir, I have done.


 * —This unusual night sitting is without precedent in the history of any previous Congress at this stage of the session. The extraordinary circumstances in which we find ourselves placed, would seem to indicate a crisis in the affairs of the country of no ordinary importance; a crisis that portends either good or evil to our institutions.

The extraordinary character of the bill before the Senate, as well as the manner in which it is presented to the body, demands the gravest deliberation. This, sir. is the anniversary of a protracted session, in which the organization of the Territory of Nebraska was elaborately discussed, on the last day of the last session. In that discussion, which, like this, had kept us in our seats to the morning dawn, the prominent points of opposition were such as related to the Indian tribes. Such a bill at the present session would have met with no insuperable objections; but what do we now find? A bill entirely variant, and a bill which involves new and important principles. It has come an unexpected measure without a harbinger, for no agitation was heard of, and the breeze bore no whisper to our ears that the Missouri Compromise was to be repealed.

Its presentation has been as sudden as the measure itself is bold, and the