Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/539

 Can the gentleman suppose that any little mar, as he would think it to be, in not re-elevating me to a situation in this body, would inflict the slightest mortification on me? Not at all. I do not believe that it was intended in the act to compliment me, by any means. I believe it was designed to pretermit and to rebuke me; and the means to do it were afforded, because the persons who were then in power and controlled the presses and political influences in the State had been pampered and nourished, and cherished by the means which my late colleague. General Rusk, and myself, procured for the State, the $5,000,000 granted by Congress, of which there remains to-day not one bit of gold-dust in the treasury of Texas. We gave them the means of controlling the political condition of that State, thinking we had placed men in power who had claims upon its confidence and respect. Whether it was a wayward fit, or whether it was a considered thing, I care not. It afforded me an opportunity of retiring to the situation that I desire; and it has not alienated my affections in the slightest from the people of Texas. They have no honors to confer that I would accept; still they are the people that I need not say I love. I cherish them, and their interest is to me a dear interest, because with their destiny my posterity are identified.

These are the reasons that control me, Mr. President, and they shall ever control me. Those men had no power to inflict mortification on me, and their act was exceedingly grateful to me because it solved a problem which had never been solved before. It had been insisted upon that Texas could not get along without my services; but they have demonstrated to me that they can get along without my services, and I am exceedingly glad of it, because it shows their increasing prosperity. [Laughter.] But, sir, whilst the constitutional term which remains unexhausted to me shall endure, I will continue faithfully to discharge my trust to them, and I have made a gain if they should perchance have made a loss, and I will avail myself of that advantage without leaving the Senate with a single regret, or, I hope, a harsh or ungentle feeling toward one gentleman within the scope of my view. I would not cherish a wish of unkindness to the honorable Senator from Georgia; and if truthfully he can reconcile the course which he has adopted to himself, he will meet with no rebuke from me. But rebuke and vindication are different things.

It is possible that I may be able to extend courtesy to the gentleman in my seclusion or retirement at home, in my humble way of life—for none of the blandishments of wealth or elegance have ever surrounded me in life. Hardy and rugged in my nature, both physically and intellectually, I have always been ready to meet and combat the inconveniences of life. I have known how to abound, and I have known how to want. I have known what it is to feel exultation, and I have realized abasement. Whatever Providence has allotted me, that I have learned to be contented with, so long as my honor is untarnished. The honorable gentleman may find it, ere a single year runs out, convenient in an excursion to Texas, after some political events have taken place in Georgia, to call and spend a social time with me, realizing that fortune is a capricious jade, and that politics are "mighty unsartin." [Laughter.] Should the gentleman come, I promise him the bread of peace, the reception of welcome; but still he can not indoctrinate