Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/542

 But did that sanctify that curse to the South? No, sir ; it could not con- vert it into a blessing; that was impossible. If some gentleman of the North, who is considered ultra in politics — the gentleman from Massachusetts, or from New York, or from Ohio — had introduced a provision to repeal the Missouri compromise, what reception would the proposition have met in the South? There was not a man in the whole South who would not have grasped his weapon of war and rushed to the scene of combat, and been willing to have fallen upon that line in vindication of Southern rights. Well, sir, did it sanctify it as a measure of blessing to the South, that it was introduced not by a Southern man, but by a Northern man with Southern principles? When he introduced it, it was adopted by the South and by both the existing political parties which had but a few years before solemnly abjured the reagitation of the slavery question, in their political conventions. Their solemn pledge was disregarded; the torch was applied to the magazines of agitation; and what has been the condition of the country from that moment to this, but agitation unnecessarily produced, for political ends and to manufacture Presidents? That was all of it, and the South is yet the sufferer; and I pray God that deeper calamities may not fall upon her. That measure is the initiative of misfortune to the South.

These may have been my antecedents; but they are such as I am proud of; and I only regret I did not triumph and enforce them with ability sufficient to have produced a trembling in this Chamber, to make gentlemen weak in the knees who resisted the conviction that flashed upon every mind.

I am sure I need not dwell upon this subject; but I will make a further remark to the honorable gentleman, who on a former occasion classed me as a party to myself. From that I rather derived some consolation, because I knew that according to my estimate, I could not have been in bad company if I were by myself, [laughter,] and that no difficulty could arise between myself and my companions. [Renewed laughter.] We should harmonize perfectly. I see discord in other political parties; I see a great want of harmony; I see "hards" and "softs," politically in the same party, not exactly harmonizing; some going a little too far, some not going far enough; some going one road, and some another; some rather kind to banks, and others a little friendly to internal improvements, beyond the standard that General Jackson fixed.

I am a Union man. The great champion of the Union was Andrew Jackson. To him descended from the fathers of the Republic, in a direct line, the principles upon which he stood; and his declaration, "The Union: it must and shall be preserved," will never be forgotten. Sir, that will tingle in the cars of patriots for ages to come. All the combinations of aspirants or political demagogues can not defeat the great object and aim of our forefathers, and of the men who rise in the vista between them and us. I have never, in my life, seen an Andrew Jackson Democrat who was not a firm and decided Union man. He was not a man to make hypothetical cases, and say that in such and such events, in case such and such things would be done, the Union would be dissolved. It is easy to make a man of straw and prostrate him. The honorable Senator from Georgia, however