Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/637

 erroneous ideas of the institution of slavery, calculated to create distinctions between rich and poor, and to confer exclusive benefits upon one class of our citizens at the expense of the other, and recognizes the idea that government is bound to make the rich richer, and the poor poorer. In the eye of the law all men should stand equal. To draw a distinction between those of our population who have not been able to acquire slaves, and those who have, is, in my opinion, impolitic, and I respectfully commend to the Legislature the immediate repeal of the law.

I can not refrain from congratulating the Legislature upon the triumph of conservatism, as seen in the many evidences of the determination of the masses of the people of the North, to abide by the Constitution and the Union, and to put down the fanatical efforts of misguided abolitionists, who would endanger the safety of the Union to advance their vapid schemes. That their efforts will so operate upon the impending struggle as to stay the hand of slavery agitators, is to be hoped. This outspeaking of the people should be received in our midst as the evidence that notwithstanding the ravings of deluded zealots, or the impious threats of fanatical disunionists, the love of our common country still burns with the fire of the olden time in the hearts of the American people. Nowhere does that fire burn with more fervor than in the hearts of the conservative people of Texas. Satisfied that the men whom they elected at the ballot-box to represent them in Congress will bear their rights safely through the present crisis, they feel no alarm as to the result. Texas will maintain the Constitution, and stand by the Union. It is all that can save us as a nation. Destroy it, and anarchy awaits us.

We have in our own Constitution the adaptation of those principles of republicanism which are the basis of the Constitution of the Union. The representatives of the people are called upon by the responsibilities of the trust reposed in them, to hold that instrument sacred, and to construe it strictly. The Executive will guarantee on his part that no watchfulness shall be spared in guarding over the public weal, or in maintaining the Constitution in its full intent and meaning.

The following resolutions and autograph letter I have received from the Governor of South Carolina, with a request therein that I transmit the same to your honorable body:

"Whereas, The State of South Carolina, by her ordinance of A.D. 1852, affirmed her right to secede from the confederacy whenever the occasion should