Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/655

 {| align=center
 * Total receipts to August 31, 1861 (see Comptroller's Report, September, 1859)
 * $343,344.27
 * Amount in Treasury, subject to disbursement, January 19, 1861, per Treasurer's Report
 * 14.785.62
 * Total
 * $358,129.89
 * }
 * Total
 * $358,129.89
 * }
 * Total
 * $358,129.89
 * }

The peculiar attitude of our relations with the Federal Government will, I trust, command the earnest attention of the Legislature. While the proud structure of government, built by our fathers, seems tottering to ruin, and some of its pillars are already torn loose by the hand of internal dissension, we may not alone contemplate the scene and await its total downfall. As parts yet of that structure, the solemn duty presses upon us to prove faithful to the trust imposed by the patriots and sages of the past, and to restore it to its original pride and grandeur if we can; and if we can not, to see that our own liberties perish not beneath its ruins.

The election of the Black Republican candidate to the Presidency has' involved the issue of the permanency of the Government upon the basis laid down by its founders.

The principles of their party as developed in the passage of laws in many of the States, subversive of our rights and in continual aggressions upon our institutions, have at last obtained a foothold on the Government itself.

The struggle has been long, and the encroachment gradual, and at last, through our own folly and dissension alone, has resulted in placing one department of the Government in the hands of those who have aggressed upon us. The question presses itself upon our consideration, whether 'tis best to abandon the Government, and acknowledge that our Constitution is a failure, or to maintain in the Union every constitutional right guaranteed to us.

The grievances of which we complain have thus far originated with the States and not with the Federal Government,

They have, disregarding their constitutional obligations, interposed to obstruct the Federal Government in its efforts to administer the Government in accordance with the Constitution; and though the Government has not in all cases been successful in its efforts in our behalf, yet there has been no lack of willingness on its part. The prospect, however, of the Government going into the hands of a party whose disregard of the Constitution is its sole bond of union, leads to the belief that Federal aggression is inevitable unless such means are adopted as will not only restrain the dominant party within the bounds of the Constitution, but lead it to abandon all designs of perverting the power of Government to serve its unconstitutional aims.

Were Government formed in an hour, and human liberty the natural result of revolution, less responsibility would attach to us as we consider the momentous question before us. A long struggle amid bloodshed and privation secured the liberty which has been our boast for three-quarters of a century. Wisdom, patriotism, and the noble concessions of great minds framed our Constitution. Long centuries of heroic strife attest the progress of freedom to their culminating point. Ere the work of centuries is undone, and freedom, shorn of her victorious garments, is started out once again on her weary pilgrimage, hoping to find, after centuries have passed away, another dwelling-place, it is not unmanly to pause and at least endeavor to avert the calamity.