WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1827
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no reasons why it should be taken from him? If not, then he ought to retain his appointment. And why has the rule been departed from? Why have these innovations been made? Have the Representatives of the People been treated, in relation to this subject, with due respect? or have the changes been made in order that the patronage of the government may flow in a par- ticular channel? Sir, the power in question, when applied to the Editors of the Public Journals of the United States, will do more to gag the free expression of what are, in reality, Jeffersonian principles, than any other means that ingenuity can devise. Sir, are the people to be disregarded, their Representatives openly insulted, and the memorial presented by them to one of the public servants rejected as being "unworthy to be received?" Are these the principles of Jefferson? Are we to be told that this course has been adopted in imitation of that of Jefferson? Sir, that is a sacred name: a name not to be taken into our lips with- out reverence- a name which has too little analogy with the present administration of this Government, to be even mentioned when its course of policy is in view. Those who pursue, and those who would defend such a policy as this in question, are unworthy to touch his consecrated tomb. Mr. Speaker, I have no objection to the principle which urges me to promote my friends. I would stand by my friends under every vicissitude of things- I would live with them, and, if principle rendered it necessary, would die with them. But, then, Sir, I would be very careful who my friends were. I would see that they were men of integrity- men of principle, and of moral and political purity; not a set of men who would be willing to skulk behind the scenes and act a double part- not men who were merely party advocates, but who were something different from those who are willing to "lift up their voices in a land of political darkness." Men of virtue, firmness, and intelligence, I would hail at all times and be pround to bestow on them such patronage as might be within my disposal- but not because they were willing to sustain 1ne for hire only. Any man, however unworthy, may have friends of some kind. Catiline had his friends. So had Sempronius; and there is not a wretch that ever struck at power, but had his friends, who stood ready to blow the clarion of his fame in some land, or in some corner, overshadowed by "political darkness." But, the gentleman told us that his public printing, though not yielding any great sum, might, nevertheless, be of advantage to a
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