87
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1827
discharge of that duty, has never been questioned; whose patriot- ism was never doubted; men who have risked their all for the country, in her darkest and most perilous moments; men who have always advocated the principles of Seventy-Six-treated as if they had betrayed the confidence reposed in them- deprived of public employment, without a solitary charge having been made against them; while others of a very different stamp, re- ceived the bait of Governmental patronage. We see this done not in one State alone, or in one section of the Union, but in all the States and in every part of the country, where effect can be produced by it in behalf of the Administration and its measures. If this is conjecture on my part, why is the resolution opposed by the friends of the Secretary? It demands of him his reasons for his conduct; an(] if this conduct be fair, why will his friends not allow him an opportunity of demonstrating the same to this House and to the Nation? If it be not fair, it is our duty to look to the moti\•e which has caused this new direction to be given to the stream of patronage. But the friends of the Secretary are opposed to this resolution; they will not allow him an opportunity to assign his reasons; they do not meet the arguments advanced in support of the measure; they seek to cloud the debate by every art of sophistry and evasion; they oppose to argument, recrimi- nation and personal invectives. Sir, I do not impugn the motives of the Editors. I never said that they were abandoned and unprincipled men, and that a paltry sum was sufficient to buy them and their talents. I know that many of them are highly respectable, and possess talents of the first order; but surely it cannot be improper to bring forward the complaints of those who have been, without just cause, or even the semblance of accusation, deprived of pub!ic employment, unless that accusation were contained in a preference given to other Editors. Are we to be told that the public printing is of no value? If so, the _deprivation of it would be no cause of com- plaint. The editor of the Kentucky Argus, highly respectable in his profession, when speaking on this subject, says: "Notwithstanding we wrote with unremitting zeal and persever- ance against the latter gentleman [Mr. Adams] and in favor of his rival, Mr. Clay, yet he did not think proper to take from us this printing. At length our-friend and favorite, for whom we have spent out time and money is made Secretary of State: and what comes next? Why, because we do not support Mr. Adams, whom, for his benefit, we had so zealously opposed for years, he
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