90
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1827
the country will, at length, enjoy a grand political Mi!lenium; there will then be no such things as Opposition. All will be .har- mony, peace, and tranquility; and very facetiously adds, that, if he shall be so happy as to escape the operation of the second section of the Rules of the Articles of War, it is all that he will ask; content, if, from his obscurity, he may be so fortunate as to be forgotten. Sir, as this seems to be a favorite conceit with the honorable gentleman, I shall leave him in the full enjoyment of it, with an assurance that the individual referred to is only terrible to the enemies of his country. I will now pass to the notice of the honorable gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. Wright) who has made so distinguished a figure in this debate. ·That gentleman has told us that there has been a time, when according to the high authority, we were all Republicans and Federalists. He now charges us with a disposition to put down Federalists; and, in this remark, I understood him to refer more particularly to-myself. If that gentleman will advert to my former- argument on this subject, he will find that I did not even use the term Federalist; but that gentleman says, that, after the success and elevation of Mr. Jefferson, those who had been his traducers were prostrated, never to rise again. I ask, Sir, who those traducers were? The honorable gentleman, I presume was not of an age to array himself against Mr. Jefferson·at his eleva- tion; I, therefore, freely acquit him of being involved in that charge. But, Sir, has he never been found arrayed in opposition to the policy and principles of Jefferson, or those who walked in his footsteps? Is it not true that the gentleman from Ohio edited a paper in Troy, in the State of New York, which opposed the policy of Mr. Jefferson's administration, or that pursued by Mr. Madison? That his was emphatically, a kennel press - that it was not only opposed to Mr. Madison, but abusive in its opposi- tion above all others? And does that gentleman now preach to us the doctrine that is to lead to our political salvation? That gentle- man, I am told, originated in the vicinity of Hartford. How far he has advocated the principles of the celebrated Convention which met there, I will not pretend to say. I am not one of those who deny that any good can come out of Nazareth, but on this occasion, I must confess that I am somewhat skeptical. But the gentleman insists that the Federalists, in the time of Mr. Jeffer- son, were forever annihilated. Sir, was that gentleman annihi- lated? No, Sir, but as I am informed, he was found among the most ardent opposers of the war; since which time, he has most • ..
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