92
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1827
of independence or subjugation, when a crisis in our National existence had arrived; when our sky became dark and lowering; when our Eagles were cowering to the British Lion, and disas- trous events followed each other in quick and alarming succes- sion, new distinctions in feeling and in name arose. Federalists, and men of all parties, stepped forward to breast the storm. Those who were with the country at that time were Whigs. They filled the same ranks, and marched forward in the same path; side by side they met the enemy, they fought, they bled, and fell together. All party distinctions were buried in the common danger, and their common tomb was consecrated by the same gratitude, and bedewed by the same tears. But, Sir, there were others who thwarted every effort of the country, aided the com- mon enemy against her, and sought to aparalyze the energies of the Nation. Were these Federalists? No, Sir, it would be base injustice to call them so. The only and proper designation for such. men is Tory. Shew ·me the man who opposed the second war of independence throughout, and who felt and acted with those who threatened the country with disunion, and shall I call him Federalist? No, Sir: those who preferred the cause of a common enemy are not Republicans, are not Democrats, are not Federalists, are not Whigs. What are they? But lest my mean- ing may possibly be misunderstood as to the distinction which I conceive to exist between different members of those who were denominated the Federalist party, I will yet be more explicit, and it will be found that a line of demarcation rose between the Whigs and the Hartford Convention Federalists, like a Chinese wall, or the Northern boundary line of the United States, during the last war. By way of illustrating the distinction which I deem proper, I will read an extract from the Speech of a distinguished leader of the Opposition, (Mr. Webster) delivered on this floor in the month of February, 1814, on the army bill: "How happens it, Sir, that this country so easy of acquisition, and over which, according to the prophecies, we were to have been, by this time, legislating, dividing into States and Territories, is not yet ours? Nay, Sir, how happens it, that we are not even free of invasion ourselves; that gentleman here call on us, by all the motives of patriotism, to assist in the defence of our own soil, and portray before us the state of the frontier, by frequent and animated allusion to all those topics which the modes of Indian warfare usually suggest?
'
I I
Powered by FlippingBook