WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1831-1832
223
sinned against this honorable House, I was unconscious of the fact. The sin existed not in my intention; it had no place in my heart. If others now enjoying the high station I once po3- sessed, think it becoming to assail me with contempt, ridicule, and vituperation, I trust I have the fortitude to endure it. I cannot forget that while I have my privileges, others have their privileges also, and must account for their improper exercise. I may have erred when proceeding on the principle of other analogous cases. I objected to the judgment of a prejudiced and committed judge. If I had made an assassin-like attack upon the reputation of an accused man, I would at least have held my- self aloof from the task of pronouncing judgment upon him. Sir, I feel that I never could have done it. Could I have been guilty of such an act? Could I so far have lost sight of every high object, of every noble purpose, of every sacred trust, I should have incurred a doom so degraded, that imagination itself would fail in the pursuit of my destiny, and fancy would be- come weary in the pursuit of a profitless journey. I should have sunken myself so low, that Archimedes himself, with all the fancied power of his levers, though employed at the task for a thousand years, could never have exalted such a spirit to the rank and circumstances of honorable men. Whatever epithets it may have pleased gentlemen to use, I acquit them of reproach. I have no epithets to return. I will not cherish for a moment an unkind feelings-no, not for "the unkindest cut of all." Sir, even if injury has been done to the privileges of this House, which I deny, does it not become the House to consider whether, in correcting one wrong, another may not spring up of far greater and overshadowing magnitude? In the discussion which preceded my arrest, my character was gratuitously and wantonly assailed. It was ·suggested, as an argument for the arrest, that I had probably fled like a ruffian, a renegade, and a blackguard; and that minutes might be of vast importance. To these gentlemen, who could advance such an opinion, I say that they knew little about me. I never avoided responsibility. I have perilled some little in the protection of American citizens, and if I, myself an American citizen, have perilled life and blood to protect the hearths of my fellow-citizens, they little know me, who would imagine that I would flee from the charge of crime that was imputed to me. At all events, they will learn that for once I have not proved recreant. I have not eschewed respon- sibility-I have not sought refuge in flight. Never! never! shall
Powered by FlippingBook