23
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1824-1825
extend a helping hand·, like men, towards those States? Why may we not pursue the same policy now? The principle is the same. Principles remains unchanged and eternal. The distance of the people from us does not alter the principle. If this resolution is adopted, the President wi!l be left free to exercise his sound discretion on the subject. He will be able to compare and analyze the business, and to act as circumstances may require. The House is not about to say to him that he must despatch an agent to the Greeks to-morrow, but that he must" use his judgment on the subject. If the resolution is rejected, it will seem like a want of confidence in the Executive. By his long experience he is amply entitled to this confidence; and we may rest assured that he will not exercise it inconsiderately, nor do any thing to involve the country in a war. Then, if there is nothing hostile in the reso!ution, we may ven- ture .to give this authority to the President. Mr. H. said he entertained a high regard for the Greeks, and felt as much zeal in their cause as was consistent with the purposes of legislation. He wished that she should know that the American nation felt for her. He would not that this Government should send her munitions of war, for that would amount to an open act of aggression; but no such construction, he thought, could be put upon this resolution. The people of Greece had expressed a wish to alter their Government, and according to the fundamental principles of our institutions, they have a right to do it. If they rise, in their majesty, and determine to be free, will an Amerfoan Congress say that they must wait for our acknowledgement of her independence until the Allied Powers have •seen fit to ac- knowledge it? They will not be disposed to do it soon. It is this very dissemination of freedom that is planting thorns in. their pillows. We can pursue principles of justice, independent of all their alliances. We have been told that we shou!d have a care how we look for glory-that glory is the deathwatch of liberty. Mr. H. said he did not know how this remark was meant to be applied. If he understood what was the true meaning of glory, it was that noble attribute of man that appealed to the whole community to give force to heroism and patriotism. If that were the death-watch of liberty, he wished to hear it resound through the country. It was false glory that bade a man seek self-aggrandizement; and this description of glory was indeed to be dreaded.
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