53
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1826
Legislature, were heard congratulating each other, and returning due thanks to Heaven, for each others' re-election. "May it please your Excellency," say they, "we return our humble thanks to Heaven that you are continued in office." It is not my design, Mr. Chairman, to cast reflections on the character of these mis- guided People, whose zeal and courage, :misdirected by their Gov- ernor, were turned against their own Government, instead of against the invaders of their country. Sir, I know the primitive character of Massachusetts. I have not forgotten Lexington. All must remember Bunker Hill. Boston was one of the cradles of our Revolution. I am not unmindful of the deeds of our fathers- immortal deeds, which shed a halo around their national char- acter! Would to God their deeds had never been tarnished by the conduct of disloyal sons! I will use no terms by way of reproach; but in speaking of their conduct during the h:ying period of the late war, I cannot be blamed if I adopt the language of their own Chief Magistrate. What was the language held by the Legislature of Massachusetts in the eventful struggle of the late war, in June 1812? After indulging in the most free and unrestrained abuse of the General Government, the House of Representatives proceeded to say, in an address to the People, "If you should, by your aid, accelerate the fall of Great Britain, you would merely deliver over your your exhausted country, and enslave posterity to the dominion of a tyrant;" (meaning Bona- parte, I presume,) and proceeding further in the same address: "If your sons must be torn from you by conscriptions, consign them to the care of God, but let there be no volunteers." These, Sir, are but the extracts from that memorable address. But one sentiment pervades the ·whole. Here, Sir, we find lVIassachusetts in the full enjoyment of the libe1•ty of speech, and that liberty was enjoyed to a most criminal extent. If they had talked less and acted more promptly, in vindication of the violated rights of this country, we might have been spared this discussion. They talked much, they spoke loudly, and uttered most seditious senti- ments. Every villifying epithet was applied to the war, and to all who were its advocates. Did the Government call upon the citizens to fly to arms for resistance of invasion, and the defence of all that was dear to freemen- it was denounced as conscrip- tion, more unsupportable than that of Bonaparte. If we insisted upon the recognition of our rights by England, the acknowledge- ment of our neutral trade- it was denounced as the continental
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