WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1849
104,
of Congress, furnished material for excitement and a pretext for opposition to the then pending measure. In consequence, as it was alleged, of the inhibitory provision relating to slavery, con- tained in the Oregon Bill, it was proposed, that New Mexico and California should be admitted at the same time as slaveholding territories. This proposition appeared to me unjust in its bear- ing upon the inhabitants of Oregon; and its connection with the measure for the admission of that territory, forced, illegal, and retroactive. The rights of Oregon to admission as a free ter- ritory, originated, matured, and were guaranteed to her, by force and virtue of the Missouri Com1n·omise, long before the acquisition of New Mexico and California. The treaty under which the latter accrued to the United States, could not affect the former, or impair her pre-existing rights. Indeed, the possibility of such an effect flowing from the ratification of that treaty, seemed to me to amount to a solecism, too crass to find an advo- cate. The Compromise, as originally adopted, had remained inviolate for more than a quarter of a century; and the faith and honor of every State in the Union are, in my judgment, solemnly pledged to maintain its observance and inviolability. It has been repeatedly recognized and acted upon by Congress as a solemn compact among the States; and as such it has received· the sanc- tion of each individual member of the confederacy. I consider that the vital interests of all the States, and especially of the South, are dependant in a great degree, upon the preservation and sacred observance of this compact. Texas, in adopting the Compromise line, in compliance with the imperative demand of the other States, as a part of the price of her admission, sur- rendered in more than one-third of her territory in latitudinal extent, her right to continue the institution of slavery. The sacrifice was exacted by the Southern, as well as by the N 01·thern States, and the requirement of S. Carolina was no less positive and stringent in that behalf, than that of any other State. The sacrifice was received at the hands of Texas, and among the solemn guaranties, then made to her in behalf of the Union, to the full benefit of which she is now entitled, that of preserving the Missouri Compromise inviolate, is, in my humble judgment, not the least in value. In my vote upon the Oregon Bill therefore, I endeavored to carry out the Compromise in good faith ; thereby obeying the
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