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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1850
and their own threshold will be defiled with the consequences of injustice to their brethren. And I ask of them now calmly to consider upon it, and to 1·eflect that they have gone far enough; that the South has been sufficiently excited, and that expressions too passionate for reason have been indulged in on both sides. The memorials that have been presented here sufficiently indicate the unfortunate state of feeling that prevails, and the comments they have elicited have never been without undue passion. Let them take the advice which is given in the Sacred Writings, far surpassing all human wisdom, and emanating from the great Redeemer of mankind, and let that advice actuate both parties, the North and the South. This says, "if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother has aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." Sir, if this feeling actuated the contending parties, and they would only approach these important questions in the spirit of the precept laid down by the great Mediator of man's salvation, they would be instrumental in his hands in the salvation of the country. I regret that I deem it necessary to allude to it, but I have been reprehended for the course I have pursued on this delicate question, when it was much less complex than it is at this moment, and when I was anxious to simplify and divest it of its extraneous circumstances that were calculated to embarass the reconciliation of these different interests. In the sessions of 1847 and 1848, I gave my vote for a territorial government for Oregon. My course upon this occasion, and that of others implicated with myself, (the honorable Senator from Missouri for one,) has caused many reflections to be cast upon me. And, really, if I were subject to annoyance from such sources, or if my honorable colleague were, we might have complained that considerable annoyance was given to us during the last summer, in consequence of the denunciations which were visited upon me for the vote I gave, and upon him with myself, for refusing to sign the Southern Address. In giving my vote for the bill establishing a territorial government for Oregon, I made some remarks upon the occasion, which, perhaps, it is not necessary to repeat here. They were in open Senate, before a large audience, and all heard me, but, unfortunately, those remarks were sup- pressed, and are not to be found in the records or journals of the debates of that session of Congress. And though assurances were afterwards given by the reporter to the Secretary of the Senate,
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