WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1850
134
all the Territories, and announced their determination to exercise it, against the offers of the South to compromise the question by extending the Missouri compromise line to the Pacific. That offer was subsequently refused, and the bill passed without any compromise. Mr. President, if I am correct in the history of those proceed- ings, it was not the North-no member from the North-who moved to lay the bill on the table, but it ·was a member from the South. Yet it is charged upon the North. I do not intend to vindicate the North against the South, but I shall "nothing extenuate nor set down aught in malice." Let it be shown to the world how both parties stand in reference to this vexed and unpleasant question, that they may better approach the truth, and become reconciled to each other. The Oregon bill was not intended to be a practical assertion of the naked principle that Congress had the power contended for in the Wilmot proviso. Senators who were then present will recollect distinctly that the Wilmot proviso on that occasion met with as little favor from me as any measure that ever came before the Senate. I did not fail to place every mark of disapprobation on it that I possibly could, and on other kindred projects, such as the Buffalo Con- vention, which I need not mention. -But there is one remark contained in my speech on that occasion that I will repeat. It is due to myself here, it is due to the American people, and it is due to my constituents at home, they should know that, when declaring that I would vote for devoting every foot of soil north of 36° 30' to the purpose of free-soil, agreeably to the Missouri compromise line, and that the North might establish there what- ever institutions, conformable to the Constitution, they thought proper; that when it came to the line of 36° 30' I would place myself astride of that line, that I would remonstrate and im- portune the North not to advance upon it, that I would employ every dissuasive I could use, and if, then, regardless of the Constitution of the country, they encroached upon the rights of the South, that I would not only do battle in vindication of them, but, if need be, would perish in their maintenance. That was the declaration contained in that speech, for which, if there was any credit attaching to it in the South, I have not yet received it, because the speech was strangled. And, sir, I was denounced, in connection with the distinguished Senator from Missouri, and for what purpose or design I will not pretend to say, but I am satisfied, Mr. President, it was not from a disposition to render either the distinguished Senator from Missouri or myself any
Powered by FlippingBook