WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1850
135
particular favor. If-and I say it with great deference-the controversy between the distinguished Senators from South Carolina and Missouri could have been confined to themselves, and they could have left me out of the question, it would have been much more agreeable to me, for I should have felt that I was in far less danger of being crushed between these two distinguished gentlemen, if I had not been dragged in the way, when it was not my intention to get there. Well, sir, if it was done for the purpose of embarrassing the · distinguished Senator from Missouri, there is no gentleman more competent than he to vindicate himself, and I am sure, if I were to make the attempt, it would be a gratuitous office indeed, and I therefore abstain. But if it was for expressing my personal regard to the distinguished Senator, I will readily concede my fault, and will do it again for the sake of ancient recollections. With his permission, I have a right to state my connection with him. It was not that we, by concert, determined to give the ·South to the North, or to sacrifice southern rights. I might have deferred, as I am always willing to do, to the judgment of abler and more experienced Senators here, but I saw a conflict of opinion between two distinguished Senators living in sections possessing similar institutions, and I acted upon my own re- sponsibility. I have differed with the distinguished Senator from Missouri on the subject of the proviso, and now differ with him on the subject of the powers of Congress. We are not identical in opinion upon these very questions which now agitate the country -and how can I be identified with him in this matter further than the coincidence of our votes? I know he will derive no consolation from it; but the respect I entertain for the dis- tinguished Senator from Missouri is not of yesterday. It is a recollection which passes over some thirty-six years, to the time when quite a stripling, and when the chrysalis of soldiership had dropped from me, and I came out a new fledged officer, and had the honor of first reporting to that distinguished gentleman, then a lieutenant colonel of thP. regiment to which I belonged, and the first field officer I ever had. Through all our acquaintance he treated me with frankness, with kindness, and with justice. I had many evidences of his friendly esteem. ,vhen I was an exile in the wilderness, his solicitude for my welfare followed me there. He remembered me, and he sent evidences of his kindness to me. And in renewing our association in this body it was on my part with feelings of the most cordial personal
Powered by FlippingBook