WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1850
139
Mr. Houston. I can assure the honorable Senator that this is a very delicate and complicated question. But I have no hesitancy in assuring him, that, although that gentleman was very near my heart, my recollection was drawn at the moment to the laurels Mississippi had won by the honorable Senator's colleague, and by General Quitman and other heroic gentlemen of the State, and I did not identify that gentleman with any movement that South Carolina had made, or mean that he had had any agency in connection with it; not the slightest. But, I believe that, if South Carolina never had existed, and if it had not been for her disposition, and for the movements that began there, Mississippi never would have thought of it. Mr. Davis, of Mississippi. I ,vould ask the Senator from Texas to yield me the floor for one moment to make an explanation. Mr. Houston. Certainly; with great pleasure.... [Jefferson Davis then explained that Mississippi politicians were not influenced by South Carolina sentiment in calling the Southern Convention.] Mr. Houston. I am sorry I have either elicited any inter- rogatories, or incurred any reflections. It was not my intention to do so. I have not gone into any reference to the private history of the people of Mississippi. I disavow all such inten- tion.... [Foote reinforced the remarks of Davis that Missis- sippians looked to the leaders of no other state to direct their sentiments and actions.] Mr. Houston. I believe what the honorable Senator has said; but at the same time I must say, that I should distrust my own sagacity if I did not believe that both the honorable Senators have influence there, [in Mississippi], and a decided influence, too. And more I will say, that they ought to have influence; but as to their exercising it on this particular occasion, it never once struck me to suppose anything of the kind when I made the remark. I imagine it had been got up by the newspapers, which are often in the habit of suggesting such things; that resolutions had been adopted recommending a convention of the States, and that after each one had manifested his indignation against the North, he had exhibited great affection and devotion to the South. I have no doubt that is the way it began, and that the honorable gentlemen are not at all responsible. They have not a higher appreciation of Miss1ssippi than I have. I know they are a gallant, generous, and brave people, and that their hos- pitality flows as copiously as the proud river that washes their
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