.,
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1850
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to their nation and their homes, without ransom. I ask no recom- pense. Was not all this done for the South, and am I to be ques- tioned of having a southern heart, when that heart is large enough, I trust, to embrace the whole Union, if not the whole world? [Applause] And, Mr. President, I must say that I cannot offer the prayers of the righteous that my petition might be heard. But I beseech those whose piety will permit them reverently to petition, that they will pray for this Union, and ask that He who buildeth up and pulleth down nations will, in mercy, preserve and unite us. For a nation divided against itself cannot stand. I wish, if this Union must be dissolved, that its ruins may be the monument of my grave, and the graves of my family. I wish no epitaph to be written to tell that I survive the ruin of this glorious Union. [Applause.] 1 Congressiona.l Globe, Am>endix XXII, Part 1, pp. 97-102. 2 For Houston's stand on the Wilmot Proviso see To Gadsden, September 20, 1849, this volume. To Eow ARD HALL 1 City of Washington, 24th Apl. 1850. Sir. By this day's mail I have received a letter from Col. J. Morgan 2 enclosing one from a Mr. Merritt 3 to you and upon which you have endorsed your reply to him: In that reply you say "I have nothing in my possession that would actually convict Sam Houston of rascality to the government," alluding as I suppose to Texas. Now Sir, I challenge you or any other panderer or pimp, to publish anything, that you may have in your possession or can procure, aught that can cast the least shade upon my character, as an honest man or a patriot. Your evident intention is to hold out the idea, that you hold something of a suspicious character against me. Can you or any one like you dare to become the maligner of any decent man, without the most arrant presumption? Who are you? You are the man who began in the very inception of Texan struggles, by exaggerated representations of your services in New Orleans to swindle Texas out of her land: Yes, Sir, you obtained as a gratuity from the Consultation a league of land: Believing your representations I advocated the donation. Since then, I have good reason to know that you are unworthy, and I was imposed
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