WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1850
199
And is not Texas justifiable in guarding the interests that may yet remain to her against further encroachment? We are told that she is contumacious if she dares to resist this dictation. Sir, I can tell the gentleman who said so that he is mistaken. He is wide of the mark. T"here is a feeling through this country, from Maine to the Rio Grande, that will vibrate at every touch, and feel that our institutions are concerned in resisting military usurpation. Texas asks not for sympathy- she asks for justice. And will you tell me that the American people, because they are not in local identity to Texas, will dis- regard her just claims? '\Vill they not respond to the appeals of a sister State, made in behalf of injured rights; in vindication of her honor and the integrity of her territory? Do you tell me that Texas alone is to feel this wrong? The nation will feel it. A military usurpation on the rights of Texas has been committed, and any man is blind that cannot see it. All men of under- standing must admit that this is an attempt to usurp the rights that Texas claims-that the United States acknowledged that she claimed when she was annexed to the Union. Have these rights been adjudicated? They have not. Has not all the evidence been in favor of the claim of Texas? I say it has. Repeated messages of the former Chief Magistrate, Mr. Polk, decided that Texas was entitled to the territory that sh·e claimed. And what did the late lamented Chief M~gistrate decide? He decided that the territory was to be governed under military rule, subject to the "Kearny code," and such law as Texas 1night exteml over it. The first said that' the military should aid Texas. T'he latter said they should remain neutral, until the order of the 19th of November last. That order was not the odginal design of the late lamented Chief Magistrate, but it was instigated by men who caused him to do what was wrong-to encroach upon the rights of a sovereign State. Sir, this is no idle pretext of Texas. Texas does not wish to embarrass the legislation of this country; she does not wish to throw anything in the way of a compromise, conciliation, and harmony. Her object is to expedite it; to bring this country to a settled and tranquil condition; to draw out the sting that has been inflicted on her feelings. Sir, Texas has been ready to sacrifice everything to the Union; she has made herself an offering upon its altar; she has given her political and national independence to add to the glory and the strength of this Union. And do you presume that she would participate in rending it? She would be the last community on earth that would do any
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