WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1850
217
motives to the heart. Sir, I stand up and contradict it, both by experience and practice. Texas regardless of southern interests ! Other persons stepping in as the supervisors of her policy, her opinions, and undertake to charge her representatives here with making war upon the South! Sir, there is no war made upon the South; and the southern people will, in my opinion, so con- sider it. What expression, sir, has been given of apprehension in the South? Where has the intelligent expression of opinion been made in the South that she is borne down by such measures? Have the southern people come here with their petitions and memorials? Or have opinions been manufactured here, and disseminated throughout the South, to rouse them to a state of phrensy, and without a submission of facts to them? It is denunciation by wholesale; it is a reiteration of the awful con- sequences that must follow in order to drive the people of the South to entertain sentiments of disunion and secession. I con- tend that, unless some positive act is done in derogation of their constitutional rights, they will neither secede nor nullify. Are we to take as an indication of southern sentiment the expression of the Southern Convention? Are we to regard that as the controlling influence of the South? Are they to dictate to a legislative body as august as the Congress of the United States? Are they to dictate to the authorities at Washington what they are to do? Are they to menace what must be done by the South? Are these the principles upon which our Constitution and the institutions of our country are based? I do contend, sir, that it was a surreptitious meeting which was held at Nashville. I have respect for gentlemen who were in part constituents of that body. I respect them as Americans ought to do, and as gentlemen ought to be respected. But their action was a piece of flagrant arrogance. By whom were they constituted a great assembly to dictate to the Congress of the United States, an august body?-submitting ultimatums and sine qua nons to the Congress of the United States, and telling them "you must do so and so, or we ·will plant ourselves so and so: former compromises not to be regarded, but you must make further compromises, and further concessions." Did this look like a disposition to conciliate, to harmonize, to reconcile diffi- culties, or did it not look like dictation to say, "We will have our own way; we are self-constituted, self-created, and we will create you what we please?"
Powered by FlippingBook