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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1851
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will stand by the flag of the Union, and defend all the stars· that gem it with the same bravery and devotion with which she clung through so many hours of gloom and peril to the banner in which glittered her own. It may be asked whether a contingency might not arise when the duty every man owes to the fireside and homes of his family and friends would require him to surrender the Union. Un- doubtedly such a sad spectacle might possibly be presented. Gross injustice, rank oppression, and persevering tyranny, might produce it, but I think that day will never come. It has never yet come, and I believe it never will. When it does, if ever, it will be a law 'l(,nto itself. It will have to be met not by the evasive hypocrisy of secession, or nullification, or sectional con- ventions, but in the bold and manly spirit that actuated our fathers in the revolution-that noble spirit which proclaims that the preservation of liberty will justify any measure necessary to that great end. In the mean time let us all, within our appro- priate spheres, contribute our utmost exertions to subdue fanaticism and violence, to resist sectional encroachments, to restore kind and harmonious feeling, and to cherish those ex- pansive sentiments of patriotism in which the constitution and the Union originated, and which rendered our fathers a band of brothers. We are admonished ·by the highest wisdom that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Let us give up to croakers and prophets of ill the task of trampling on the con- stitution, ruining the country, and blasting its prosperity. The employment is congenial to their feelings, and affords them the only chance they have to attract public attention. If the strength of our system of government be destined to pass through another fiery ordeal for its purification, I can pray for no higher blessing to be conferred on my country than that our Chief Magistrate should possess the iron will, the Spartan virtue, the patriotic ardor of Washington, all of . which qualities likewise characterized Andrew Jackson, the "pilot who weathered the first storm." I have hastily sketched these crude suggestions, and now sub- mit them to you in the hope that they may stimulate you and others to adopt some effective measures to rescue Virginia from the least shade of suspicion that she countenances this movement which she has been invited to lead. The invitation that has been
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