WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1851
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willing, if it were a small evil, to eradicate it; and if it were a great one, I wished to cure it if possible. Texas was peculiarly circumstanced-she was the youngest daughter of the Union, and had brought, as she thought, an ample dowry, and cast it into the lap of the mother republic. She did it ungrudgingly, and with the fealty of a daughter, and with all the filial affection of a child re-united to a family from which she has been estranged. She came, with pure heartfelt devotion, to present her offering at the shrine of the common country, hoping that it would be acceptable, and that a place would be reserved for it. She has that in herself that has led to vast and jmmeasur- able events, and viewing it with an expansive philosophical eye, has extended into a vista through which we can look at the con- sequences that have already resulted to the Union, and the im- measurable benefits yet to be expected. Texas was the link that coupled-the Union with California, and connected it with Asia. In California are hidden the stores of thousands of years, de- posited in the soil so richly, that even avarice became entranced, and Aladdin himself might have been alarmed at the wonderful extent of gold mines that have been found. That is the soil of America, the treasure is that of America, and the commerce be- yond, that is extending to the Pacific, and will give us that of the world, is that of America, in my opinion, if we remain a united people. Why should we not remain united? Are we not homo- geneous? There is one language, there is one altar, there is one religion, for every man worships God according to the ·dictates of his own conscience, and there is a common Lord and a common Saviour. What is there to distract us? Have we not unity of interest from the North to the South, from Bangor to Point Isabel? Go from the Atlantic to the waves of the Pacific, pass the mountains that have been deemed impassable, and that now interpose no barrier, and you will find a unity of interest that is inseparable, if the heart is right and loyal to liberty and the Union. The people of Texas are of one sentiment; to prove it, I will mention a Fourth of July toast:- "Our friends, from Maine to the Rio Grande, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; our hearts embrace them with paternal affection." There was a comprehensiveness of sentiment there; there was no idle profession. They have acted up to the conditions of the Compromise, as they understood it. There have been some dis- sentient men who had been planted there, who had been tainted in 1832; men who are perverse in disposition, and whose moral
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