WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1851
329
I do not expect to occupy any of the time of the Senate by adverting to matters in connection with myself. But at the con- clusion of the last session of Congress, I was attacked by .a then member of the Senate from South Carolina, in a manner of which I cannot refrain from speaking. A publication had appeared over my name in a letter addressed to a gentleman, and in which some error had accidentally occurred in transcrib- ing. I was attacked as having charged upon South Carolina cer- tain principles which were not contained in her constitution. It was said that what was in her constitution was in the constitu- tion of every other State, and therefore I must have been either very ignorant of the laws of South Carolina and the other States, or it was a very useless charge. It has been my misfor- tune to be charged with having assailed the State of South Carolina. Now once for all, as I have no great inclination to be speaking in the Senate or elsewhere, I will place myself right in relation to South Carolina. Whenever I have spoken of that State, I did not allude to the people, but to her rulers. I did not call in question their patriotism, but their policy. I had repeat- edly been attacked by citizens of that State; I had been de- nounced by the illustrious man, upon whose memory I would not cast a slur. He is gone, and with him are buried all the resent- ments I might ever have felt; but my feelings toward him were only those which resulted from wrongs, real or imaginary, which I had suffered. I have no enmity with him, so that I can have no feelings of enmity to gratify when ·I allude to South Caro- lina, or to her most distinguished citizen. When I speak of her, I do it with all deference to her honored Senator, [Mr. Butler,] who sits before me. I do not agree with all her institutions; and though she is very tenacious in relation to State rights, of which 1 am a sincere lover-for I would die before I would see any of the rights which belong to the States wrested from them-yet it seems to me that if South Carolina was as sensitive with regard to her municipal institutions as she is with regard to her relations with the Federal Government, she would perhaps find that she had a great deal to do. In looking over the constitu- tions of the various States of the Union, and comparing them with the Federal Constitution, I have come to the conclusion that South Carolina is not more liberal in her institutions to her own citizens than are most of the other States. If the Federal Gov- ernment were to enact a law by Congress, approved by the President, dictating to any State or States that they should not
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