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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1853
426
and good men did they fail? Nothing. Why, they had no timidity. T'hey were glorious in their day and generation, and through the ocean of time as it rolls on, they will shine in luminous comparison with other men in the brightness of their achieve- ments. I cannot believe that they were timid. I am advancing to that period of life when I am a little tenacious. I do not like to be charged with undue timidity; though it is said to be the concomitant of age. I do not believe it, sir. Present the occasion, when justified in principle, to achieve any great object, and then call upon the American people to achieve it; and if they fail in it, I will say they are unworthy of the, sires whose bright example they had ceased to follow. But I never apprehend that the day will ever come until this nation has passed the zenith, until it has attained beyond its meridian, and is far in its decline, when it will forget the glories of the past, or prove recreant to the delightful inculcations of wisdom from their forefatbers. They cannot do it. I should be sorry to think that I had lived in an age and generation, one so blest and so happy as this, and on a spot of land that seemed to be reserved by the wise provi- dence of God to be discovered on the globe, to be the asylum of freedom, the home of intelligence, of religion, and of law, if the people could soon forget the illustrious examples of the Fathers of the Republic. There seem~ to have been a special favor of the Almighty bestowed upon the people of the United States such as there has been on no other nation. It may be compared to another Canaan. It was excepted by the operation of God's - divine and peculiar favor for this favored people. Then how ought we to estimate the boon that we enjoy? How ought we to estimate our relations with surrounding nations? Sir, we ought to cherish every high and ennobling principle, and · we ought to exalt mankind by our example. "Show me fhy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works." While we are so peculiarly blessed, and while we may wish that other nations may have the same degree of liberty, equality, and justice, let us manifest to them that it is not idle prate on our part, but that we mean what we say, and will do what we mean. Then, sir, our high example will elevate mankind more than all the political and diplomatic interference and international resolutions that we could adopt in a hundred thousand years. Nations would then admire the rectitude of our conduct, and while we preached we should also be practicing, and they would
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