WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1854
501
that may be follo\Yed on occasions when they do not desire it. If you take away the sanctity of the first compromise after the formation of the Constitution, why not take away the last; and if others should grow up, why not sweep all compromises from your statutes, and from the policy of the country? If you dis- regard one, and treat it with levity, impair its importance and its weight in the public mind, you prepare the way for a disregard of all. If you regard it as a sacred instrument, one to be est~emed and adhered to, you will find that its benefits will inure to you. But if you tear it up and scatter it to the winds, you will reap the whirlwind; you will lose the benefit of compacts. Sir, I most fervently and devoutly trust that the Missouri compromise may remain. If the South it to get nothing by its repeal but an ab- straction, she does not want it. So far as I can represent her, she has not demanded it. It is an afflictive gratuity which will be of no benefit to her. Mr. President, I came into public life under the auspices of this compromise. More than thirty years ago I occupied a seat in the other end of the Capitol. Since then I have seen ,much, and ·have not been unobservant. I have seen great changes take place in this Government, and but one memorial remains of the period when I was first acquainted with it in an official position. Mr. Pleasanton, the Fifth Auditor. is the only officer left of all wh<;> were then attached to the Federal Government. Even the porters of the public buildings have disappeared. New genera- tions have succeeded. T'en Presidents have filled the Executive chair. Out of nearly three hundred representatives, in the Senate and House of Representatives, but three remain. A distinguished member of the other House, from Missouri, [Mr. Benton,] who was then a Senator on this floor, the distinguished Senator fTom Massachusetts, [Mr. Everett,] who was then a member of the House, and myself, are all the memorials left; and, sir, "When I remember all The friends so link'd together, I've seen around me fall Like leaves in wintry weather, I feel like one Who treads alone Some banquet hall deserted; Whose lights are fled, Whose garlands dead, And all but he departed."
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