502
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1854
Others must succeed us and occupy the places which we now fill. They will be instructed by what we do. \Ve are not acting alone for ourselves, but are trustees for the benefit of posterity. Our actions are to inure to them for good or evil. We are, by our legislation, to benefit or to prejudice them. Mi;. President, in the far distant future I think I perceive those who come after us, who are to be affected by the action of this body upon this bill. Our children have two alternatives here presented. They are either to live in after times in the enjoyment of peace, of harmony, and prosperity, or the alternative remains for them of anarchy, discord, and civil broil. We can avert the last. I trust we shall. At any rate, so far as my efforts can avail, I will resist every attempt to infringe or repeal the Missouri Compromise. 1 Congressional Globe, Appendix, 1853-1854, 201-207. ~Ben McCulloch (November< 11, 1811-March 7, 1862), son of Major Alex- ander McCulloch and Frances Le Noir of Virginia, was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee. He was one of the older sons of a family of six sons and six daughters. His father was an aide-de-camp to General James Coffee in the Creek war, also in the War of 1812. In 1820, the family moved to Alabama, but in 1830, when Ben was nineteen years old they moved back to Tennessee, and settled at Dyersburg in West Tennessee, about twenty miles .from the Mississippi river. Two years later Ben and his younger brother, Henry, started out for themselves in the lumber business-cutting cypress logs, forming rafts of them, and floating them down the Mississippi to Natchez or to New Orleans. In West Tennessee the McCulloch family lived only thirty miles from that of David Crockett, and according to frontier customs they regarded themselves as neighbors. When David Crockett went to Texas, young Ben McCulloch followed, and was there joined, in a short time by his brother Henry and other members of the family. He entered the Texas army as a private, but in the battle of San Jacinto was placed in immediate charge of the two small brass cannon known as the "Twin Sisters," the only pieces of artillery in Houston's army. His conduct in this battle won the admiration of his superior officers. After the battle of San Jacinto, Ben McCulloch returned to Tennessee, and studied surveying under the tutorage of his father, but he was back in Texas before the land office was opened in 1838. He settled at Gonzales, where he set up his office as surveyor of lands. While thus employed with the duties of his profession he took part in several Indian expeditions-- especially the battle against the Indians at Plum Creek in 1840, and in the expedition against the Indians located along the tributaries of the Guadalupe river, in 1841. Also, while located at Gonzales, he represented that district in the Fourth Congress of the Republic, serving in; that body for two years. In fact, Ben McCulloch served for many years on the Texas frontier as a Texas ranger. In 1842, he was elected first lieutenant in John C. Hays's famous company of rangers, and when the Mexican War broke out, he joined the United States volunteers, and was made the captain of a company of scouts, which rendered effective and daring service to General Taylor's
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