WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1854
509
They are not desired ; and, so far as I am concerned, they will never be accepted. Neither my colleague nor myself have even been consulted in relation to this subject. On the contrary, we have been sedulously excluded from all consultation. I have never had an intimation that a conference was to take place, a caucus to be held, or stringent measures applied in the passage of this bill. Nothing of the kind. I have been in the dark in relation to it. I feel that Texas has as important an interest as any other section of this Union in the repeal of the Compromise, and would be as vitally affected by it. She must be eventually,, if calamities are to fall upon the South, the most unfortunate of all that portion of the Union. I will give you my reasons why I think Texas would be in the most deplorable condition of all the Southern States. It is now the terminus of the slave population. It is a country of vast extent and fertile soil, favorable to the culture and growth of those productions which are most important to the necessities of the world-cotton, sugar, and tobacco. An immense slave population must eventually .go there. The demand for labor is so great, everything is so inviting to the enterprising and industrious, that labor will be transferred there, because it will be of a most profitable character, and the disproportion of slaves to the white population must be immense. Then, sir, it becomes the gulf of slavery, and there its terrible eddies will whirl, if convulsions take place. I have a right, therefore, to claim some consideration in the Senate for the effect whichl the repeal of this Compromise will have upon our State. I have a right to demand it, and demand it for other reasons than those which I formerly gave here, that were personal to myself. It is alleged that the refusal on the part of the North to continue the Missouri Compromise line over the acquisitions of 1847 and 1848 was a repudiation of the Compromise. That may be thought technically true. I grant that a proposition was made, or a compromise entered into by the North and South, to extend the Missouri Compromise as far as the jurisdiction of the United States extended. That was to the Pacific Ocean. When it was, by contract, carried on through Texas on its annexation, then, if I understand it, it was a new line-a continuation of the old line by consent. It was established there by a compact with Texas; for by the original Missouri Compromise it could onlv extend as far as the jurisdiction of the United State went. Then
Powered by FlippingBook