WRITINGS 01:' SAM HOUSTON, 1854
525
I may hold the contents of this protest, to some extent, heretical; yet they are not expressed in such offensive language as would justify a denial of their right to memorialize. If it had been intended to impugn our motives or our actions, either as corrupt or immoral, we could bear it. The people surely have a. right to think and speak upon our action. We are not placed in a position so high that we are elevated above the questioning power of the people. They have a right to look into our action and investigate our conduct, and, if they do not approve of it, to express their opinions in relation to it. I shall never make war upon them on that account; yet, I trust that whatever disposition may be made of the bill which we have passed, the agitation has already reached its acme; and that from this point it may decline, until the country is again restored to peace and happiness. [Mr. Mason, Mr. Butler, and Mr. Adams speak.] Mr. President, I have the misfortune to differ from my friends in relation to this measure, but that difference is not sufficient to induce me to enter anew into the discussion of it. I will, however, discuss the propriety of this memorial. The gentlemen misappre- hend its character entirely. I understood the honorable Senator from Virginia-but I may have been mistaken-to say that it invoked the vengeance of the Almighty God upon the Senate. [Mr. Mason. In substance it does, as I understand.] There is no invocation contained in the memorial. It is a respectful protest, stating their appreciation of the measure then pending before the Senate of the United States, and not one word is contained in it derogatory to the Senate at the time it was drawn, and there is no invocation of wrath or vengeance upon the members of this body. It is a respectful protest, in the name of the Almighty God. By the expression which I used, that these ministers were the vicegerents of the Almighty, I merely intended to say that they were harbingers of peace to their fellowmen; and if it was a lavsus linguae, or improper expression, it does not change the intention that I then entertained in my mind of expressing a belief that it was nothing else than an extraordinary emergency that diverted men from their ordinary pursuits in the ministry of the Gospel to engage· at all in, or to step even to the verge of, the political arena. We are told, Mr. President, that this was intended for the purpose of agitation. It is certainly a manifestation of agitation; but it could not have been intended to creatO' agitation, for the
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