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527
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1854
I understood my honorable friend from Mississippi to say that the South had been groaning for a long time under this oppressive measure. The South, sir, are a spirited people, and how they could have submitted, for more than a third of a century, to this indignity, this wrong, this act of oppression, which has ground them down in their prosperity and development, and never have said a word about it until this auspicious moment arrived, and that, too when political subjects have been agitated at the North and South-that it should have been reserved for the action of the present Congress, after all others had glided by without complaint, rebuke, remonstrance, or suggestion of appeal, is a most extraordinary thing. My friend does not apprehend it; but there was no excitement out of this Capitol, or out of the city of Washington. It originated here. This was the grand laboratory of political action and political machinery. The object was to mature the measure here, and inflict it, by a coup d'etat, upon the nation, and then radiate it to every point of the country. The potion does not react pleasantly. There is a response, but how does it go down? · Not well. The physic works-it works badly; it works upward. I am willing to receive any memorials that are presented to this body which are respectable in terms, whether they come from preachers, politicians, civilians, or from the beggars that congregate about your cities; and I will treat them with respect and kindness. As long as they are respectful in terms to this body, though they express their apprehension of a calamity about to fall on the country, it brands no man; and if they denounce a measure in advance, it is what they have a right to do. We have a more eligible position here to advocate our opinions than individuals have in social life to maintain their positions. We have all the panoply of power and State sovereignty thrown around the members of this body to guard and shield them against attacks; but they are thrown in the midst of the com- munity without any shield, except it is the shield of morality and propr.iety of conduct which gives protection to their persons. While they express themselves respectfully, I shall never treat with disrespect preachers, or any other individuals, who come before this body to give us their opinions upon political subjects. [In·reply to some remarks of Mr. Douglas.] Mr. President, as the honorable Senator from Illinois, the Chairman of the Committee on Territories, seemed in a most emphatic manner to address his remarks to me, I think him
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