169
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1855
governors, you statesmen, go and regulate your own domestic institutions as you think proper. Give us the same privilege, and it is all we ask. Let us alone." How long has that spirit of acquiescence -existed? How perfect was it on the commence- ment of the last session of Congress? Not a voice of discord was heard throughout the broad land. Peace, concord, harmony, and unanimity of feeling existed throughout the whole Union. Acquiescence in the Compromise of 1850 had accorded to the country a state of peace, and there was a tranquility not before ·heard of. To be sure, there were some exceptions; but I speak of measures generally. There was no jarring sound until a voice was heard in the ears of the American community, "Nebraska! Nebraska!" That was the note of discord. From whence did it come? Was it from the South? [A voice, "No."] I deny it. I will prove from history that the South never demanded it, nor did all the South acquiesce in it either. [Applause.] I know that it requires some iron nerve to stand up against clamor and numbers, but I would not give a fig for a man that could not stand against the world when his breast plate is honor and his helmet truth. [Cheers.] No[t] one legislature of the whole South, not one executive, exhibited an uneasiness under the Missouri Compromise. No, not one. It came from the North, and I repudiate its being an effort of the slave power to encroach upon the rights of the North. The North was not injured by it. The injury was done to the South, as I insisted at the time. It was putting the knife to the throat of the South, whilst it was an abstraction at most, because not one slave would ever be recognized in the Constitution of the country north of 36 deg. 30 min., on the score of economy or policy; for slave labor could never requite the owner of the slave north of 36 deg. 30 min.; but south of that slave labor could be productive and beneficial to him. It was an abstraction, but it was a kind of mischievous abstrac- tion that broke up the harmony of the country, and excited appre- hensions at the North that the South was struggling for dominion. I felt that I occupied an isthmus between two oceans-that when I navigated the troubled seas, whose tempestuous waves tossed me, I should soon cross the isthmus, and that a border sea would receive me. I felt that I had to leave a posterity in America, ·and they were to have their destiny for weal or woe blended with the people of America. I could see no North, no East, no West, no South. .It was -one country, an undivided Union, 111 which I
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