WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1855
175
conjunction with you to elucidate the great principle of self-gov- ernment, that men of equal condition, intelligence and taste, unite in achieving in our country. These are the benefits we antici- pated, and these the blessings for which we united with this government. Upon these principles, too, we agreed that the North and South should be equal recipients of the benefits of the annexation of Texas. We agreed that the Missouri Compromise line should be applied to Texas, and all north of 36 deg. 30 m. comprising 5-1/2 degrees of latitude, the North should have dedicated to their peculiar institutions, while in all south of that line the South should retain an interest. We were willing to do this, to show the quality of our prin- ciples, upon which we have acted up to this day. I invoke the North to regard these things; they are evidences of our sincerity and good faith. These concessions have not been eschewed by the people of Texas any more than by the North. The bill that has produced this agitation, which I would be glad to see laid, was not discussed in the South nor anywhere but in Congress. It was hurried through Congress-there only it was discussed- with precipitancy almost indecorous. It was forced through over those who made but a weak opposition in point of numbers, and, I am not sure, but in point of earnestness. It was carried for special purposes, I suppose, and judging from past events, it must have disappointed the hopes of those who did it. [Cheers.] Ladies and Gentlemen-I have been led to the reflection that in the adaptation of labor to climate and production, it would be impossible to furnish supplies to meet demand, if it were possible to wipe out slavery and transfer every one of the Southern slaves to the soil of Africa. It would be impossible to supply one-fourth or one-sixth of the demand that has gradually grown up in the present condition of the country. The white man's labor could never supply that of the slave, whose constitution is adapted to Southern labor, climate and production. It is not that the slave has to bear the burden and heat of the day. Our laborers rise with the sun, are allowed half an hour to breakfast and two hours at noon, avoiding the heat of noonday, and return at night to their supper and repose. They are not over worked; yet any white man undergoing the same process, would be unable to endure it. He would fall under the heat of the sun. There are physical causes why that is so, and they are known to physi- ologists.
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