222
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1855
around you: In the East General Rusk is not one of them. He is not sufficiently ultra for them in their new-fangled doctrines. They are known to be either nullifiers or disunionists, and a majority of them of this latter class. They are catering to the ruinous doctrines of disunion. They have caught the cant of some insidious leader, and believe that this country would be better off to have liberty without Union, than Union without lib- erty. The Union cannot exist without liberty-they are one and inseparable. It was freemen who created the Union, and free- men alone can preserve it. This cant is intended to prepare the public mind by such suggestions for disunion. They talk of cre- ating a great Southern party, to unite Southern interests, and for what? It is for the purpose of ruining us. Do you think that the United States can ever be divided and either portion ever enjoy liberty? No, never. With no natural boundary be- tween the two sections, standing armies will be the inevitable result, and taxation to sustain them: and no nation can be free when bowed down by taxation. Anarchy would ensue, and dis- tress and despondency would ensue, where now reign harmony and peace. What will be your situation in the event of dissolu- tion of the Union? Contemplate but for a moment all the evil that must inevitably attend that dissolution. You may approach the gulf of ruin, but you dare not look into it. But you will be called to look into it some day, and you had as well become familiar with its horrors while still at a distance. There are at the present time in the Southern States 240,000 slave holders and 3,500,000 slaves. Now, suppose that you have neighboring enemies with no natural boundaries between them, where there will be an antagonism and diversity of interest existing between them. War will be the inevitable result. You will have a strong enemy in your midst. How will you compare 240,000 slave holders with 3,500,000 slaves-more than seven to one? Think you that those who do not hold slaves would remain in Texas where they would be constantly exposed to the dangers of insur- 1·ection? They would emigrate from Texas t.o get away from the over- shadowing danger. They would leave slave holders without the means of protection, and go to the North where their families would not be exposed to the cruelty of. revengeful slaves. You have these facts to look at. I am in favor of cultivating harmony between the North and the South. I am in favor of the compro- mises of the Constitution. I.am not in favor of repealing them
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