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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1832-1853
must presume, therefore, that Christ and his disciples made use of wine as a beverage. It was at the celebration of the Passover, an occurance simi- lar to our 21st of April Passover, that our Saviour took the wine cup from the festive board, and inaugurated the holy communion. I am a sincere Christian. I believe the precepts and examples as taught and practised by Christ and his apostles to be the bed- rock of democracy. Nowhere in the New Testament can we learn that any agency save moral suasion was invoked to make people religious or moral. I do not object to total abstinence. I believe that total absti- nence is the only way by which some intemperate drinkers can be saved. I know it from my own personal experience. When a person's appetite for stimulating beverages becomes uncontrol- lable, he should "touch not, handle not." If I cannot indulge in the use of the same in moderation, it is my misfortune. To undertake to prescribe rules for conduct for others more fortu- nate, by legislative enactments, is a species of legislation that will not be tolerated in a free land. Moral suasion is the only legitimate weapon that ministers of the gospel can make use of in winning men from vice of every description. Garlands of grace and beauty are more effectual in winning men from the vice of intemperance than sumptuary laws. With these observations I will give you my opinion concerning what I think would be proper legislation with reference to a day of rest. It would be proper for the legislature to declare it a penal offence for any person to disturb religious worship on Sun- day, except to enforce the criminal laws of the state. Such a law would protect the rights of all and work injury to none." 1 From a broadside printed by the Dallas He1·ald, October 29, 1882. Photo- stat copies of this broadside are to be found in both the Texas State Library and The University of Texas Library. The speech is also to be found in Judge William Lewis' Bfog1·aphica.l Sketch of the Life of Sani Ho11ston, with A Condensed Hist01"1J of Texas froni Its Discovery to 1861, 83-89. This speech in both sources is prefaced by this paragraph: "In 1853 a delega- tion of ministers having knowledge that Senator Houston had joined the Sons of Temperance, called upon him in eastern Texas, on his way home from Congress, and requested him to bestow his influence and aid to secure the enactment of the Sunday prohibition law. The following is his reply." The broadside states that its contents were taken from "the biography of this great man, now in press and to be issued in a few dnys by Judge Wm.
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