WRITINGS OF Sur HousTON, 1856
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illustrious achievements. We are to take men who have affections of home to which they can revert-men who will interpose their persons between all that is sacred and dear to them and an invad- ing enemy. They are the men who are to form the bulwark of liberty, and to stand forth in defense of our institutions. They have common sympathies with the community; they have com- mon interests-they have a common feeling with the people; but men who are estranged from social relations with the world, who congregate and associate together in camps, lose the finer affections of the heart, become mercenary in their feelings, or sensual in their appetites, and lose that high-toned chivalry to which alone we are to look for defense. We must look to the militia of the country,-the volunteer force-to step forward in time of danger, and not the regulars. They are not formed of the best materials. The men who pursue the ordinary vocations of life, with all the social endearments clustering around their hearts at home, who from high impulses of patriotism and the love of glory, and prompted by the recollection of ancestral deeds, are those on whom you must rely to step forward to defend your liberties. It is to them I look; and I never will vote in time of peace, as long as I live, for an increase in the regular army.
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1 Congrcssional Globe, 1855-1856, Part 2, pp. 2216, 2217.
A SP~ECH RELATIVE TO THE GENERAL CONFUSION AND ANTAG- ONISM AMONG THE STATESMEN OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, AUGUST 30, 1856 1 Mr. President, the resolution~before the Senate is one to which any remarks that I may have to make on the present occasion will be pertinent and appropriate. The debates that have taken place upon the great questions ,vhich now interest the country, have been of a somewhat discursive character. The discussion has involved questions affecting the duration of our government, the continuance of our Union, and the preservation of our free institutions. I have a right to presume that every gentleman here desires, like myself, to preserve the Union. That the times are woefully out of joint, no one will deny. More than thirty years ago I was in the councils of this nation, and for the last ten years I have had the honor of serving in this body. During all this period, I have not witnessed a crisis like the present, nor one portending such imminent evils to the country as this does. I do not know that it is in my power to cast oil on the troubled waters, or to allay that excitement which I regret extremely to
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