WruTJNGS OF SAM HousToN, 1856
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There was peace from Calais to San Diego, from Cape Flattery to Cape Florida-the whole country was pervaded with universal peace. The measures which had produced it had the sanction of the South, and the approval of the North. Nothing seemed to disturb the happy repose. Our Union was a placid ocean of rest. Was there any measure within the imagination of man to devise which could have had so deleterious an influence upon the peace and harmony of the country as the repeal of the Missouri Com- promise? Not one, sir, in the broad domain of America-Pan- dora's box was opened by that repeal-now, throughout this broad land you see its malign influence upon peace, upon concord, upon fraternal affection. All were blighted by it-driven out, exiled from the public councils. But for that measure, we had reason to expect the duration of peace to be eternal whilst this country stood, whilst liberty existed, or whilst patriotism had a· resting place in an American heart, or there was a hand to raise in defense of our institutions. The Missouri Compromise was passed under the Democratic administration of Mr. Monroe. It was sanctioned by his cabinet, a majority of them southern men. It was approved by the wise men of that day; by the great lights that have adorned the Senate chamber, and rendered its name illustrious, Monroe and Jackson, Polk and Tyler, were in the presidential chair from the South, and not one of them claimed in her behalf, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The most sagacious, astute, and vigilant statesman of the South-he who watched, with Argus eyes, every- thing which seemed to point the least finger at Southern interests or Southern institutions-the illustrious Mr. Calhoun-regarded its repeal as the death-knell of the Union~ The great men, who regarded Southern interests with as much tenacity and patrotism as any men who have lived, surely would have discovered the great secret of restoring peace to a country which was at peace. But, sir, it was left not for the sagacity, nor for the astuteness, nor for the patriotism, nor for the jealousy of Southern men, to discover that this great measure was important; it came from a Northern man. He needs must be more southern than the men of the South. Sir, I claim to be a southern man. I was born in the South; I have served the South; I have been faithful to the South! I have been no alien estranged from Southern rights and Southern in- terests; but, sir, I was born a man of the Union. I returned to the Union and brought accessions with me, not to a section, but to the Union. The bones of my ancestors slumber in the South. All that is dear to me is in the South. My home, though it be but an humble cabin, is in the South, on soil redeemed from foreign
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