WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
386
should cease to be the glorious people we were; our reminiscences would be no longer national; our glorious memories would be blurred; and the world would say, "these men sprung from noble sires, but they have proved themselves unworthy of liberty and have sunk to the grade of ignoble sons!" Let not this reproach fall upon us, but let us stand up like men who have an interest beyond the present in the fate of their posterity. If we cannot live together in fraternal relations we never can in a state of antagonism and disunion. Then, hostility, incessant annoyances, will dispense with all the offices of peace and kindness, and we shall be thrown upon that dire and dern-ier resort-the chance of arms and the hazards of battle. But, Mr. President, grave charges have been made against a party of which I acknowledge myself to be a member. If an apology were necessary to the Senate for saying so, I might make it; but as I have never yet found it incumbent on myself to disown my country, or my character, I will not, on this occasion, render any apology. The reason why I cannot act with. the present Democracy, (who-by the by, have a very few of the features of the old Jackson Democracy that I can discern,) is that they have denounced the American principles in their platform-they have incorporated the Nebraska bill as one of the planks, and have placed the issue of the canvass upon that. I have stood in an attitude of antagonism to that from the commencement, and I have given my reasons for that course. I am not going to stultify myself by acting with such a party. If I did, they might very justly point at me and say, "He is a contemptible fellow, because we have branded him and his principles, and he yet acts with us." But, sir, I am a member of the American party, because I am an American born, and wish to live and breathe my coun- try's air, and desire my children after me to breathe the same air and enjoy the same free institutions, shielded by the same aegis, and follow, if necessary, the same banner in defense of their rights, and the same eagle that has brought victory and joy to our country. The American party is said to be proscriptive. I do not know what proscription means in the estimation of some gentlemen, or in the political parlance of the day. It seems to me that we are not proscriptive in resisting foreign political influence located abroad, and in fortifying and entrenching ourselves in the enjoy- ment of the Protestant religion. We are against no religion, against no sect. We are against the junction of Church and State, against the union of civil and religious power dangerous to our
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