WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
485
resulted in the disunion of these States. I heard this with pain; because he seemed to entertain -no regrets in anticipation of such an event. Sir, I have never heard disunion suggested, I have never heard allusion made to it, without inflicting the deepest wound on my heart, and casting a cloud over my hopes of the future. I was born and reared in that school which looked upon the Union as the palladium of liberty upon which was built the proud superstructure of our Government; too holy to be touched by unhallowed hands-never to be approached but with reverence and respect. I came into active being in early manhood, having received as a pupil that doctrine. I have maintained it inviolate through life; I have contributed, by my life and example, all the evidences that any man could give in favor of the Union; I will never secede from that hallowed. doctrine; I will never be a heretic to the Union and a belief in its conservative necessity. Disunion cannot be thought of with pleasure by any individual who is descended from the proud ancestral loins of the men of high intellectual powers, whose rich and generous blood flowed in the achievements that led to the Union. I was struck the other day with a speech by an enlightened Indian, who met me, and taking me apart, said, in a whisper, "General, will you tell me what all this talk means about disunion? I hear it all around about the streets." He asked me, tremblingly, what it meant? He thought there was a rottenness in Denmark. What will dis- union profit us? It will give us ruin in exchange for happiness, it will give us slavery in place of freedom; it will give us infamy in place of glory. Destruction will be the consequence of disunion. But, sir, when disunion comes, the strife is not to begin on your borders; but the first blood that flows will be the blood of traitors; and it will be shed here, or in the other Hall, where it may origi- nate. Sir, we ought to beware how we talk; for I tell you that a man who has bled for the Union, for freedom, and for nation- ality, will always be satisfied with the Constitution of the country, and will be ready to vindicate it with his life. I have never heard the word "disunion" with pleasure; I never shall hear it with delight. Wild as the vagaries may be in relation to it, there is a soberness among the people, who have no motive but love of country, and a desire to see the nation happy, independent, and prosperous. Go to your mountain-tops; go to your valleys; go to your dales; go to the gorges of the mountains; speak to the people of the Union; and they will tell you it is worth preserving. Go to speculators and agitators, and they may tell you it is not worth preserving. I say it is. The man knows little of the \·alue justly
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