WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
511
revolutions. Their Governments are unsettled; they are arbi- trary and despotic so long as a party can hold power-until oppression has ceased to sustain them-and the people rise en masse against them without intelligence sufficient to construct a Government of permanency which can give protection to in- dividuals. At this very time it is announced through the intelligences of the day, that the recent President and Dictator of Mexico is upon our soil at New Orleans. How many mutations has that Govern- ment undergone within the last twenty-five to twenty-eight years? I presume not less than that number of changes. I think about twenty-five revolutions, at least, must have occurred in Mexico during that period. At this time, there is no probability of any permanent Government being established there, or in the other countries referred to in the resolution. If the weakness of the people of Central America, and the circumstances of the existence of the transit route there, have given rise to the filibustering spirit that is in our community and among our people, it would be a legitimate subject for the committee to inquire into the causes of it, and to suggest a remedy. I should be perfectly willing to submit it to the impartiality and intelligence of the Committee on Foreign Relations. From my knowledge of its chairman, I am satisfied that his familiarity with constitutional law-but that would not be a question that would arise, I presume-and inter- national law, would enable him to make a report that would be satisfactory. Something must be done, and that time is coming when it will be very necessary to take into consideration the condition of these people, there is no doubt; for, instead of becoming nationalized, they are every day becoming more de- nationalized and demoralized in their condition. Intelligence is gradually fading away or becoming impaired among them. We should not wait for events to rush upon us, and become embodied in a formidable shape; but it is the duty of statesmen through prescience to look to contingencies, and to be prepared for them when they come upon us. It is not from a disposition to overreach the necessities of our country, that this resolution is offered; but it is to contemplate them while they are distant, so that when they approach us we may be· ready to grapple with them, if difficulties should arise, and to control them. The day is coming when an influence, which is now in the East, must pass off to the West and South, and control and enlighten these people. It is as inevitable as that the Indian tribes have faded before the majesty of the Anglo-
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