316
WRITINGS OF SAl\I HOUSTON, 1839
to trust them; they did not often err; they might get wrong, but they we1~e generally honest and just in their decisions. This location was not in the center of the republic, and it bene- fitted no portion of it--no, not even Bastrop county; because it would be going down stream.-Did it benefit San Antonio, or San Patricio, or Galveston, or the great ect,St? If the east had any business to perform at the seat of government, they had to per- form a journey of many hundred miles; they had never had the right of voting on the question, and the location of the seat of government at this place was a fraud on them. The strength of the republic was east of the Trinity, and he did not know why they would be brought to the western hemisphere to reach the seat of government. If the country was now prosperous, it was a good time to settle the question. The people of the east-(and he disclaimed all sectional feeling, and wished that others were as clear of it as himself-for with him, he said, all sections of Texas were alike) had been deprived of their rights,6 and make the Trinity or the Brazos the line. Let their voice be heard, and they will be satis- fied. The holy Mussulman, or the pious pilgrim might perform his journey to this place, on peas; but he did not think the task would willingly be performed by the defrauded people of the east. It was harmless to refer the question to the people; they were patriotic enough to transmit the boon they had acquired to their posterity; and a reference of the question to them would not be stripping this house of any of its prerogatives; for it clearly belonged to the people; "All rights not expressly delegated to congress, are reservecl to the people." They had never delegated the right to locate the seat of government to congress, and con- sequently it was reserved to them. Difficulties about location of the seat of government, were not confined to this country. In Tennessee, it had been rolled from Knoxville to Nashville; and from Nashville back to Knoxville; and it was never permanent until it was located by the people. He contended that no place could be selected less calculated to accommodate a congress. The Indians could come and burn the town, and take the public archives at any time they pleased, and murder the inhabitants; but they were more disposed to plunder than to murder, and they might spare the people of the town!
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