272
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1861
interests, and the aid of Providence, I might prove myself equal to the task before me. The difficulties that have surrounded me are known to you all. Deprived of the cooperation of either branch of the Legis- lature, my efforts to reform abuses and effect measures calcu- lated to promote the public good, have been paralyzed. Instead of support and aid from the Legislature and officers of the Gov- e,rnment, every effort has been made, with a very few excep- tions, to interpose obstacles to prevent my carrying out your will. If your will has not been fully executed; if corruption has not been driven from high places, if sound legislation has not been given you, if your frontier has not been defended, if extravagance still runs riot with the substance of the people, if the Treasury is bankrupt, and debt still hangs over you, visit the responsibility upon those who had the power. I have done my duty. When I became your Chief Executive, the solemnities of the Oath were imposed upon me. The Constitution became my rule of action. It was entrusted to my keeping, and though excite- ment and passion should demand me to yield it up, that oath required me to refuse. When rash counsels besought hasty action, it was my duty to be calm and prudent. When on account of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presi- dency of the United States, I was urged to call the Legislature, I refused to do so until such time as I believed the public inter- ests required it. To all I said, that if the people desired the Leg- islature to be called, I would not stand in their way. When satis- fied that the necessity existed, I called it together, and upon the assembling urged upon it the importance of immediate action in reference to your relations with the United States and with respect to the Frontier and the Treasury. In the meantime, the Convention had been called, which assem- bled on the 28th of January. That Convention, besides being revolutionary in its character, did not receive the sanction of a majority of the people. As the representative of a minority, however large, it could not claim the right to speak for the peo- ple. It was without the pale of the Constitution, and was un- known to the laws which I had sworn to support. While sworn to support the Constitution, it was my duty to stand aloof from all revolutionary schemes calculated to subvert the Constitution. The people who were free from such solemn obligations, might revolutionize and absolve me from mine, my oath only having reference to my acts in the capacity of their Chief Executive;
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