WRITINGS OF SAJ\-1 HOUSTON, 1860
59
The place from which these resolutions emanate, the number of those who adopted them and the patriotic impulses which controlled their action, entitle them to my respect, and awaken in me grateful feelings towards a people already endeared to me from past associations in troublous times and continued evi- dences of favor. At no time since my entrance into public life have I withheld my services from my fellow citizens. Whatever I am is of my country and belongs to it. I have never lost confidence in the masses or transferred my allegiance from them to cliques or conventions, and the spon- . taneous expression of the popular will, transmitted by you, is more grateful to my feelings than would be the endorsement of a convention. I can but say in response to that expression, that if the independent masses of the country deem my name im- portant, in connection with the Presidency, they have a right to use it. My life and record are matters of history. That my fellow citizens of Texas, to whom these are most familiar, should deem them sufficient guarantee for my fidelity, if elected President, is a matter of pride. Unless the life I have lived, and the things I have done, prove me worthy of the esteem of my country men, no platform, however well conceived, and nobody, however numerous or distinguished, would make me so. No period could be more propitious than the present, for the assertion of the rights of the masses. Party spirit, sectionalism, and slavery agitation have brought the country to a point where all can see the danger, and I believe there yet exists patriotism sufficient to meet it. I cannot believe that this nation will stop in the full tide of its glory, or that our liberties will be sacrificed amid sectional strife. It is enough that Mexico should blot the history of this continent. Providence, so far from permitting us to descend to its ignoble position, will make the age of freedom glorious by its regeneration, and carry out both for Mexico and our Union,' the beneficent idea, so eloquently portrayed in the resolutions of the people at San Jacinto. I have noticed in the proceedings of the late Baltimore Con- vention, that my name was submitted to that body and balloted for. Justice to myself compels me to say, that while I appreciate the regard manifested for me by the numerous gentlemen who voted for me on that occasion, the use of my name was entirely
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