WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1843
313
hands of the legislative department all the co-ordinate powers of government. This, to my mind, is more dangerous to liberty than an assumption by either of the other departments of govern- ment. For if either of the others should attempt to assume, or actually assume, a power or powers not granted, the people would easily become awakened to a sense of the danger to which their liberties were subject, because they are not regarded so imme- diately connected with the people as the legislative department, and are in their character more responsible. The members of Congress being more numerous than the other departments, do not individually incur a proportionate .degree of responsibility. What a Legislature does is done by many, or rather by no one; but what is done by either of the other remaining departments can be readily ascertained, promulgated, and the transgressor identified. Assemblies and deliberative bodies have often destroyed lib- erty; but no individual, while deliberative bodies have remained honest and incorruptible, has ever overthrown the liberties of any people, and I much doubt if it was ever attempted. Catiline, though unsuccessful, no doubt had many friends in the Roman Senate. Caesar and Pompey both had their adherents, and the corruption and factions of the Senate of Rome invited Caesar to enslave his country. Cromwell owed his elevation to a correct Parliament, and Napoleon was indebted to the oppression and misconduct of the Assembly of France, for his power. I have recently seen a display of the danger, but it has passed by. If ever the United States do, and they must change their form of government, it will be owing to the assumption of powers by the Congress and the frequency of elections, which open so wide the field to demagogues for all their infamous practices. I regard all republics as exposed to similar catastrophes. We may desire that period to be far removed from our day when such results must take place, and surely every patriot will cherish a hope that such may never be the case. But when we look through past ages and contemplate' the present tendency of the affairs of nation, we can not but entertain many painful appre- hensions for our own country's safety. Demagogues are the ::isrents of mischief, and a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. When the mass of a nation becomes either slavish in spirit or corrupt in principle, the friends of liberty are silenced. To you, General, I find myself vastly indebted for many prin- ciples which I have never abandoned through life. One is a holy love of country, and a willingness to make every sacrifice
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