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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
He dwelt at some length upon his advocacy of the protectorate over Mexico, saying that was peculiarly a Southern measure, on which in view of the distracted and disorganized condition of that unhappy country, addressed itself to·every consideration of sound policy and enlightened humanity ;-that it commended itself to the sagacity of statesmen, but that timid and time-serving politicians were afraid of it, and had therefore defeated it; but eventually the wisdom of the measure would be recognized, and like the annexation of Texas it would be taken hold of by the masses and carried over the heads of politicians. That the en- croachments of free soil territory upon our borders rendered the policy necessary to the integrity of our institutions, extending as it would, the area of slavery in a southern direction. He spoke of the causes of his unpopularity in the South, and said that they might all be traced to his unswerving adherence to and support of the Union of the States, which in a pe1·iod of little more than three-quarters of a century, had become the glory and wonder of the world. He had opposed the passage of the Kansas bill, because it was not demanded by the exegencies of the times, nor asked for by any portion of the southern people. Under the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and again under the Compromise measures of 1850, the country had enjoyed unexampled peace -and prosperity; in the midst of which a demagogue from the North, for selfish and political purposes, introduced the Kansas bill, which he, General Houston, in his place in the Senate de- nounced at the time as a firebrand, endangering the integrity of the Democratic party, detrimental to the interests of the South and to the whole country. It was offered in the name of Democ- racy, as a great boon to the South, but it was a transparent humbug. It was offered by the prince of humbugs, Stephen A. Douglas. The people, however, had awakened from their de- lusion upon the subject, and the Kansas bill and its objects are now better understood; Douglas, at length, stands unmasked before the South, and throughout its wide borders there can now be none found to do him reverence. "Oh no, you never mention him His name is never heard, Your lips are now forbid to speak That once familiar word." But as the people of Kansas had already organized a govern- ment, he, General Houston, had voted for its admission, as the best way of getting the trouble out of the way, while Douglas
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