199
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1859
for the South, I could not but review scenes that passed before me in the old Chamber, when gentlemen rose and spoke for the South as if they were proxies of the South, and held the South in the hollow of their hands, or controlled its destinies by their will. Sir, I am of the South. I was born there. I have lived there. No other man in the whole South has a broader interest in it than myself; my all is there, and I have represented a proud southern State here. I answer for a part of the South. I intend to disclaim the right of any gentleman on this floor to speak for the South, when I offer a negation to his assertions. This must be stopped, sir. It may wear out. If it does not, and the crisis comes, you will find the patriotic hearts of the South, are better employed than in agitating this subject; men who are better engaged in the daily avocations of life; men whose employments lead them to love their country, to hope for its advancement, to rely in security that on their own exertions depend the welfare and prosperity of their families; and whose prayers are for harmony and the well-being and prosperity of their children in life. These are the bone and sinew of that country. They have no passions to flatter; they have ~o political aspirations; they cherish nothing but a holy loyalty for their country and its Constitution; and when these men are called to action, and look around upon the elements which they are to oppose, it will be as wise, if it were possible, for the same man to throw himself in the way of a furious tornado, as for public men to oppose them. They will not do it. They will stand aloof, hugging security with a consciousness of happiness and the future well-being of the human race. They will be contented with the blessings they enjoy, and will not put them to the hazard of revolution. The gentleman spoke of the State seceding, and others follow- ing. Mr. President, it would be much easier for one State to come back than it would be for other States to go with it. I can see no propriety in that. What would they do? Suppose one State does go out; it rules itself out of the Union; it has cut off all intercourse with the other States; and as to talking of a division of the great public lands of the United States, the right of a State to participation in them is at an end when she secedes from the Union. She has left good company and gone off by herself; she is in a minority; she cannot take any portion of the territory, for she has adjured that; she has surrendered it by
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