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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1859
going out of the Union, for it is only through the Union that she has an interest in it. Where would be the navy of the seceders? Where their army? Where their security at home? Sir, the very moment that a State places herself out of the Union, that moment she assumes the attitude of revolution; she has revolted. Certain duties are enjoined on her by the Constitution; if she resists the operation of the Constitution, she becomes a rebel per se. Sir, let the wise men of this Union turn their heads and their hearts towards peace and· harmony; let them become reconciled one to another, and continue not the use of crimination and recrimination, but the language of conciliation, of courtesy, of considerate demeanor, reflecting but not talking, thinking but not acting prematurely, and then we shall see a harmonious and desirable state of things in this country. We shall see no ani- mosity; we shall see no bitterness; no incendiary pamphlets will be circulated in either section. Let gentlemen of the North cease to agitate the subject of southern institutions. They are ours, they were theirs and they had a right to them, and can reestab- lish them again if they choose. If it is a matter of policy with them to eschew them, it is a matter of necessity and right, and of interest on the part of the South to maintain them. Gentlemen may talk of philanthropy and humanity and the equality of all men under the Declaration of Independence; but I do not think an African equally white with me, and therefore he is not on a footing of equality exactly. He has never enjoyed political rights, and therefore he has been deprived of none. In Africa he enjoyed the privilege of slaughtering and eating his fellow-man; and it was consistent with his idolatry, and consistent with his educa- tion; but that does not give him the education and moral pitch that white men have. But b.e that as it may, whilst these subjects are being dis- cussed, I ask, I implore gentlemen to tell us what better dis- position can be made of them. Is the wild savage African of Africa better than the slave of the South? Is he as well off as the free blacks of the North, or those who are freezing in Canada? No; he is not as well off as they are; he is not cared for; and will you throw our slaves back again into barbarism, or will you turn them loose on us in the South? Have we done aught to produce the necessity of having them amo:i:igst us? Did not,your : ancestors do it? We never were a commercial people; we never
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