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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1859
204
principle in me; I gave evidence of it many years ago. I have periled every thing for that and for the protection of the frontier of the honorable gentleman's State, in my early life, when dis- union was a word not known in the vocabulary of politics in America. That was an evidence that I gave then, of devotion to the Union; and I need not point to the spot in the South which I watered with my blood to defend this Union. What I have done since, I care not to recount; but I know that, without reference to the Presidency of the United States, I was engaged in struggles that tend to the perpetuation of this Union, as I believe, though I was then in a separate community of men. We gave national existence to Texas, that she might become a part of this great Confederacy. I again there, gave renewed evidence of my devotion to the Union, and to the institution~ of the United States. Sir, there a spark flashed upon the world, the conse- quence of which has created a revolution that is still onward, and will continue to affect this whole globe. Until time shall merge into the ocean of eternity, its effects will not be arrested. It has opened a world, and we came forward and were incorporated into this Union. It was not a small territory; it was an empire and a Republic of itself, which had passed through every crucible of trial and of difficulty that would test men's souls and try their nerves. This was not to secure the Presidel}_cy of the United States; nor did it look very possible then that aspirations of that kind influenced me or any other Texan. Certainly it is not so plausible as to suppose that, by contriving the separation of these States, the honorable gentleman might have aspirations to gratify, which, it might be presumed, could not be so well compassed in the Union, considering the intractable character of the northern people: Their affinities might not be such as to be commanded readily in advancing the gentleman to the Presidency, and he might think it expedient to have a dissolution of the Union, and a new confederacy formed, in order that he might turn a jack and secure the game himself. [Laughter.] Sir, I hope that I have always had higher and holier aspira- tions than those connected with self. If my ambition were not inordinate, it ought to be gratified and 'fully satisfied with the number of positions that I have filled, as responsible and im-. portant, relatively, as the Presidency of the United States; sur- rounded by difficulties, overwhelmed by menacing millions, without a friend to succor or sustain us. Sir, I have had to wade through difficulties and through scenes of anguish and of peril
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