344
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1859
right, no unintentional deviation is permitted in me. It is not that I have erred, for "to err is human;" but they charge me with knowingly deserting my principles, and abandoning the interests of a constituency, whose fortunes are so linked with my own that no adversity could come which would not fall upon my head with the same force as upon any of my fellow citizens. When those who asperse me can point to a single act of my official career not in keeping with the principles of democracy, as practised by Jefferson and Jackson, they will have some reason for disputing my claims to the name of Democrat; but even then, I will claim above all other men a more continual devotion to those principles, and that my record shows fewer· deviations from them, than any man whose life has been devoted to the public service. Condemn me not upon a single act. If in the course of forty-six years of public service, the weight of a man's actions tallies with the standard he had reared in early life, it is enough to prove him consistent. He would be more than human, if throughout such a period, amid the diversity of opinions, the changes of party and the antagonisms which spring from hostility to men and measures, he should not at any time stray from that standard; but if, when finding his error, and maintaining through- out his devotion to principle, he abandons the heresy and goes onward maintaining the right more earnestly than before, honest men should be satisfied. It would be useless to attempt to make the selfish charitable and they will still condemn though justice demands approbation. I am a Democrat of the Old School. In politics I am an old Fogy. An old Fogy because I cling devotedly to those primitive principles upon which our government was founded, and under which the Constitution went into operation. I have no modern improvements to make on the principles of our fathers. From the principles they enunciated can be deduced all that will make our country prosperous and glorious, and its people happy. You may change parties, build up and pull down platforms,-but the principles of democracy will remain intact, until liberty shall have expired and nothing remain but anarchy and despotism. But I am told I cannot be a democrat, because I am standing in the face of organization. Is organization democracy? Does democracy mean Conventions? If this be true, all are demo- crats, for all parties maintain organization and Conventions. Am I not called out by Conventions of the people in various parts of the state? When they represent the will of the people, they
Powered by FlippingBook