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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1859
and the most beneficent results would ensue. It was to promote these ends that I advocated this protectorate. It was humanity that prompted me and an increasing desire for the glory of my country. It was to give protection to Texas against the savage Indians that infest the borders of Mexico. It was to provide for the reclamation of our slaves who escape into her territory. It was to provide for American expansion. It was to build us up in proud defiance of the rest of the world, a nationality in which freedom exists and strength to maintain it. What a destiny would await Texas? If Mexico is reclaimed from her state of semi- barbarism and complete commercial intercourse established, her resources fully developed, what an influence will her neighbor- hood have upon the prosperity of Texas. I told them in the Senate that if good government was given to Mexico and Texas was cared for as well by the General Government as New York had been, she would become the Empire State of the Union. Situated as we are at present, her trade is of little benefit to us. Remove the present obstacles in its way, and immense benefits must accrue to Texas. Accessible now by ocean communication, the wants of trade would demand railroads penetrating from our borders into the heart of her territory. Shall this destiny of ours be thwarted by selfish views? If we go onward in the career which Heaven has marked out for us, the balance of the world may be sunk and there yet remain here in their full fruition the qualities of government and advanced civilization. If isms are excluded and we walk in harmony with the Constitution, carrying out faithfully its precepts, neither transgressing ourselves or countenancing transgression on the part of others, we will be the happiest and most prosperous peo- ple in the world. Let not agitators turn us aside from this career. They are, I trust, but few. The wise, the patriotic, will dis- countenance them. Their purposes and ulterior ends, as they are developed, will be condemned by the masses of the country. Let us be consoled with this reflection, do our duty as good citizens, maintain the laws, stand by the Constitution and the Union, and then, though discord and tyranny should reign without, strong in our position, our government sustained by the affections of the people, and our people advancing in physical greatness and an appreciation of their capacities and their destiny, we need fear no evil. Happy at home, we will be respected abroad. We will be a shining light to the nations of the Earth, to guide them onward to the path which we have chosen. I am no friend of fillibustering as the term is understood. I am opposed to resistance to the laws, whether it be against the
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