I \ I ,--,i--- ---
1 :, I . ! l
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
38
that bill, sir. My objection was very different from that. I had the assurance from every gentleman from the South within my hearing-others may not have said it-that slavery never would go to Kansas. [Mr. Clement C. Clay of Alabama, spoke.] Had I anticipated any personal reflection, Mr. President, I would not have referred to the gentleman as my friend. It was the political reflection, that I intend, in a few words, to repel. The gentleman . is pleased to compliment me on the score of marital achievements, and personal courage. Those are proper- ties, I presume, that every American has or ought to have; and if I have any attribute of that character justly attributed to me, the glory of my life was that I had the moral manhood, on that occasion to stand up against the influences which surrounded me, and to be honest in the worst of times. There are two or three other things that I intend to notice. The bill of 1854, was not to open, or to prevent the opening of the door to slavery in Kansas; for I had the assurance of honorable gentlemen who participated in the debate, that slavery would never go to Kansas. Was it, then, interposing an objection to the march of slavery if I voted against opening that Territory, when we had the assurance of the oldest and most distinguished Senators in this body, that slavery never could go there, because God, by his fiat, had inter- posed an impediment to its location there? Is that the reason that I voted against it? No, sir; my motives were higher and holier. I was not the enemy of slavery, nor was I its propagandist; nor will I ever be. My opposition to that measure was because it broke up the deep foundation of bitter waters that were to overflow the land, and that now have deluged it, with occasional spouts of blood mingling with its current. It was to keep that down, and to re- press it, that I voted against the Kansas-Nebraska bill. It was a subject that I had not particularly looked into, but I had a right to believe that my southern associates were honorable gentlemen, and that they did not intend to introduce slavery there; for it would have been unworthy of southern chivalry, and nobility of southern sentiments, by base artifice to conceal the primary design of introducing slavery there while they were asserting the contrary motive. I thought that they had pride and chivalry enough to declare their object; and, as I believed, it was breaking down the barrier that secured our institutions in the South, and was only opening the door to free soil, and violating
I ! '
I I .
I
' I
I
I I , I ,
' I i
! I
• i
Powered by FlippingBook