551
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
people, he would ever feel that he was degrading the post he occupied, and the adulation of parasites would be a poor recom- pense for the forfeiture of self-respect. If a President is to govern the nation, his counsellors should be chosen from the nation, and since party names have ceased to represent principles, he who is elevated to the Presidency, should regard it as a whole, and calling around him those who have been true to the Constitution and the Union, and with the Constitution for his foundation, he should endeavor to rear a structure glorious to his country and perpetual as his race. If the original idea of Conventions was to concentrate public opinion, that idea has been lost sight of. The representative character has been abandoned and the effort is made to crea.te public opinion. A slavish subservency to arrogant demagogues, in the leading string of cliques, has possessed those who aspire to office and favor is sought at their hands, rather than of the people. The result is, that the bold spirit which once char- acterized our statesmen is cramped. They should stand the sentinels of liberty and progress, challenging the admiration of the world for the beneficence of our institutions, or announcing national doctrines in keeping with their expansive spirit; but bound within the scope of platforms, they dare not jeopardize pa1·ty success, by the enunciation of aught that is new or startling. Politicians no longer take the lead in the path of progress and enterprise. No great measure, is proposed by them. They are content to be at a stand still and enjoy the spoils; and when the masses have shown their determination to achieve a result, as was the case with the annexation of Texas, they step in and convert it to their own purposes. A statesman, elected to the Presidency of these United States, should enter upon the discharge of duty, bound within the narrow confines of no platform, framed to serve the purposes of success, but subject to be construed to suit the views of every faction and section. He should have doctrines, clearly enunciated, bold and independent. Standing upon the Constitution, he should embrace in his grasp, all that tends to the welfare of the American people, the expansion of American institutions and the defense of American honor, no matter from whence the assault might come. What party, what platform will sustain such a President? Who that regards the true policy of our nation can fail to see, that humanity, liberty, American interests and security, alike demand that our government should extend a Protectorate
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