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WRITINGS OF SAi\•I HOUSTON, 1844
With union, industry, and virtue, we have nothing to appre- hend. If left alone, we have our destiny in our own hands, and may become a nation distinguished for its wealth and power. It is true we have been visited with inconveniences and evils. It is but a short time since we were without a currency-without available means, and everything to do, for our national paper was depreciated to almost nothing. A currency, however, has been at length established. Hard money is disbursed by the Government and circulates in the community. The period has arrived, I hope, when this currency may be maintained, and all other eschewed, unless intended as a representative of the precious metals actually in deposit. And I would not recommend the extension of the system further than merely to give the nec- essary facilities, as a medium of transmission or exchange. Re- lying upon the disposition of Congress not to extend their appropriations beyond the revenues arising from import duties, and the direct taxes secured, it will be seen that the Government can move on, and, at the same time, sustain the currency. In the advancement of the Republic, from the earliest period of its history up to the present moment, we think we have demon- strated to the world our capacity for self-government. Among our people are to be found the intelligent and enterprising from almost every part of the globe. Though from different States and of different habits, manners, sects, and languages, they have acted with a degree of concord and unanimity almost miraculous. The world respects our position, and will sustain us by their good opinion, and it is to moral influences that we should look, as much as to the point of the bayonet or the power of the cannon. My countrymen! Give to the rising geP..eration instruction. Establish schools everywhere among you. You will thus diffuse intelligence throughout the mass-that greatest safeguard to our free institutions. Among us, education confers rank and in- fluence-ignorance is the parent of degradation. Intelligence elevates man to the highest destiny, but ignorance degrades him to slavery. In quitting my present position, and a second time retiring from the Chief-Magistracy of the Republic, I feel the highest satisfaction in being able to leave my countrymen in the enjoy- ment of civil and religious freedom, and surrounded by many evidences of present and increasing prosperity. This happy con- dition is ascribable to that wise and benign Providence which has watched over our progress, and conducted us to the attainment
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