Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/234

it; but if it were beneficial to the South, it would have been asked for. It was not asked for—nor will it be accepted by the people. It furnishes those in the North who are enemies of the South, with efficient weapons to contend with." Taking up then the case of the Indians, and alluding to the statement that God had made them an inferior race, and that there is no use in doing anything for them, he cited the argument of Ross, the Cherokee, in his defence of their treaty with the United States, as superior in skill and effect to Spanish diplomats as to Florida; and, alluding to the common suggestion, that Indians like Canaanites, might be exterminated, he showed that Indians were not idolaters, but believers in the Great Spirit, ready to receive Christianity, and advanced in American civilization. He severely rebuked the suggestion that sickly sentimentalism prompted appeals for the Indians; and declared: "If you will not do justice to them, the sin will lie at your door. Providence, in His own way, will accomplish all His purposes; and He may some day avenge the wrongs of the Indians upon our nation. As a people, we can save them; and the sooner the great work is begun, the sooner will humanity have cause to rejoice in its accomplishment." He closed with this eloquent appeal: "Sir, the friends who have survived the distinguished men who took prominent parts in the drama of the compromise of 1850, ought to feel gratified that those men are not capable of participating in the events of to-day; but that they were permitted, after they had accomplished their labors, and had seen their country in peace, to leave the world, as Simeon did, with the exclamation: 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.' They departed in peace, and they left their country in peace. They felt, as they were about to be gathered to the tombs of their fathers, that the country they had loved so well, and which had honored them—that country upon whose name and fame their doings had shed a bright lustre which shines abroad throughout all Christendom—was reposing in peace and happiness. What would their emotions be if they could now be present and see an effort made, if not so designed, to undo all their work and to tear asunder the cords that they had bound around the hearts of their countrymen! They have departed. The nation felt the wound; and we see the memorials of woe still in this Chamber. The proud symbol (the eagle) above your head remains enshrouded in black, as if deploring the misfortune which had fallen upon us; or, as a fearful omen of future calamities which await our nation, in the event this bill should become a law. Above it I behold the majestic figure of Washington, whose presence must ever inspire patriotic emotions, and command the admiration