Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/202

improvements and for revenue what indeed benefited all, while, nevertheless, the great resources were absorbed at a few commercial centers. Moreover, it was in the administration that preceded that of Jackson that the system of placing men in office who would aid these monopolies was inaugurated and pushed to an extreme; and the revolution which led to the interested party-cry that Jackson was the author of the "spoils system" in national offices, was but the doubtful policy of fighting an enemy with his own weapons. The Southern States were wronged by the measures against which South Carolina led her sister States in resisting. How to resist wisely, safely, and successfully was the vital question. Neither Jackson nor Houston believed that disunion was the true and sure way to rectify the wrong. As Washington preserved a balanced mind and a steady hand amid baffling gales, so, as the result has shown, safety and success were to be secured by other means than force. Jackson only hinted, in the crisis of 1830-33, what Houston was called to maintain, from that period till the bloody catastrophe of 1860-61.