Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/232

Everett of Massachusetts, Benton of Missouri, and himself. He closed with this appeal: "We are acting as trustees for posterity; and according to our decision our children are to live in harmony or in anarchy! " On the 3d March, just on the eve of the passage of the bill, Houston made that logical and earnest appeal which first appeared in the "Life of Sam Houston," published in New York the following winter. He said, in substance: "Mr. President, this unusual night's sitting is without precedent in the history of any previous Congress at this stage of the session. The extraordinary circumstances in which we find ourselves placed would seem to indicate a crisis in the affairs of the country of no ordinary importance; a crisis that portends either good or evil to our institutions. The extraordinary character of the bill before the Senate, as well as the manner in which it is presented to the body, demands the greatest deliberation. This, sir, is the anniversary of a protracted session in which the organization of the Territory of Nebraska was elaborately discussed on the last day of the last session, as to-night, until the morning dawn." Remarking then that the opposition at that time was, to the provisions as to Indian tribes; while now, it was proposed to repeal the Missouri Compromise, he alluded to the boldness of the measure and the sophistry of its proposal, and exclaimed: "Mr. President, I can not believe that the agitation created will be confined to the Senate Chamber. From what we have witnessed here to-night, this will not be the exclusive arena for the exercise of human passions. If the Republic be not shaken, I will thank heaven for its kindness in maintaining its stability." Analyzing then the argument that the people of a Territory are sovereign in admitting or excluding slavery, he showed its incorrectness from the ordinance of 1787 in new States brought into the Union, both North and South. He alluded to the fact that the South had stood by the Compromise; and he met the objections of Mr. Atchinson, of Missouri, that it had not been applied to Oregon; Houston showing that it was applied to Texas; and it was upon its provisions that the State came into the Union. He showed that the South could only be injured by it; and especially argued that Texas, the terminus of the slave population, would have the largest disproportion between slaves and whites; and he exclaimed: "Then, sir, it will become the gulf of slavery, and there its terrible eddies will whirl, if convulsions take place." He then urged that no necessity for abrogation, since the Compromise, had arisen; adding: "Three years have passed in tranquillity and peace. How, and where, and why, and when, and with whom this measure originated. Heaven only knows; for I have no cognizance of the facts. So far back as 1848, President Polk recognized the