SAM HOUSTON'S SPEECH.
The drift of Houston's speech was--_the inexpediency and bad policy of
secession_.
He told them they could secure without secession what they proposed to
secure by it, and would certainly lose through it. He gave the greater
force to his declarations by appealing to them to know if he had not
generally been right in the past history of Texas, when any great issue
was at stake. Told them he made Texas and they knew it, and it was not
immodest for him to say so; that the history of old Sam Houston was the
history of Texas, and they knew it; that he fought and won the battle
of annexation, and they knew it; that he originally organized and
established the Republic of Texas, and they knew it; that he wrested
Texas from the despotic sway of Santa Anna; that he commanded at San
Jacinto, where the great Mexican leader was whipped and captured, and
they knew it.
"Some of you," he continued, "opposed the annexation of Texas to the
United States, and I suppose have never forgiven me, even to this
day, but I appeal to your sober judgments if, as it were, the very
next day after annexation became history, Texas did not enter upon
a career of fortune she had never realized before. I appeal to you
for the frank confession that you have always prospered most when
you have listened to my counsels. I am an old man now. I knew you in
infancy, took you and dandled you on my knee, nursed you through all
your baby ailments, and with great care and solicitude watched and
aided your elevation to political and commercial manhood. Will you now
reject these last counsels of your political father, and squander your
political patrimony in riotous adventure, which I now tell you, and
with something of prophetic ken, will land you in fire and rivers of
blood.
"Some of you laugh to scorn the idea of bloodshed as a result of
secession, and jocularly propose to drink all the blood that will ever
flow in consequence of it! But let me tell you what is coming on the
heels of secession. The time will come when your fathers and husbands,
your sons and brothers, will be herded together like sheep and cattle
at the point of the bayonet; and your mothers and wives, and sisters
and daughters, will ask, Where are they? and echo will answer, where?
"You may," said he, "after the sacrifice of countless millions of
treasure, and hundreds of thousands of precious lives, as a bare
possibility, win Southern independence, if God be not against you; but
I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrines
of State rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They
are not a fiery impulsive people as you are, for they live in cooler
climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, where
great interests are involved, such as the present issues before the
country, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a
mighty avalanche, and what I fear is they will overwhelm the South with
ignoble defeat, and I would say, amen, to the suffering and defeat I
have pictured if the present difficulties could find no other solution,
and that too by peaceable means. I believe they can. Otherwise I would
say, 'Better die freemen than live slaves.'
"Whatever course my State shall determine to pursue my faith in State
supremacy and State rights will carry my sympathies with her. And, as
Henry Clay, my political opponent on annexation said, when asked why
he allowed his son to go into the Mexican War, 'My country, right or
wrong,' so I say, my State, right or wrong."
We noticed several times the very men applauding the speech who had
opposed the speaker and the speaking in the morning. The power of
General Houston over a Texas audience was magical to the last degree,
and doubtless well understood by himself; hence he feared no mobs.
During the first year of the war Colonel Moore had organized a splendid
regiment of eleven hundred young men, volunteers mostly from Galveston,
finely equipped, of which Sam Houston, Jr., was a member. They were
on dress parade daily, and presented a charming appearance. It was as
fine a regiment as went to the war from any section of the country. The
Colonel was justly proud of them, and fond of exhibiting their superior
drill and "dress" to the public, and particularly to old military men.
They fought their first battle at Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, as the
Confederates called it. But before leaving the island for the seat
of war the Colonel invited General Houston to review his regiment.
Now Judge Campbell, of one of the judicial districts of Texas, and
Williamson S. Oldham, member of the Confederate Congress, had been
the old General's bitter enemies during the canvass on secession.
They had followed him night and day through the State. On the day
set for him to review and put the regiment through some military
evolutions, the General was on hand at the hour and place. This called
out a large concourse of people to witness the performance; the day
was sunny and beautiful; the hour ten in the forenoon. The regiment
was in complete uniform and perfectly armed; their arms glistened in
the sunbeams as they stood in perfect dress, and at "present arms,"
when the "hero of San Jacinto," supported by their Colonel, stood
in front. He was the hero of San Jacinto sure enough, for there he
stood, in the same military suit he had worn in 1836, at the battle
of San Jacinto, when Santa Anna was captured; his pants tucked in the
tops of military boots; suspended at his side was the same old sword,
and on his head was a weather-beaten, light-colored, broad-brimmed
planter hat, the left side buttoned up to the crown. There he stood,
the very impersonation of the olden times. It was a sight for
sensation. All eyes were now upon him, some of them dimmed with tears,
and many a throat of soldier and spectator was choking down feeling
unutterable--the writer with the rest. Not a word had yet passed the
General's lips, but now the Colonel passed him his own sword and told
him to proceed. Then came
ORDER NO. 1.--"Shoulder arms."
ORDER NO. 2.--"Right about face." The regiment now facing the rear,
the General cried out in stentorian tones of sarcasm: "Do you see
anything of Judge Campbell or Williamson S. Oldham there?" "No," was
the emphatic reply. "Well," said the General, "they are not found at
the front, nor even at the rear."
ORDER NO. 3.--"Right about, front face."
ORDER NO. 4.--"Eyes right. Do you see anything of Judge Campbell's son
here?" "No, he has gone to Paris to school," responded the regiment.
ORDER NO. 5.--"Eyes left. Do you see anything of young Sam Houston
here?" "Yes," was the thrilling response.
ORDER NO. 6.--"Eyes front. Do you see anything of old Sam Houston
here?" By this time the climax of excitement was reached, and regiment
and citizens together responded, in thunder tones, "Yes!" and then
united in a triple round of three times three and a tiger for the old
hero. Thereupon he returned the Colonel his sword, with the remark,
"There, Colonel, that will do, I leave you to manage the rest of the
maneuvering," and retired from dress parade.
The old General died at Huntsville, Texas, a year or so before the war
closed, but he lived long enough to see fulfilled what he had predicted
in his speeches, and to receive the acknowledgment from some of his
bitterest opponents that he was right. His lone widow followed him to
the grave, by yellow fever, December 5, 1867. Thus ended the career
of the Hercules of the Lone Star State, and she will never do herself
honor, and the name of Houston justice, until she has a monument for
him in granite or marble, surmounted with his statue, or an equestrian
statue, in the metropolis of the State.