William Carey Crane

“ The great statesmen of Virginia and of the South, representing an agricultural population, such men as Macon and the Barbours saw that the very influence Washington sought to escape, followed the Government to its seat, wherever located. They saw, just as the people of New York city and State now see, that not only is "the price of liberty eternal vigilance," but that the price of just legislation for the people is more than eternal vigilance can meet. ”

“ When Washington urged the removal of the seat of Government from New York to Philadelphia, and then again to the unsettled location on the Potomac, that it might be removed from the moral control of a city where were great commercial and manufacturing interests, as opposed to those of the quiet rural people at large, he had learned that human nature was the same in the American States as at European courts. ”

“ Does the genius of American institutions apply to other than white men, and is it the soldier or the teacher that is to civilize the red races? Houston believed, because he had means of judging, that the Indian, as well as the white man, was to be trusted in civil service. Yet more. Civil Service Reform was urged in precisely the same form, and on the same grounds as now. The venerated Macon, in February, 1823, as chairman of a committee of the Senate on Constitutional Reforms, proposed measures for diminishing and regulating the patronage of the Executive. ”

“ As Houston had acted only in self-defence, the tide of popular sentiment not only sustained him, but led to his nomination and election as Governor. His popularity throughout the country is indicated in the fact that Niles' Register, of May 18th, Baltimore, Md., then the chief reporter of national events, gives a full report of Houston's speech previously made at Telico, Tennessee, when called out by the people as their favorite. ”

“ The cool, unsuspecting people at large, and their representatives unschooled in the schemes of moneyed centers by which tariffs, or the disposal of public offices, are made to promote their money schemes, the representatives of the great mass of the people are out-manoeuvered by the wily politicians who represent moneyed aristocracies. ”

“ During the present Congress, various resolutions have been submitted to the House of Representatives proposing amendment, but none have yet been adopted. That there is need for amendment of the Constitution we can not doubt, when we advert to the facts in the last election. One candidate had a decided preference in eleven out of twenty-four States by the people ”

“ Louis, August, 1825: "An union, sir, so essential, not only to the fate of each member of the confederacy, but also to the general fate of mankind, that the least breach of it would be hailed with barbarian joy, by an universal war-whoop of European aristocracy and despotism." No man in the country more appreciated these words than Houston. It was also during this visit, that, at Washington city, Lafayette predicted the gradual complete operation of natural laws tending to the emancipation of African slaves ”

“ Urged by ambitious men, who expected to be lords, to form an Imperial Government, or one of force, he resisted; for monarchy was not for Americans any more than for Romans, a rule to be submitted to. Next after this, as Aristotle in ancient philosophy, and Montesquieu in more modern philosophy, have shown both in theory and historic fact, comes the more subtle and successful effort of "plutocracy," or of landed associations, who could absorb by commercial monopolies the value of products which ought to be equalized among producers. ”

“ On the 19th January, Jackson, from the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, introduced a resolution for payment of losses of horses and private property, met by volunteers in the Seminole war; the views of Jackson and Houston leading to the immediate passage of the resolution. On the 19th of January, again, Webster in the House introduced his resolution to send an agent to Greece, then struggling to gain independence; on the same day Mr. Mitchell moved an invitation to the Marquis de Lafayette to a reception by the House ”

“ From the rapid spread of emancipation measures advancing southward from New England, measures compelled by interest as well as principle, since a more productive class of labor was brought into competition with slave labor, Lafayette predicted that at an era not remote emancipation would gradually extend to the Gulf ”

“ At the opening of the Nineteenth Congress, December, 1825, Houston, having been re-elected, was again placed on the Military Committee of the House; and soon he was drawn out in this and other relations. A widow of New Hampshire, who had lost a son in the Indian wars, asked a pension, and Houston became her advocate. Mr. Webster called for information as to diplomatic relations with Central America; and Houston sustained him. Mr. ”

“ Clay became Secretary of State. As this implied in Mr. Clay a virtual change in political principles, charges of corruption were of course naturally suggested, and Mr. Clay, late in the session, asked an investigation. This Houston opposed. His reasons were given in a circular to his constituents, dated March 3, 1825. The substance of this circular, afterward published in Niles' Register, at Baltimore, May 28th, is worthy of reproduction, as it gives the balanced judgment of Houston on matters of civil and constitutional law. It is as follows ”