William Carey Crane

“ The Legislature of South Carolina may have as much mistaken the character of the masses of South Carolina as did the Hartford Convention the character of the masses of Massachusetts. The Hartford Convention became a byword and a reproach. The sons of the men of Lexington and Bunker Hill stamped it with infamy. The people of South Carolina are descendants of those who felt all the throes incident to the Revolution. Her gallant heroes are among the historic names to be revered and cherished. Their generations will not forget the cost of liberty, or the blessings of the Union which it created. ”

“ Is it for this that the Southern States are called Upon to dissolve the fraternal ties of the Union, and to abandon all the benefits they enjoy under its aegis, and to enter upon expedients in violation of the Constitution and of all the safeguards of liberty under which we have existed as a nation nearly a century? In the history of nations, no people ever enjoyed so much national character and glory, or individual happiness, as do today the people of the United States. ”

“ Are we to quit our haven of safety, in which we are secure, happy, and prosperous, and risk our all upon the uncertainty of an untried experiment, which seems only to open the door to revolution and anarchy? Could we for a moment entertain such a maddened thought, we need only extend our imagination across the Rio Grande, and there, exemplified to a small extent, behold the effects of secession and disunion. A disregard for constitutional government has involved Mexico in all the horrors of civil war, with robbery, murder, rapine, unrestrained. ”

“ Nowhere does that fire burn with more fervor than in the hearts of the conservative people of Texas. Satisfied that the men whom they elected at the ballot-box to represent them in Congress will bear their rights safely through the present crisis, they feel no alarm as to the result. Texas will maintain the Constitution, and stand by the Union. It is all that can save us as a nation. Destroy it, and anarchy awaits us. ”

“ Indeed, if peaceable separation were possible, no confederacy could be formed upon any other principle than that of leaving domestic institutions— where the Constitution of the United States now leaves them—to the States individually, and not to a central government. I have been no indifferent spectator of the agitations which have distracted our councils, and caused many patriots to despair of the Republic. But I am yet hopeful, and have an abiding confidence in the masses of the people. ”

“ Were Government formed in an hour, and human liberty the natural result of revolution, less responsibility would attach to us as we consider the momentous question before us. A long struggle amid bloodshed and privation secured the liberty which has been our boast for three-quarters of a century. Wisdom, patriotism, and the noble concessions of great minds framed our Constitution. Long centuries of heroic strife attest the progress of freedom to their culminating point. ”

“ The right of a people of a single State to absolve themselves at will, and without the consent of the other States, from their most solemn obligations and to hazard the liberties and happiness of the millions composing this Union, can not be acknowledged. Such authority is believed to be utterly repugnant to the principles upon which the General Government is constituted, and to the object which it is expressly formed to attain. ”

“ The cement of this Union is in the heart-blood of every American. I do not believe there is on earth a government established on so immovable a basis. Let them in any State, even in Massachusetts itself, raise the standard of separation, and its citizens will rise in mass, and do justice themselves on their own incendiaries. ”

“ Without a Union these results never would have been consummated, and the States would have been subject to continual distraction and petty wars. Whenever we cease to venerate the Constitution, as the only means of securing free government, no hope remains for the advocates of regulated liberty.
Were the Southern States to yield to the suggestion of South Carolina, and, passing over the intermediate stages of trouble, a Southern Confederacy should be established, could South Carolina offer any guarantee for its duration? ”

“ Where is the patriotism, the equality, the republicanism, to frame a better Constitution? That which South Carolina became a party to in 1788, has to this period proved equal to all the demands made upon it by the wants of a great people, and the expansive energies of a progressive age.
Neither in peace nor in war has it been found inadequate to any emergency. It has in return extended the protection which union alone can give. ”

“ Nothing has more contributed to the prosperity of Texas than the energy and perseverance of the press. It is a powerful auxiliary to freedom everywhere, and when actuated by that feeling of responsibility which points toward impressing the public mind, by means of correct information, with a true sense of right, and a proper moral tone, rising above the bickerings of party or personal abuse, it may be relied on as one of the bulwarks of liberty, to be sustained and defended by every free people. ”

“ Their best blood was shed here in our defense, and if we are to be influenced by considerations other than our own safety, the fact that these States still seem determined to maintain their ground and fight the battle of the Constitution within the Union, should have equal weight with us as with those States which have no higher claim upon us, and who without cause on our part have surrendered the ties which made us one. ”

“ The propensity of all communities to divide when not pressed into a unity by external dangers is a truth well understood. There is no instance of a people inhabiting even a small island, if remote from foreign danger, and sometimes in spite of that pressure, who are not divided into alien, rival, hostile tribes. The happy union of these States is a wonder, the Constitution a miracle, their example the hope of liberty throughout the world. ”

“ It is a government in which all the people are represented, which operates directly upon the people individually, not upon the States—they retained all the power they did not grant. But each State having expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute, jointly with the other States, a single nation, can not from policy possess any right to secede; because secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation ”

“ Whenever these are taken from us, the Constitution has lost its power. There will be no Union to secede from, for in the death of the Constitution, the Union likewise perishes; and then comes civil war, and the struggle for the uppermost. If the present Union, from which we are asked to secede, does not possess in itself all the conservative elements for its maintenance, it does seem to me that all political wisdom and binding force must be set at naught by the measures proposed. ”

“ But if, on the contrary, moved by rash and unwise counsels, you yield the powers of government into the hands of those who do not represent the people, and would rise superior to them, the confidence of the masses in the reign of law and order will be shaken, and gloomy forebodings will fill the hearts of the friends of regulated government, lest the reign of anarchy and confusion come upon us. We have gone through one revolution in Texas a united people. ”

“ The good sense of the nation can not overlook the fact that we are one people and one kindred; that our productions, occupations, and interests are not more diversified in one section of the Union than another. If the vain hope of a Southern Confederacy would be realized upon the basis of all the slave States, there would soon be found enough diversity of Northern and Southern interests in both sections to accomplish another division, ail the more eagerly sought, because of a recent precedent. ”

“ Ungenerous and uncharitable as are the assaults made by a class of the North upon the peculiar institutions of the South, they would exist from like passions and like feelings under any government; and it is to the Constitution alone, and the Union possessing strength under it, that we are indebted for the preservation of those separate rights which we see fit to exercise. No matter to what extent these passions may go, the Federal arm is to be stretched forth as a barrier against all attempts to impair them. ”

“ The expenses will be millions, but the lives of our people are worth more. Nor is this all. If we do not defend the outposts of civilization, the frontier must recede until we have it at our very doors.
We must also provide for the continuation of our postal service, so that our people may not be deprived of communication with the world without. If we are to become independent of the Federal Government, let us at once act a manly and self-reliant part. Let not Texas be subject to the humiliation of dependence on a Government which she has thrown off. ”

“ While the public mind is agitated and wild excitement tramples upon reason, the Executive has a right to look to the legislative department of the Government for wise and sagacious counsels. Representing the creative power of law, the high responsibilities upon you demand that you indignantly frown upon any and every attempt to subvert the laws, and substitute in their stead the will of revolutionary leaders. ”

“ In whatever light we may view these disorders upon the Rio Grande, they may readily be traced to the insecure condition of our border arising from the withdrawal of the Federal troops. Mexico is in a continued state of anarchy; her population feel none of the influences of a stable government. Lawless chieftains plunder them with impunity, and light the torch of civil war at pleasure. Riot, murder, and revolution reign above law and order. ”

“ The government must go on performing its functions or anarchy will ensue, and to keep it in motion money is necessary. The frontier must be defended or the settlements must give way, and no matter what expedient may now be resorted to, both men and money must be had, and the Executive implores the Legislature not to wait until the call for men and money comes laden with the dying shrieks of women and children. ”

“ The establishment of a university is, in my opinion, a matter alone for the future. At this time it is neither expedient nor is it good policy to provide for the sale of those lands set apart for the university fund. If at some future period it should be deemed expedient or in keeping with a more enlarged policy to devote our entire energies to a more general diffusion of knowledge than a university would afford, or even if the voice of the State should demand the establishment of one, these lands will then provide the means of advancing the cause of education. ”

“ Those who ask Texas to desert them now should remember that in our days of gloom, when doubt hung over the fortunes of our little army, and the cry for help went out, while some of those who seek to induce us to follow their precipitate lead, looked coldly on us, these States sent men and money to our aid. ”

“ Texas is a border State. Indians ravage a portion of her frontier. Mexico renders insecure her entire western boundary. Her slaves are liable to escape, and no fugitive slave law is pledged for their recovery. Virginia, Missouri, and Kentucky are border States, and exposed to abolition emissaries. Have they asked for disunion as a remedy against the assaults of abolitionism? Let dissolution come, and the terrible consequences will fall upon all those first, and with double force. ”

“ The keys of the Treasury should be held with an honest grasp, and no appropriation be made which is not necessary and strictly in accordance with law. Every disbursing officer of the Government should be held to strict accountability, and no stretch of authority be permitted in the exercise of the power confided to him. What economy will not accomplish can, in my opinion, be best supplied by taxation. Texas has learned some experience from going into debt, which she will do well to remember, and I trust she will guard against its consequences in future. ”

“ We can not redeem the past, but we can provide for the future. If all of our public domain were surveyed by competent persons, who would be willing to take a portion of our lands as compensation for their labor, it would greatly facilitate the settlement of the country, and give security to our whole land operations. It would also furnish some data upon which to base conclusions as to the value of our lands, and if accompanied by the researches of a geological and agricultural bureau, would vastly tend to the development of the resources of our State. ”

“ The people in many sections are already calling for relief. We can not afford under these circumstances to plunge madly into revolution. The Executive has not yet lost the hope that our rights can be maintained in the Union, and that it may yet be perpetuated. Between constitutional remedies and anarchy and civil war he can see no middle ground. All the glorious associations of our past history prove that hitherto we have been capable of self-government. ”

“ The Executive feels as deeply as any of your honorable body the necessity of such action on the part of the slaveholding States as will secure to the fullest extent every right they possess. Self-preservation, if not a manly love of liberty inspired by our past history, prompts this determination. ”

“ Corporations have so often trampled upon the rights of the private citizen that we should be careful when we grant them privileges that we part with no right belonging to the people. The State has already been generous; and her generosity has in several cases been abused. We can yet afford to be generous in our railroad policy, but we should make such terms as will secure every interest to be affected. It will be my endeavor to exact at the hands of every railroad company in the State, a strict compliance with the terms of the charter. ”