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SOME PAGES FROM ME SCRAP ‘BOOK
HOUSTON IN HIS OLD AGE.
(Written for the Republic.)
It is a well-settled fact of history
that where old men quarrel, yoi ng
men will fight, and when Sam Hous
ton entered the United States sen
ate in 1846 the young men on both
sides of Mason and Dixon’s line
were fast getting ready to fight in
the quarrel they had inherited from
their elders.
It has often been asserted that the
civil war was the work of a few ex
tremists on both sides, and certainly
it might have been avoided but for
the few extremists, but its immediate
causes cannot be understood, unle s
it is remembered that the young men
on both sides grew impatient and
forced issues.
The Websters and Clays, the Ben
tons and the Houstons, would have
gone on making conciliatory compro
mises forever, but the young men of
New England repudiated Webster,
just as the young meq of the south
repudiated Clay and Houston, the one
an “Old Line” whig, the other an
“Old School” democrat.
It was really a difference in age
rather than in politics. The men of
the generation of Jefferson Davis and
Abraham Lincoln wanted results.
They believed in having something
done without further talk, and the
civil war was the inevitable result of
this feeling.
When Jefferson Davis, after stand
ing in a group with whom the gray
haired Henry Clay was discussing
the second slavery compromise,
shrugged his shoulders and turned
away, declaring that he did not think
it fair for one generation to turn over
its quarrels to the next, his spirit was
that of the young men on both sides.
They were tired of talk and insistent
on a final settlement.
• • •
Issues were being rapidly forced
when Houston came to Washington
wearing his broad-brimmed white hat
and a Mexican blanket which draped
around him like the toga of a Roman
senator. From the day of his en
trance to the senate until his retire
ment in 1859 he represented what
had once been the greatest force in
politics—the stalwart, union-loving,
secession-hating Tennessee democracy
of Andrew Jackson. With Thomas
H. Benton he stood squarely for what
had been democracy in Jackson’s
time, but the young men would have
none of it. The hero of San Jacinto
had had fighting enough, and he car.
ried all the lead be thought necessary
for glory. But the young men laughed
at his Mexican blanket and his San
Jacinto limp, which they insinuated,
with some show of truth, always grew
worse and most conspicuous when its
fortunate owner was in a tight place
politically.
Houston knew what fighting was,
but the boys on both sides had mettle
to be tested. Houston knew that any
sort of human animal, even a Mex
ican peon, would fight desperately
on occasion, but the boys believed
themselves the sole possessors of the
only genuine article of courage and
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GENERAL SAM HOUSTON.
that their opponents would never
fight at all.
From his entrance to the senate
until his exit, when peace was no
longer possible, Houston warned,
begged, prayed for conciliation and
moderation. Andrew Jackson, who
had been his friend and patron, who
was his model in war and in politics,
spoke with his voice to a generation
that knew not Jackson —that knew
only of an issue between William
Lloyd Garrison, who declared the
constitution a league with death and
a covenant with hell, and Jefferson
Davis, who had made up his mind
that it was impossible for the south
to remain in a union in which at
any time John Brown raids might be
renewed under a federal adminis
tration more favorable to the John
Browns than to the people of the
states threatened with the horrors of
Hayti.
Jackson would have cheerfully as
sisted in hanging Garrison and Davis
as traitors to “the best government
the sun ever shone on,” and Houston
was no doubt much of the same mind,
but he had outlived the time when
he understood the spirit of pol’tiis
or could make himself intelligible
to those who were forcing issues
which he clearly saw must be ruinous-.
The old man loved his country, the
whole of it, even Massachusetts. He
was a slave owner himself, but, like
nearly all prominent men of the south
in his youth, he did not believe that
one man had a right to own another,
and he hoped to see slavery gradually’
and peacefully abolished. But, as he
told the senate in his farewell speech
in 1859, the maintenance of the union
was the paramount consideration.
Among his earliest speeches in the
senate was an extemporaneous effort,
in which he showed at once his sense
of the becoming and that delightful
egotism which was so characteristic
of him.
Both sides were determined to con
test every half-inch of ground. Not
the smallest point was allowed to go
unnoticed, and when there was a
question of showing some courtesy
to Father Matthew, the celebrated
temperance advocate, there was
an objection on the ground that he
had once signed an anti-slaveiy ad
dress. Houston rose in great indig
nation, not only to protest against
this, but to give personal experience
as illustrating the need of a temper
ance agitation.
“I am a disciple of the advocat s
of temperance,” he said. “I need d
the discipline of reformation, and 1
embraced it. I am proud on this
floor to proclaim it, sir! I would en
force the example upon every Amer
ican heart that influences or is in
fluenced by filial affection, conjugal
love or parental tenderness.”
At this time Houston conquered the
habit of drunkenness into which he
had fallen after his crushing family
troubles in Tennessee. He had at al!
times a touching respect for good
women, and, as one woman whom
he loved had influence enough over
him almost to wreck bis intellect,
so another saved him from himself
and restored his better nature.
While in Washington he decided
that ho would adopt the religion
which made the character of his wife
so admirable in his eyes. With this
in view he began training himself by
attending a Baptist church, the reg-
ular attendants at which were greatly
astonished one Sunday morning to see
him come hobbling down the aisle wit n
his brilliant blanket draped around
him. He listened to the sermon with
the most respectful attention, and af
ter it was over told the pastor that
he wished to learn more about the
religion of Mrs. Houston— “one of
the best women that ever lived.” Ha
was a regular attendant and close
listener for many months, and finally
a sermon on the text, “Better is he
that ruleth his spirit than he that
taketh a city,” convinced him that
he ought to join the church. He told
his wife of this resolution, and, when
he next went back to Texas, he was
publicly immersed at Independence
(in 1854.)
On entering the senate Houston,
who had a habit to which he was
even more a slave, than he had ever
been to alcohol, provided himself
with a supply of cypress shirg’es anl
a large waste basket. All through
the debate which forced the civil war
he sat whittling toys for children
from these shingles, holding them
over his waste basket to keep the
floor clean and thinking, no one
knows what thoughts, provoked by
the wilfulness of a generation blind
to a future he could not shut out,
even by closing his eyes.
* ♦ •
After much whittling and protest
ing in the senate he became at last
a Cassandra to whom no one listened’
Then, after having done 1 is be<t on
Sundays to pray him-elf into hs
wife’s religion, the old man w. n*-
home to Texas in 1859 for a final
grapple with the new generation that
would not be ptrsuaded even though
Andrew Jackson rose from the dead.
And a splendid fight he made cf it.
even if there were frequent times
when he forgot all ab ut the demand 3
of Mrs. Houston’s religion, ar<l was
more anxious to conquer his opp n
ents than to rule his own spirit.
He found that his opponents had
complete control < f the democratic
party machinery, and when they n ru
inated Runnels f< r governor as a rep
resentative of the secession spirit he
got himself nomina'ed by a n ass
meeting as an independent democrat
on an Andr w Jackson platf< rm of
the union and the constitution be
fore everything arid regardless of
everything.
Houston had a keen insight into
the character of the plain
and a strong sympathy with them.
He went to the hustings with an ab
solute confidence that the people
would sustain him and it is said
that he was magnificent in the scorn
he showed for the half-fl dged polit
ical novices who were daring to sot
themselves up against him, the hero
of San Jacinto.
Ridicule of his Mexican blanket
and his whittling habits did not mean
in Texas what it had meant in
Washington, and ho bullied and brow
beat his enemies to his heart’s con
tent, the people giving him their
ei thusiastic support in it not only be*
cause they loved Sam Houston, but
(Continued on Page Seven.)
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