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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 WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. 1 ~1 I j f ' 1 M ILI TH || j P in IK—- n L I ■ I See ft,lm w 'WFr-FF i 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.) PAGE THREE