Description:

Houston Sam

Sam Houston is asked for a copy of his Kansas-Nebraska Bill rejection speech by a Northern abolitionist

 

1p ALS addressed to "Hon. Sam Houston, U.S. Senator" inscribed overall and signed by college student Walter S. Alexander (1835-1900) as "Walter S. Alexander" at bottom of first page. The remaining pages of the cream bifold stationery are blank. In good to very good condition, with toning, isolated discoloration and burn marks. Handwriting is somewhat faded. Each page measures 5.125" x 8".

 

Preparatory school student Walter S. Alexander would later receive his degree from Yale and become a Congregationalist minister. On February 21, 1854 from Middleborough, Massachusetts, he wrote:

 

"My dr Sir:

 

I should esteem it a great favor. Would you forward to me a copy of your recent speech delivered in the Senate upon the Nebraska bill. Although it has been reported in the different papers: yet I would have it in more permanent form…

 

Accept my congratulations for the honorable position you have sustained…".

 

Texas Senator Sam Houston (1793-1863) delivered a Senate speech against the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill on February 15, 1854. Proposed by Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas in January 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act had reopened the divisive slavery question by deliberating what to do about the vast Nebraska Territory. Douglas, who was a firm proponent of popular sovereignty, argued that residents should determine whether territories would be free soil or slave.

 

Houston objected to the Kansas-Nebraska Act for several interesting reasons. First, he argued that the Kansas-Nebraska Act effectively overturned the 1850 Missouri Compromise, which he, Congress, and his Texan constituents had previously endorsed. According to Houston, the Missouri Compromise had ushered in a refreshing period of tranquil North-South relations, and if it was violated, sectional mistrust and territorial violence could only be the result. Second, contracts were sacred, and the Missouri Compromise was non-negotiable. Third, the new Act would disturb current U.S. Indian policy. Fourth, the legislature did not have the authority to deliberate on domestic issues like slavery anyway. Houston was only 1 of 2 Southern Congressmen to reject the Bill, and he was viewed by many as a traitor.

 

Houston's speech can be seen excerpted below. The speech eerily anticipates the oncoming Civil War:

 

"…He says that I am opposed to the bill. Yes, sir, I am opposed to the provision in relation to the Indians; and if it were possible that I could feel more repugnant and determinedly against anything else, it would be the provision to repeal the Missouri compromise. Why, sir? Because I have stood upon it…

 

The Missouri compromise has been repeatedly recognized and acted upon by Congress as a solemn compact between the States; and as such, it has received the sanction of each individual member of the Confederacy. I consider that the vital interests of all the States, and especially of the South, are dependent, in a great degree, upon the preservation and sacred observance of that compact. Texas, in adopting the compromise line, in compliance with the imperative demand of the other States, as a part of the price of her admission, surrendered more than one third of her territory in latitudinal extent, her right to continue the institution of slavery…But what must be the consequence if an attempt to repeal the Missouri compromise is urged upon us? Will it produce no excitement? Has it produced none? If my opposition to a measure which I conceive fraught with danger to the whole section from which I come is misconstrued to be agitation, I am responsible to my constituents. Can any one [sic doubt that agitation will be consequent upon the adoption of this measure? Has not the Missouri compromise been of great benefit to the country? Has it not wrought wonderful changes?...

 

The requiem of Abolition seemed to have been sung. If there were ultras in the South, their dissatisfactions were silenced; they had acquiesced in this great healing measure; and the wounds which had afflicted the body-politic were cicatrized and well. I rejoiced in it; every patriot in the land rejoiced in it. All felt joyous in the accomplishment of a consummation so devoutly to be wished. A further assurance was given to us that peace would be preserved, in the inaugural of the President of the United States…

 

But, sir, if it were opposing the whole world, with the convictions of my mind and heart, I would oppose to the last by all means of rational resistance the repeal of the Missouri compromise, because I deem it essential to the preservation of this Union, and to the very existence of the South. It has heretofore operated as a wall of fire to us. It is a guarantee for our institutions. Repeal it, and there will then be no line of demarkation [sic. Repeal it, and you are putting the knife to the throat of the South, and it will be drawn. No event of the future is more visible to my perception than that, if the Missouri compromise is repealed, at some future day the South will be overwhelmed…

 

The day, I fear, must come in the progress of our country—though God forbid that it ever should—that great trials and emergencies will grow up between the North and the South…Mr. President, in the far distant future I think I perceive those who come after us, who are to be affected by the action of this body upon this bill. Our children have two alternatives here presented. They are either to live in after times in the enjoyment of peace, of harmony, and prosperity, or the alternative remains for them of anarchy, discord, and civil broil. We can avert the last. I trust we shall. At any rate, so far as my efforts can avail, I will resist every attempt to infringe or repeal the Missouri compromise."

 

Sam Houston was intensely involved in the Texan independence movement. He signed the Texas Declaration of Independence in March 1836 and routed Santa Ana’s forces in an almost bloodless 18-minute-long battle at San Jacinto about one month later. Houston later served as president of the Republic of Texas, a state senator, and finally governor. He also ran unsuccessfully for U.S. President.

 

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