Houston

160-62). The failure of Tyler's proposed treaty
had not come as a complete surprise, and Hous-
ton had even gone so far as to authorize a
joint alliance with Great Britain and France on
the basis of independence (Houston to Jones,
Sept. 24, 1844, Jones Manuscripts, San Antonio,
Tex.). When annexation was at length certain,
however, he made light of the doubts and hesi-
tations in which he had necessarily passed the
last three years (Niks' National Register, June
14,1845, p. 230; Dec. 27,1848, p. 413). His ene-
mies were soon able to prove that he had con-
sidered more than one alternative, but they could
not deny to him his place as the one commanding
figure in the history of the Republic of Texas,
whose brief career was now coming to a glorious
and unexpectedly successful end.

In March 1846, Houston was again in Wash-
ington, to serve for almost fourteen years as
a senator from the recently admitted state of
Texas. He was still a great talker, his clothes
were still showy and unusual, once at least he
made a speech when under the influence of un-
dignified excitement, but the man had mellowed
with the passing years, and his personal enmities
were chiefly those that he had inherited from
earlier stages of his career. He spoke seldom,
sometimes with careless lack of preparation; but
in support of the Union and again when the
rights of the Indians were at stake he rose more
than once to real heights of impassioned and
well-controlled eloquence. During the Mexican
War he, as well as his old friend and colleague,
Thomas J. Rusk, cordially supported the policies
of Polk. Houston was offered a generalship in
the army but declined. He was bitterly disap-
pointed with Trist's treaty of peace, and to the
end of his life continued to advocate at least a
protectorate over the whole of Mexico.

As time went on, he found himself an increas-
ingly lonely figure among his Southern col-
leagues. On the organization of Oregon tinder
the anti-slavery provisions of the Northwest Or-
dinance of 1787, from all the South only Thomas
Hart Benton \_q.v.] voted with him. Houston
was the only Southern senator who voted for
every item in the compromise measures of 1850,
and only John Bell [q.v.~\ of Tennessee agreed
with him in opposing the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise. On this heated question Houston
made the ablest, because the most moderate and
prophetic, speech. On only one question, that of
a railroad to the Pacific by a Southern route, did
he occupy a position that was distinctly South-
ern. When in 1856 he became an advocate of the
principles of the Know-Nothing party and was
mentioned for the presidency, he had alienated

Houston

even the Germans, who on other questions often
agreed with him. Two years before the close of
his term, the legislature of Texas signified its
displeasure by electing his successor. In an elo-
quent valedictory to the Senate, Feb. 28, 1859,
Houston summed up his career (Congressional
Globe, 35 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 1433-39)- Some
weeks before, Jan. 13, 1859, in a colloquy with
his new colleague, Ward, he had said: "I make
no distinction between southern rights and north-
ern rights. Our rights are rights common to the
whole Union. I would not see wrong inflicted
on the North or on the South, but I am for the
Union, without any 'if in the case; and my motto
is, it shall be preserved I" To which Ward re-
plied : "I will only remark to my honorable col-
league, that there is a difference of that 'if be-
tween us" (Congressional Globe, 35 Cong., 2
Sess., p. 355).

Houston's name was still one to conjure with
in Texas. In 1857, while still in the Senate, and
resting under the obloquy of his recent Know-
Nothing heresy, he put his popularity to the test
by running for the governorship, and though
defeated he managed to poll a vote that was in
the circumstances quite surprising. Two years
later, as he was leaving the Senate, the result
was reversed, and he was elected over the same
opponent on a platform which called for a new
Indian policy to make the frontiers safe and for
the preservation of the Union. His brief term
as governor coincided with the heated canvass
which resulted in the election of Abraham Lin-
coln. Houston believed that even now, with
smaller sacrifices than had been necessary to
establish it, the Constitution might be preserved.
Again and again, before excited audiences, he
pointed out the certainty of war and the danger
of defeat. He did not believe that even the elec-
tion of a "blade Republican" would justify se-
cession. Unfortunately for his policies, how-
ever, the tide was running strong against him.
Even before his inauguration, the bloody con-
flicts in Kansas, John Brown's Harper's Ferry
raid, and the indorsement of Helper's Impending
Crisis by prominent Republicans had set the
stage for secession. Indian raids continued and
weakened the normal Union sentiment of the
frontier. A series of unusual fires were charged
to Abolitionists, and in the heated atmosphere
of the times such charges gained credence. In
the circumstances, after the election, Houston's
devices to delay or limit the effects of secession
proved mere straws in the course of the advanc-
ing current.

He first hoped to initiate a movement for a
Southern convention to arrange some cotnpro-

266