Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1856-02-08
Speech of Gen. Sam Houston,
Delivered at dustin, Nouensber 2S, 1858.
TcoNrINrEp.l

/ [coNTINUED.l
Would you consider such policy as recognising
/ the rights of American freemens My countrymen,
am for extending to foreigners all the privileges
which they OF right can anticpate-greater bless
ings than they enjoyed in the land from which
they came. / am for giving them all the rights
i which we extend to our minors. am In favor of
giving them equal participation in our free insti-
tutions whenever they shall have passed proper
probation here until that time | am willing that
their merit should place them on social equality
! am not willing to surrender the imprescrptble
rights of freemen into foreign hands, until their
! affections and principles are identified with this
country, for which our fathers bled and transmit
ted as an equal heritage, until they have remained
twenty -one yearsn our country. With perfect guar.
antee extended to them for all their civil rights
don't wish to cucumber them with the exercise ofthe
| right of suffrage Our children pass probation
from infancy to manhood; intelligence is progress.
sive and from their mothers breast they imbibe
certain notions of liberty and with all the adyan-
| tagcs of education and of society, they are not
deemed capable Of exercising the right of suffrage
until they have attained the age of twenty-onc
years. Thousands and tens of thousands of for
| eigners migrate to our country without knowing
anything of our language, and utter strangers to
our institutions. They have to unlearn those of
| European despotism before they are capable Of
| comprehending or realizing the beauties of our
free system of government
My countrymen, may not be indulged in this
dispostions Is it criminal for me to honestly diff
| fer with others in political opinion? Am to be
prescribed for exercising right which concede
TO othersg have labored through my whole life
for that privilege, and will die in vindcating as
| a prerogative.
| In remarking on the subject of foreigners not
| being acquainted with our language.and our laws,
| must be permitted to relate an anecdote in con-
nection with this subject A candidate in the late
| canvass, in county not remote from this place
rode up to good German residence and on en-
tering the house accosted the occupant thus: q.
| Candidate. How do you do2
| German. How do you do? n
| Candidate. Do you live here?
| German. Yah, Ibis here. VI
Candidate. WE'LL ! am candidate. 4 have
| come eectioneering. 49,
| German. have heard of these electioneerinp
| folks going about the country.
| Candidate observing decanter of liquor on
/ the manteL) / am not one of those temperance
candidates you have heard Of am in favor OF
allowing every man to drink whenever he pleases
There are some candidates in favor Of passing laws
prohibiting people from drinking liquor, but am
not one of those sort.
1 German. Any pody wants to pass laws vat viii
make PEBBLE not git thrunky 8fFe
/ Candidate. Yes, there's these Know -Nothngs
what pass laws not to let people get drunk if they
| choose.
! German. That's SO peter as good goes 30
town sometimes, ven gifts whiskey and gifts thrunk,
and then spends my money, and then have to
git sober, and that's mighty bad And then if |
had laid out my money for sometmg for the old
woman and the children, that would have been
good. And then feel SO pad ven gifts sober
| Candidate. Well, I am not Know-Nothing !;
l am Democrat.
German. have heard of them Democrats
Candidate. am in favor Of allowing Germans
| to vote for Office and make laws These Know
Nothings won't allow foreigners to vote for twenty
one years after they have come to this country.
German. Vel, will vote for that man who does
| not allow Germans to hold Office and vo@ for 81
/ years. We come here, we don't know anything
| about your language here and we don't know any
ting about your laws, and we got our own notions,
and can't read your language and dis is your own
country vot you make, and we come here and you
made the laws. You know better how to take
care of the government than we do, and won't
vote for no foreigner to make laws. come from
my country to git rid OF the infarnal laws, and
don't want any lawmakers vot comes from that
country. The foreigners mske bad laws in their
country, and come here to get rid of bad laws.
Now, felow-citizens, / have told you about the
/ Nebraska bill, will tell you am Democrats
jackson Democrat have never been anything
else. He was the first statesman ever admired.
adhered to him consistently to the day Of his
death, and to his principles to this hour. saw
bis mortal remains deposited in the bosom of
mother earth, and l would deem it sacrilege to
abandon his political faith. Now let any other
statesman living come forward and claim higher
title to Jackson Democracy than mine. The man
does not ve Other statesmen have had other favor
ties than him. They have held office or been adj
vocates of other individuals at times than General
Jackson / had none other while he lived j
stand upon the platform upon which he stood.
1t is not one of modern construction. 1t con-
sists of but two planks-the constitution and the
Union. Upon these | am willing to live and
/ expect to die. They were broad enough fol
Andrew jackson to stand upon and vindicate
his principles with all the legitimate compro
mses of the constitution. Here is where | stand
Iti considered very offensive to the bombshel
Democracy to say that the American party is built
on the ruins of the Whig and Democratic parties
Ruins" is a relative term, and somewhat ambigu
Gus in its meaning
| will give the substance of the evidence have
for arriving at this conclusion of mine. 1t will be
recollected my friend, and colleague, Gen. Rusk in
letter written some months since declared that
the misfortune of the Democratic party was the
number Of Aboitonists and Free-soilers which il
contained; and il they could be got rid Of, the
party would be great deal better off, that it was
split up, was one of the causes which originated
the American party; that Mr. Polk while President
retained too many in Office, and that they die
nothing but produce confusion in the party and
evidently defeated Gen. Cass in his aspirations tc
the Presidency; that Mr.. Pierce when he came
into Office, no doubt with good intentions, appoint
ed great many Abolitionsts to office, and thai
until the party was purged of them it would not be
harmonious that he would rather suffer defeat
without them than to achieve victory with them.
Mr.. Stephens, Of Georgia, has been held up by the
bombshell Democracy as Democratic prosclyte,
and whose election was received as a Democratic
triumph, though he had always been a Whig of the
ultra school declared that the Democratic marty