Daily Republican., 1880-09-03
Houston the Leader.

rior Court of Delaware for the last
twenty-five years, 1t was not in place
for him to take an active part in tie
hurry and hustle Of active political
life. He was one of the highest honor
cd conservators of the peace OF tho
State in which position he has pur-
sued q consistent and conservative
course, in which there was not the
least show of partisanship. He was a
Judge, not a partisan. Judge Houston
at the present time is no doubt the
most distinguished man in the State
in q political point Of view. He was
appointed Secretary of State in lS4O by
Governor Cooper, Wing, when he
was but twenty six years of age. -Four
years later he was elected to Congress
over George Read Riddle. Edward NJ.
Wootten, who is also an Associate JUS
tice and occupies . seat beside him on
the bench, was nominated as a candi
date against him but he declined owing
TO i'll health.
Had he not declined Judge Houston
would be sitting beside his associate,
whom he defeated. Two years later in
l846, Judge Houston was renominated
for Congress and elected over John d.
Dilworth, an influential farmer near
Port Penn, New Castle county. So
faithfully did he do his duty in Con-
gress that contrary to the usual pre-
vailing custom, he was re-nominated a
third time in lS48, and was elected over
William G. Whiteley, Esq, who was
then in the rising zenith of his glory.
This is the last instance in Delaware in
which the same candidate was electe d
to Congress three times in succession.
1t might have been expected of Judge
Houston from the fact that he repre-
sented a slave State, and was q member
of family that held slaves, that his
sympathies would be on the side Of
slavery, and that he would have voted
against every attempt to hedge 1t in or
crush it out. But instead Of this, he
is found amongst the leaders of the pro
gressive men Of those times who took q
stand against the spread Of slavery into
the territories, and when the famous
Wilmot Proviso was passed which pro-
hibted slavery in the territories that
were free, Houston was found voting
for the proviso.
Though then but thirty.two years Of
age, and the prospects Of long and
useful life before him, he took the
risks, voted against his own personal
interests and on the side of freedom,
justice and humanity. At the close Of
Judge Houston's six years in Congress
be returned to the practice Of the law
in Georgetown, but he had only pur
sued his vocation Ave years when he
vas called by Governor Csusey to put
on the judicial ermine which he has
honestly, modestly, judiciously and
spotlessly worn ever since.
At The end Ct twenty-five years faith
ful service on the bench, history re-
peats itself by Judge Houston becoming
the nominee Of the Republican party
On the side Of freedom in 1916, when It
cost him something to be an snti-sla-
very man, he was on the sile Of free
dom and hs Is on the side Of freedom
still IN 1880.
His vote in Congress in 1916 laid the
foundation OF the great fabric of free
dom which has since been erected, and
nothing is more consistent, right and
proper than that the Republicans Of
Delaware should unite in one general
acclaim for the man who shrank no
to do his duty when men, not politi-
clans, were needed, and that they
'houid make Judge Houston the csndi.
date Of the freedom loving people o.,
Delaware for Congress. Judge Houston
s one of the few links left in the chair
t at binds the hearts oftbe liberty lov.
i Ig citizens of Delaware to the memory
of John n. Clayton, Delawares greatest
statesman of the past.
The principles of the latter are hand
ed down to the people in his puIi'
Judge Houston. Who can wonder al
the patriotic demonstration with which
his nomination is received F.? Will
Delawareans SO far forget the history Of
ths past, before Tho war broke ou., that
the Statesman who made Delaware grta.