--
Gen. Samuel Houston addressed the citizens of
Houston, Texas, on the 28th ult. He made an eloquent and patriotic speech.
We give the conclusion of it:
The period is approaching when the great issues of the war will be decided.
The turning point must soon come.
From our army we may expect everything.
Let us expect but little from foreign powers, but be ready to make the best of the condition of things abroad, and by a wise foreign policy endeavor to make them tend to our advantage.
We can afford to wait for the future.
A people whose expansive energies have carried our institutions thus far Southward, cannot be restrained if destiny points the way.
Fellow-citizens, you have before you the scheme of your independence.
It is to be accomplished through the triumph of your arms, the sustenance of your currency, devotion and unity of purpose in your relations with your Government and each other, the wisdom of those who control your affairs, and the bleatings of
Providence.
Convinced that the separation of the
Yankee and the
Southern people is fixed and certain, that fanaticism and conservative principles of Government cannot harmonize, I long for peace, and with it, the happy dawn of a nation whose gloomy period has given such evidence of greatness that the world may hope for its long and prosperous existence.
I trust the day will hasten; that, stimulated by the dangers which surround us, we shall remain united; that our Constitution may be maintained sacred, that territory may be added to our limits, and that we may emerge from the scenes of war with our liberies unimpaired either by usurpation at home or tyranny abroad.
Let us gather up the links that remain to us, and encircling with them our hearts, swear to resist to the last that worst of all tyranny, fraternal hate.
From one nation we have become two, and well will it be for mankind if this fast or destiny is soon recognized by our foes and the world.
War may still wage, and its march of desolation trample upon the hopes of millions, yet the chain of unity will be broken, and two people yet live to attest how vain were the dreams of those who believed that the
Union was a thing of forever.
