Vindication of AB Norton, from the Attacks of His Enemies Made
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§H F 35 VINDICATION FT MEADE GenCol 1 Jk- or A ^r\ v i. BfN O R TO N ROM THE ATTACKS OF HIS. ENEMIES; MADE IN THE TEXAS LEGISLATORS, APRIL 8th 1861. t ^ - ;; > : l -NSC*’ COEEES P 0 N I) E N C E . Gen. A. B. Norton :— AUSTIN, April, 1861, Sia: The undersigned, having been as.«o Gentlemen : dated with you in the State Legislature, and In response to your kind favor, I furnish believing you to be true to our rights, and be 1 erewith a copy of my remarks, believing it ing desirous that the people of the State may due to my friends and associates that the truth know your position, we respectfully request should be known, and a foul calumny thereby that you will furnish for pub'icafion your re dispelled, marks made in the House on the 8th iust. “There are many devils that walk thi3 world Austin, April 9 th 1861. Devils great and devils small, Geo. McKnight, Wm. Smith, Devils with tails and devils without;” Devils who whisper, devils who shout, A. M. M. Up-haw, W. M. Bryce, Devils who mystify, devils who teach ; W. M. Owen, J. Lewter, But the Calumny Devil—as hard to reach J. W. Davis, A. F. Crawford/ As the snail, who, now safe and on some Em fry Rains,* B. F. Ross, distant beach, K. Bryan, • Joel Robinson, Is digesting the core of my favorite peach, T, H. Mdndine/ M. L. Armstrong, , Is the shabbiest devil of them all! Thankful for your good opinion and friend¬ S. J. Redgate, Geo. W. Whitmore, ship. which I prize, and with well wishes for J. E. Henry/ W. E. Middleton* your prosperity, I am, respectfully, • F. B. H. Epperson, Wrede, Yours, &e., James H. Duncan' A. C. Hyde, A. B. NORTON. * Thos. Lewellyn' N. H. Darnell, Meesrs, • icKnight, Ms id. Smith, H. P. Mabry, H H. Edwards, W. B. Middlrt J. L. Haynes/ J. W. Throckmorton, A. G. Hyde, F. Wrede, D. M. Whaley, J. W. C add ell, & others N. H. Darnell, 8 0 1. words meet this cowardly and infamous slan¬ Mr. Speaker— 1 rise, to a question jof der, in order, that I may stand “ rectus in personal privilege. For the first time in iny curia,” in the1 estimation of those with whom life; and greatly to my aversion, 1 am compelled I have been pleasantly and agreeably associa¬ to trouble a public body with ray persona' ted in this Legislature, ami who T have been grievance, and to ask, for what I may sav, the proud to call my friends ; not withstanding that Vvipdidjconsideration of those who hear rue — upon many grave questions which have occu¬ This, sir, 1 low do because this question of pied our attention, we have widely u.tiered. personal privilege upon which I am about.to but as gentlemen always, each having for the spuair, concerns not myself individually alone other proper respect and esteem. butaT^’is of importance to yourselves, ray To the charge ofAbolitionism,” and of associates in the Legislature, and all those who having been of such sentiments in this may have been socially or otherwise connected or elsewhere, I will cheerfully refer +<0 with me. I hold in my band, various papers, who have had opportunities of (mowing m\ containing charges eta very grave and serious character—some making the direct allegations true sentiments, in all the ^oedoni of social and private intercourse ^ >vei[ ;l3 the most —others doing the thing more covertly and slilv, by insinuation ana innuendo, all aimed violent ot my polecat opponents in the past. directly at the-same object and endeavoring to I stand th^., gir, among my peers, and accomplish my overthrow and ruin. in the ry^ence of Almighty God, the searcher of ail heart-, to whesn 1 shall in time coming To these, one and all, I shall reply in gene- be -duly accountable, and pronounce the charge- #rai terms, and squill ei deavor to occupy as brief and slanderous. I challenge scrutiny i time as possible, as I would not now need¬ false I defy investigation. lessly encroach upon the business of this Le¬ Briefly, 1 will refer to ray past course. * gislature. first entered into political lifu in the stormy 1 hold in my hand, sir, copies of the Marshal^ and trying times of 1810, as l)ne o: Jlrpublican, Dallas Herald, Belton Democrat, : t Sentinel, Tyler Reporter, Jefferson Her yd. and the electors toi WiidaTJ ^.enry Harrison, the (dazet'e, J ffersonian, Enquirer, }Iov>'t,T anq va> true- hearted son o> immortal old Ben, who, nous other papers published in afferent points •with John uayCOck and Thomas Jefferson, in this State and outside ol^ which have in signed tb?3 declaration of American Indepen¬ one torm and another utterance to f&ls** dence. I with “ fervency and zeal ” supported ••barges against m ^ which have been reitera that man who, in 1S10, as a member of Con¬ gress voted against restric.'inq Missouri in her t-0 'm cr-4ftTnns of the city papers, and ti- Constitutional rights, and w-s one of those naiiy iheir appearance in the official or- members from noa-slaveholdiug states, who g'a < of the LegLlature and the Convention.— voted in favor of Missouri coming into the the Stale Gazette. And having assumed this Union upon the same terms as other States, and semi-official form, I am constrained to notice Wts of the Ab lit ion i.sts to d - in rny official position attacks from persons to price her of the right to recognise slavery in her whom 1 would otherwise give as wide a char¬ Constitution, and for this exalted self devotion, he ter as the wind to olovv on me when it listeth, was turned out of office, thus sacrificing him¬ preferring their ribald abuse and denunciation self upon the altar of Southern rights :—,for to their praise. that man who declared in his speech in Che¬ The papers, sir, contain the charge and alle¬ viot, Ohio, in 1633, that “the discussion of the gation, that you have in your body an aboli¬ subject of emancipation in the non-slaveholding tionist: and that the representative who now states, is equally injurious to the slaves and addresses you is that man. If this charge he their masters, and has no sanction in the true, have you not for months and years quietly Principles of the Constitution ;—and for rad tacitly permitted an enemy of the South, that man who, in an address at Vincennes, in¬ ind one seeking to destroy the institutions oi veighed in the strongest terms against emanci¬ ,our country, to hold a seat upon this floor in pationists, denouncing their claims as “ weak, violation of the oath which yourselves as well presumptuous, and unconstitutional, and implored as himself have taken to support ? Have you the citizens of the North-West to frown upon iot thereby proven recreant to your trust? measures which must “ eradicate those feelings Hare you not suffered a stigma to be placed of attachment and affection between the citizens upon the fair escutcheon of Texas? And will of all the States, which was produced by a you not justly be condemned by your consti¬ community of interests and dangers in the war tuency and the entire people of the South ? of the revolution,—which was. the foundation This, sir, is the view I take of the subject of our happy Union, and by a continuance ef send it is because, uader the circumstances 1 which, it cun alone he preservedE In this ad¬ deem it a matter of duty, that J shall in a few dress he contended that “ the people of the aou- 9 slaveholding states are not warranted by the from Banning Norton, in which he denounced Constitution in molding meetings and h:u- all such sentiments of expediency advanced by JJSHINU SPEECHES AGAINST THE DOMESTIC INSTK the Doctor and declared that tlie \\ hig party TtmoNs of the .south.”—lor that man who in was not dead as asserted by Mr. Browning, 1836, in a letter to Thos. Sloo, jr., of New Or¬ that it was founded in the immortal principles leans, Said 111 do not belive that Congress can of protection and paper currency, taught by Clay, abolish slavery in the States, or in any manner by Webster, by Adams, and by Hamilton, that interfere with the property of the citizens in their although parties and organizations might slaves,”—‘*1 do not believe that Congress can change, their imperishable and immortal prin¬ abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, ciples never would ; that they were the nucleus without the consent of Virginia and Maryland around which one m'llion four hundred thou¬ and the people of the District.” sand Whigs rallied at the last Presidential In the contest of 1844, with increased vigor election. That he regarded Dr. Dyer’s resolu¬ and zeal, I canvassed and worked as an ( lector tion, as a movement on the part of Mj. Brown¬ for tjie best abused man by Texian politicians ings the Fredericktown clique and a tew others and demagogues the noble patriot Henry Clay, to sell the Whig party, ‘* body and breeches/” the great-hearted commoner, who in the hour to the Abolitionists! That for bimaeri, be of darkest peril to Texian Independence, dona¬ thanked God. that as a Knox eojfcjv Whig, and ted to her cause from Ins own scanlv means, as an old line Henry Clay Whig, hc^ievir $1000 in hard money. In 1848, for Zachary would get down on his knees to a'$k the A bolition Taylor, the immortal hero of Buena Vista; and \party who, in their pleasure, thejr^woind permi t iu 1852 for Winfield Scott, the gallant conque¬ Whigs to vote for.