Sam Houston (by Haley) in 1850 to the Senate

This passage really stood out to me as I read it:

In opposition to Pres. Zachary Taylor and the Southern radicals, Houston took the floor to support [Henry] Clay.  His passionate advocacy of the Compromise of 1850 and the indivisibility of the Union filled twenty-five typeset pages, which he had printed in advance as pamphlets and widely distributed.  This was his chance to be heard nationally on the one subject that he considered of overarching importance.  He admitted that he was not himself as religious as he ought to be.  'I cannot offer the prayers of the righteous that my petition might be heard.  But I beseech those whose piety will permit them reverently to petition, that they will pray for this Union, and ask that He who buildeth up and pulleth down nations will, in mercy, preserve and unite us.  For a nation divided against itself cannot stand.'  The applause was deafening.  (Across the capitol in the House, there had been a change in the delegation from Illinois.  A disappointed Whig, an outgoing one-term congressman named Abraham Lincoln, was so disgusted with events that he had not even sought reelection.  But one of Houston's pamphlets must have found his way to him.)

emphasis added; source Sam Houston by James Haley p. 305