WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
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as an officer of the Navy, if they please, should their action be indorsed; but they cannot limit the world-wide fame which he has acquired, nor can they snatch from him that wreath of civic glory that his own exertions have won, and which is equal to the laurels he would have won if he had been called to the field, unless he had been altogether unlike the Maurys of the State in which he was reared and his kindred blood, for it was the best of the Huguenots. Sir, it has been stated by the honorable chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, [Mr. Mallory,] that he looks upon Lieutenant Maury as a civilian; and he thinks that great favors have been done to him. He says that Maury has often been withdrawn at his own instance from sea service; and that he had asked for his present position at the Observatory; but the latter statement was afterwards corrected by the honorable chairman, and very justly; He did not petition for a situation at the Observatory. It was not in time of war that he asked for release or respite from duty. It was not when the enemy were in hostile array on our borders, nor when we were invading a foreign country with our squadrons, that Maury ever asked to be recalled from service. ' But, sir, Maury has been taunted by a lieutenant on the board with his civic distinction, his ease, and quiet; while the same lieutenant thinks that it is hazardous, and troublesome, and dis- agreeable to perform the seafaring part of an officer's duty. I have noticed these taunts. I do not know the individuals from whom they emanate, but they excite in me no indignation. I consider them beneath the contempt of a statesman. I have ac- quaintance with but one officer of this board, and I should not know the others if I saw them. I shall never seek their acquaint- ance until the stigma they have placed on themselves by the course they have pursued is taken from their names and characters. It appears that Lieutenant Maury has been long employed on shore duty. I find, on a comparison of his term of service with that of the chairman of the board, Lieutenant Maury was but four per centum below him in sea service, notwithstanding the great benefits he has rendered to mariners and the commerce of the world while on shore duty. The chairman of that board (Commodore Shubrick) has been in the naval service forty-nine years, of which seventeen years and ten months have been em- ployed in actual sea duty. Lieutenant Maury has been in the service thirty-three years, of which more than nine years have been employed at sea, notwithstanding the misfortune of having
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