WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
288
within their control and jurisdiction. Neither of these gentle- men, though intelligent and able, had his attention drawn to that department of defense in such a way as to qualify him eminently for its care. Every gentleman who goes into the Navy Depart- ment, owing to the condition of the various bureaus there, is placed in a mesh, unless he has some experience in naval affairs. He is unacquainted with the details of the office. He finds men who have become rooted there. Since those bureaus were estab- lished, twelve or fourteen years since, they have had a controlling influence. He necessarily looks to them for intelligence; he has to rely on them for information; and after awhile that reliance settles down to submission on his part, and authority on their part over him. Unless a man has a master-will and unbounded capacity to eviscerate a subject, and a will to control and manage it, he will inevitably yield to their machinations, and will feel himself bound in the meshes by which he is surrounded, and at last must yield himself a victim to the designs of packed con- spiracies. Mr. President, we are told that by the action of the board the inefficient alone were to be removed. Does not every one of us know that the ineffi~ient have not been removed; that men of great efficiency have been removed; that men of spotless reputa- tions and high honor have been removed; that men of skill in seamanship have been removed, and their characters stained? We know that others have been retained who were characterized as a portion of the "dry-rot," instead of cutting that off, or sep- arating it from the pure material. That has been the effect. It was efficiency that was required ; and yet men are retained in the service who are not efficient-even one of the board himself had his leg broken twice, and Lieutenant Maury had a leg broken only once. [Mallory explained that Lieutenant Missroon served two years on active duty after having had his leg broken and improperly set. He then had it surgically rebroken and reset, and since re- covery had served actively seven years.] Mr. Houston. Mr. President, I am always very glad to hear the gentleman when he speaks; but I do not see that his explana- tion has any particular relevancy to this matter. It is true that some days since it was stated in discussion that Mr. Maury had received the injury of a fractured limb. It was rather intimated that this was the cause for disrating him, because otherwise his
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