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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
Sir, a thousand guns for Rolando would be too little a greeting on his return to the American shores. But how did he return? With humiliation, shame, and confusion. He is a man who has acquired for your country a fame which no other man in modern times has done. Sir, his conduct in the China seas is without a parallel. You may take your Nelsons and all the heroes of an- tiquity; but it will require old Neptune himself to rival Rolando. He has performed feats which electrified the British Navy. Sir, they struck Europe to the heart. They aroused their sluggish impulses, and animated their pride in the recollection, I presume of former days. The Queen of Spain conferred on him the order of knighthood. What else was done? The English did not par- ticipate in the bloody scenes, where the scuppers of his gallant ship gushed blood. When the enemy were forced to run away, they exploded "the vessel and threw him into the ocean, but he recovered again. Those who only contemplated his feats of gal- lantry and chivalry-what was done for them? The captain who commanded the British vessel was made an admiral, and his lieu- tenant a commodore. What have we done for Rolando? We have disgraced that gallant and chivalrous man. And do you expect glory and honor to perch on the banners of your Navy, and to maintain its well-earned renown, when you strike down such men as Rolando, and leave such men as composed this board? Are you going to confide the honor of the nation to men, regard- less of the chivalry of their fellows, who have lost all esvrit du corps, and who appropriate all favor, all power, all patronage to themselves. Sir, I am not prepared to do it. These men have had no hearing. The law said their cases should be "carefully" examined. Has the President examined them? No. In the first place the board were to retire those who were inefficient, and drop those morally unworthy. They have done neither, and therefore they have not executed the law. The President has not carefully examined it, and therefore the action is a nullity. He has not exercized the prerogative of the Executive, because he said he acted in accordance with the law; and, in conformity with the law, the officers that are dropped were notified of it, and the words "according to the law" are in- serted in his prefatory remarks in the notification to them. Then, it was not by virtue of the prerogative of the Executive that it was done. My friend from Delaware spoke the other day of what General Jackson would have done. Sir, Jackson was incapable of doing
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