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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
anything that did not become a man-a whole man; for he him- self was every inch a king. He was nature's king. He was by birth nobility. He was not a king hereditarily, but to nature's lineage. Think you, sir, that he would see honorable men stricken down, dishonored, degraded, and humiliated, and others forming combinations to sustain them, trying to subsidize influence, de- nouncing men through their friends, because they did not come to the support of their bill? No, sir; General Jackson never would do such a thing; but he would, with his own hands, have wiped out forever from the Register the names of those who sat on that board. And I never will, while I live, support any man . for power or place who would not revise that board, and exercise his prerogatives on those of them who are not able to vindicate themselves against the machinations which stand charged against them by the facts arrayed. We should relieve the public from the odium of the responsibility that must rest on us as a nation, unless we redress it. It can be done, and the Secretary of the Navy has distinctly said so. Mr. President, there was no necessity for any modification of the laws in relation to the Navy, either as to its government or as to its organization. It was only necessary to make provision for a retired list. All the power necessary for its correction, and for purging it of any improper material, was already in the hands of the executive, either by the Constitution or by the laws. It was in the power of the Secretary of the Navy to order a court of inquiry, in relation to the conduct of any officer; they would report the facts to him and he would submit them to the President, who might then exercise his prerogative. If he lacked the courage to do it, he should report them to the Senate, and ask for their advice and consent in regard to the exercize of his prerogative. After you had provided a retired list for those pronounced incompetent by a board of surgeons, the Navy would be relieved. Thus all the useless portions would be dispensed with, and this remedy would be efficient. But men have been retired whose positions were proud and preeminent. By these combinations they are stricken down. One instance, to which I have already alluded, is that of Ring- gold, one of the elite of the Navy, a gallant and chivalrous officer, a most accomplished and skillful seaman, and an elegant gentle- man. He, too, has been hopelessly stricken down, because on one occasion, in the East Indies, when laboring under the miserable effects of quinine, he became delirious and a little anant in mind.
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