WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
293
Solemn Declaration and Protest of Commodore Stewart, against the proceedings of a board of Naval Officers assembled at Wash- ington, on July 21, 1846. [We omit the protest which Houston read.] But, sir, what was the crying necessity for this attempted "im- provement" and revision in the Navy? It is the clamor of young officers who are burning for promotion. Is there any wrong done to them by restraining their anxiety, impassioned as it may be? Not at all. When they enter the Navy they know the conditions under which they do so; they know the rules of the service, and the system of promotion through the various grades; thus they have no right to complain if they cannot obtain promotion in the regular course. By adhering to it we are not wronging them; and is their clamor to displace men who have for thirty or forty years relied on the faith of this Government, that, as long as they demean themselves honorably and usefully to the country, they should be sustained by her? Are they to be displaced to give room for the young aspirants-many of them the relations of members of the board-and to give room for members of the board themselves? Is there a solitary officer who served upon the board who was not directly interested in the revision of the Navy Register, and who did not receive promotion as a conse- quence of his own individual action? More than half, if not two thirds, promoted not only themselves but also their own relations. Can you tell me, in the face of the country, that such proceed- ings can be honest, when Commodore Stewart was even opposed to the principle (unless in very extraordinary cases) of going out of the ordinary rule of promotion by rotation. But here we see men's heads were cut off for the sake of young aspirants and gentlemen who clamor-men who call themselves "the country," "the wisdom of Congress," having all the knowl- edge of everything that is necessary in order to a revision of the Navy to give efficiency to the right arm of the service. Sir, it is a useless arm now; in its present condition it is paralytic. The nation has now but one arm, and that is the Army of the country; it is that on which she must rely to defend her. You have fine vessels; you intend to build more; but you have not in the Navy the personnel that has been culled out and stricken down. Instead of improving the Navy it has been impaired; its strength and efficiency have been lost by what has been done. You must raise it by repeal; you must give strength to it by REPEAL; you must confirm its strength by REPEAL; for nothing short of
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