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WRITINGS OF SAl\I HOUSTON, 1856
committee be doing what they can to promote justice? As gentle- men, selected from this body for the impartial investigation of the subject, they will, of course, do all they can to bring forth the facts. By their examinations, the truth can be elicited; the imputations, reports, rumors, and hearsay, on which officers were · stricken down, can be compared, analyzed, and dissected by the Senate, and a just judgment deduced from the evidence which may be brought forward. But, sir, it has been suggested that the appointment of such a special committee will be a reflection on the Committee ·on Naval Affairs. I do not think so. The gentlemen of that committee have already had sufficient employment in the investigation of this subject. The elaborate report which they have made, and the investigations to which they have devoted themselves, have already consumed a sufficiency of their time and absorbed their minds. They have made a report to the Senate, and I believe they are ·unanimous in their conclusions, that no specific redress ought to be granted to individuals, except to a partial extent, under the discretion of the President of the United States. I do not intend to cast the slightest reflection on him, for it is not necessary to the impartial investigation of this subject; but we are all to well acquainted with human nature not to know what would be the result of leaving it to his discretion. What would be his situation? He has already indorsed the action of the board. He has played subservient to them. He was their minister. He acted in accord- ance with their suggestions and dictation. For the sake of con- sistency he would feel that he was bound to carry out their action. If he should come to that conclusion, what redress would be granted to individuals who have received the malediction and brand of this board? What officer who has been disrated would be benefited by being commended to the justice or the charity of the President and Secretary of the Navy? Would not the influ- ence of those who concurred on the board be united in constrain- ing the President to uphold his former decision for the sake of consistency, no matter who were the sufferers? The President would feel a natural inclination to be consistent; and he has already sustained the board's action, upon the suggestion that they were constrained to act as they did, that they acted to the best of their knowledge, that they were actuated by high and honor- able feelings, such as should prompt gentlemen under similar circumstances. If Congress does not render justice, no truth, however glaring and potent, will be sufficient to reverse their irreversible decrees. I know that the Secretary of the Navy has
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