WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1856
368
light-houses, and all others, practical men, who understand .the affairs of life--who have some knowledge, short of science if you please, but more beneficial to the community in the accom- plishment of the objects for which they are selected. You may say here that the superintendent of the Capitol, and the super- intendent · of the Treasury extension shall be retained, and be exceptions to this clause of the bill; but I wish to recognize the principle. I am not willing to confer on the Secretary of War, or any other Department of the Government, the privilege of creating an exclusive class of individuals here, and establishing them upon the institutions of the country irreversibly. If this system be continued, this branch of the service will become omnipotent. Sir, I am for equalizing the benefits of this Government in the community at large, for sustaining all parts of it equally. I am not for elevating disproportionately one particular class of men to positions, to the exclusion of others. I am perfectly willing, as I have said, to make an exception of the two estimable gentle- men who have been named, who are highly qualified men, and worthy of the public confidence; but as a general rule I will vote that the Secretary of War shall not detail officers of the Army for this purpose until the country is acknowledged to be destitute of general science and qualifications among civilians. [Mr. Bayard and Mr. Mallory speak.] Mr. Houston. In the remarks which I offered to the Senate it was not my design to cast reflection on any one, or to implicate the character of any one, either mediately or immediately engaged in the public works. I am contending for principle; I am endeavor- ing to break down, so far as I can, the monopoly of the officers of the Army; and I do not care whether that monopoly is created by law or by the President, under his prerogative, or by the Secretary of War. If I understand the remarks of the honorable gentleman from Delaware, for whom I have much respect, in his reference to the law of 1806, the President is invested with power to detail officers of the engineer corps to the highest branches of military engineering; and he may, on special occa- sions, detail them for other purposes. So far as the constitutional prerogative of the President goes, it is merely to execute the laws of the land. The power to employ military officers in this service does not result from any portion of his prerogative, but is accorded to him by law; so that, by repealing that existing law, we do not encroach on the prerogative of the Executive.
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