370
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
officers of that department are necessary to it; and if they are necessary, they should be confined to their appropriate duties. If they can be dispensed with in the Army, dismiss them. If you detail forty, or fifty, or one hundred officers, from the Army, and employ them in civil vocations, their duties in the Army must be neglected. They cannot perform double duties. If their corps are thousands of miles away, they cannot act at their barracks or stations. The consequence is, they must neglect either one or the other, for you cannot duplicate them. If they are in a situation where the Army can dispense with their services, and they are unnecessary for the Army, separate them from that service, and give them a distinct department, or dismiss them altogether. It only argues an excess of officers in the Army. If the Army establishment is greater than is necessary, the fair deduction is, that you should reduce it to the standard required by the wants of the country. Whenever there is an excess of officers in the Army, it ought to be abridged and reduced. Instead of that, at the last session there was an increase. Was it for the purpose of furnishing men for civil employment? Is it not suffi- cient to educate an officer for the Army at the public expense, and provide him with a commission, without placing him in civil position to the exclusion of civilians? It is necessary that you should guard against that encroachment on the public interests and the rights of the community at large. I have viewed it with alarm and horror. Every year hundreds of officers are turned out by the Military Academy and Naval School; and we are to provide places for every one of them. Why, sir, we shall have to make regiments and brigades. They cannot wait for promotion. It is too tedious in the line of the Army. They cannot wait for it in the Navy. Lieutenants become old, and you will have to make your Navy consist of commodores, and your army of generals, or you will never satisfy the vaulting ambition of those who are educated to expect preferment, and who are devoting themselves to military distinction. In time of war, they have an opportunity for noble rivalry; they can fight for rank. It is only in time of peace like this, that you see naval boards germinate here and fester upon the community, blasting high and honorable reputa- tions, and elevating scamps to position. But, sir, you must make provision for every one that is educated at the schools of the country. They are not satisfied with having received an education, but they must have military position. If they had to perform duty in the ranks and pass a probation there as cadets, before being promoted to lieutenants, you might have
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