WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1857
399
individuals, either for the present or in the future. Statements have been made in the newspapers as to the transactions in regard to which my resolutions call for information. Those statements are uncontradicted. If they be untrue, let us ascertain the facts from an official source, and not rivet condemnation on men who stand justified by their conduct, and have incurred no just repre- hension. An officer was retired by the retiring board, without a trial or a hearing-a man of spotless reputation, daring and chivalrous in his character and conduct. He was relieved by an officer who has since been recalled. The officer retired is lingering in disgrace, his family penniless and dependent, and he has all the odium that can attach from a condemnation. While that man is unheeded and disregarded, notwithstanding his former service, the individual who superseded him has been sent home, (as stated in the common intelligence of the day,) and has been furloughed by the Executive, not for temporary inebriety, but for habitual drunkenness. He was at first put on furlough by the Executive for awhile, and then restored to active command. These are matters proper for the Senate to inquire into. The man to whom I have just alluded may at some future day be nominated to this body for a higher grade, and we may have to act on his merits or demerits. This information is important. It is a pretty thing indeed to say that an officer of this Government can avoid the 1·esponsibility of an investigation and trial before a tribunal of his peers, by resigning his office and going into private life, and then that it is needless to expose him! Sir, the exposure is already made by the charges in the newspapers. If they be true, we can inflict no greater disgrace on such a man than he has recognized in himself by his conduct. It is due to the nation that we should know these things. There was no sympathy extended to men who had given their lives to the service of their country, and acquitted themselves honestly and gallantly before their enemies, when they were stricken down; but the action of the naval retiring board was vindicated by the honorable chairman of the Naval Committee. He sympathizes now with men who were retained and indorsed by that naval board, and who have proved themselves not only unworthy of its confidence, but unworthy of the confidence of the nation, and have so acknowledged them- selves. Are we not to inquire into these facts, as pertinent to our duties, and necessary to inform us as to this great interest of the nation? I see no principle to inhibit us from exercising this right. We have the right to examine into these matters.
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