WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1857
424
FOR THE RELIEF OF THE HEIRS OF COLONEL JOHN HARDIN FEBRUARY 10, 1857 1 When my attention was first called to this bill I thought that I should vote against it, taking it for granted that the committee who had it under consideration were better to judge of its merits than I myself. Notwithstanding that I have paid some attention to the discussions and I am satisfied that this is not a legal demand on the government, I am consoled by that assurance, for if it were a legal demand, I should think it disgraceful to the Government that it had not long since been paid. It is for the purpose of making up a deficit in the legal action of the Government that this appeal is made to Congress for 1·edress. The assurance that Colonel Hardin had an understanding with General Wilkinson (and I presume that no one will controvert that) is sufficiently attested to my satisfaction. That General Wilkinson omitted to ·communicate the fact to the Government does not astonish me in the least. He was a man on a large and extended scale. He made promises of a liberal and magnificent character; and his great object in the command of the American Army was to accom- plish much, and on the most moderate scale as to expense. That he had this understanding with Colonel Hardin, no one will doubt. That Hardin had no guarantee from Wilkinson, only presents his patriotism to my mind in a much stronger light than if he had the assurance bonded by the Government. It only enhances the value of the sacrifice that was made for the frontier at that time, when it was in an almost defenceless, a most wretched and exposed condition. I should be willing to vote not only what is here presented, but if ·it could be remunerated to the family for the sacrifices of the widow, for the bereave- ment of losing such a husband, I would vote a hundred times what is here demanded. I am not for counting by dollars and cents, when you come to estimate the value of patriotism. The sacrifice that was made here was, to this family, irreparable. Do you suppose that the widow or orphan children would have re- ceived in consideration for their loss, in anticipation of such an event, all the treasure which your nation boasts of now? No, sir, they would not have done it. Under the circumstances under which Colonel sacrificed his life--not to protect his own frontier, particularly, but to pro- tect the country generally and to obtain for it the greatest good possible--! would vote such an allowance as this to his heirs.
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