WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1857
429
in requital for their services, and that they should be placed above the pressing necessities of want. We required of these officers duties that ought to be performed by gentlemen, and their recom- pense should be equivalent to their services. For this reason, I am unhesitatingly in favor of the increased pay and the double ration when the officer is in command of a separate post. It is true, an abuse of the power may take place; but the Secretary of War has at all times the corrective in his hand, and if he be a proper executive officer he will prevent any abuse from arising in the administration of the affairs of his Department. When- ever anything depends on the will and action of an individual we must run the risk of abuse; but the fact that the power may be injudiciously applied does not militate against the principle. I think our military system is all wrong. I differ with the venerable Senator from Michigan, for whom I entertain the most profound respect, both for his wisdom and his patriotism and his sage experience, as ·to the point of danger to our Government from a standing army. I am sure he would disclaim the general principle of a standing army; but the application of that principle to our peculiar condition is the point upon which I claim the privilege of dissenting from him. I expect no convulsion, no revolution, or usurpation,. directly by military power against the constitutional authorities of this Government, or against the Tiberties of the people. That is not the way in which the Army will be dangerous to our liberties. The danger lies in insidious progressive marches, in encroachment after encroachment, accre- tion after accretion, to the military power. The danger is not from a combination or consolidation of military force embodied to assail the liberties of the country or attack and put down the constitutional authorities of the nation. No, sir; but it is in the halls of legislation that the danger exists. Go to the Military Academy, in the first instance. There you see favorites, selected by members of Congress from influential families, placed at the Military Academy at the public charge, set apart to be educated at public expense-an exclusive, privi- leged order. They concentrate a certain degree of influence in behalf of that institution which is felt throughout the whole country, and is exemplified in the halls of legislation. Families who have political influence at home control, to a certain extent, the election of Representatives to the Congress of the United States, and the election of members of the State Legislatures, and they go to the Legislatures and lobby for the election of
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