WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1857
430
Senators of the United States, and send persons here indoctrinated with certain notions in favor of the Army, which are to be felt in legislation. Sir, let any one here attack the Army or the Navy, and you will find it has advocates and sympathizers in the halls of legislation, not alone upon political grounds, but upon individual feelings, and the preferences that gentlemen here enter- tain for members of the corps. It is evident that personal con- siderations, sympathy for friends, or a desire to conciliate politi- cal influence at home, do, to a certain extent control legislation in these halls for the Army. It is the continuance of this course which is to make the Army so influential as eventually to be dangerous. · We are told that there must be a goal to which the officer is to march; that the subaltern cannot be contented without rank; that an .officer is not fit for the service of his country who has not the spirit of ambition stimulating him to the acquisition of higher rank. I admit that this is a noble and generous impulse, to a certain extent; and it is what the soldier should always feel. His ambition should be shown by his soldierly deportment, his becoming gentlemanly conduct, his high chivalrous bearing, to commend himself to the confidence of his Government, and the admiration of his comrades, so that he may attain to a high and distinguished place in military renown. I concede all this; but let me remind Senators that this feeling of ambition has been recently exemplified most disastrously to one arm of our service. Look at the condition of the Navy. There the desire for promo- tion was rife. Rank was said to be necessary to promote the junior officers. It was said the officers of the Navy must be multiplied to give positions to individuals and prematurely give them rank. It was done. The noblest spirits of our service have been ruthlessly stricken down, and that arm of the country's defense palsied. That is one exemplification of the principle of "honorable ambition," in inferior rank! As you have done in the Navy, I suppose you will have to do in the Army. You must increase the Army to accommodate all the aspirants who wish these high distinctions. They have been selected, not for any esprit de corps, not for robust and athletic constitutions, but from a principle of favoritism and influence. It was the influence which obtained them a place at the Military Academy. After undergoing a probation there, they are selected for the purpose of leading our armies, and constituting the nucleus on which our liberties and the glory of our country are to depend. As they
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