WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
474
Mr. Houston. I have no doubt of the propriety of the course adopted by the Chair, in calling for the order of the day; and I think it was perfectly right and perfectly a matter of course that the orders of the day be postponed, and the unfinished business proceeded with. As I was remarking, it is impossible to constitute a good regular army, unless you furnish inducements beyond the mere pay the soldier receives. You must hold out some honorable inducement, some reward for meritorious services, or you never will constitute a regular army that will be reliable and efficient in time of diffi- culty. From the mere circumstance of a soldier entering the service, knowing that he is restricted to a certain degree of respectability or character, he will be regulated by no such feeling as possesses the man of an honorable and ambitious heart, but such as would become a drudge and a slave. The time was, Mr. President-and I well recollect it-when the Army held out inducements to honorable emulation. It was in the war of 1812; promotions then were made not only from private life, but from the ranks of the Army. When a man enlisted, if his capacity and intelligence were such as to commend him to the notice of his superiors, he was promoted to the rank of a non-commissioned officer. Then higher promotion invited him, if his deeds were worthy of it. He was promoted to be a lieutenant, and might hope at some day, by brevets and promo- tion, and by gallant conduct, to reach the very chief-command of the Army. This road is now blocked up; insuperable barriers are interposed to it; and I have not, within the last twelve years, heard of a single appointment-though there may have been instances-from the ranks to commissioned officers. Thus it is that you see the great path to glory, to honorable achievement, blocked up. An impassable barrier is placed in the way of the advancement of your soldiers. How is this done? It is by an institution that I am not altogether opposed to. After an education has been granted at the Military Academy, young men are taken from there, and placed over the heads of old veterans. They have not experience; they are from the drill of the Academy. It is the great duty of life, and we see it commence with infancy in well-regulated families, that obedience is the foundation of future usefulness and future character. First learn an individual to obey, and then he will know how to exercise authority witb proper deference to the feelings of his subordinates and inferiors. But when you place him in command before he has learned the duty of obedience, he becomes presumptive, haughty, tyrannical, and
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