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477
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
Navy. They ought to be at their posts; but if they are here, they ought at least to certify to the world, "I am an officer; here is the evidence." The world expects it. Continue your present sys- tem, however, and the very instruments of the nation's salva- tion, to counsel wisdom and legislate for the benefit of the nation, will be rendered subservient to these privileged classes; and this will be accomplished through the medium I have stated. There is the danger arising from a standing army. It is from the manner of its construction. You will never have men, until they are promoted from the ranks, who will feel that they have a motive for acting worthy of their vocation. 'Whenever you make promotions from the ranks, you will furnish a good army. This is a matter that is discretionary with the head of the ,var Depart- ment; and I trust, from his known chivalry and just appreciation of an esprit de corps, that it will now be adopted. Gentlemen most capable of doing it have talked of it. I have known men who enlisted with the hope of getting promotion. They had to go into the ranks because they had no political influence to enable them to get a commission, and feeling self-reliance enough that when they had an opportunity they would recommend themselves to the consideration of their superiors and the nation, and that promotion would be the consequence. Open that door and you invite men of pride, of character, and of family, to enter your Army. Knowing that that is the highway of promotion, they will enlist; and never until that avenue is open to them. The man who could not properly appreciate a commission and aspire to it is not fit for a soldier on whom to throw the responsibility of defending the liberties of his country. The man who will toil only for animal existence, to draw nutrition and vegetate and rot, is not the man that is to vindicate our liberties. But, sir, if you want an additional force, you have the means in your control. We have a standing Army, the most im·incible on earth. It is an army of freemen-men who feel clustering around their hearts all the sympathies of life, country, friend- ship, and honor; sensitive to their country's glory and honor as they are to their own family relations. Call upon such men to volunteer, and they will do it with pleasure. Tenders are ma e. throughout the country, of volunteer services. Accept them; let them go; they are efficient; they are equestrians; they are mar ·.s- men. Let them go and Herve till the emergency is over, and they will then return to the grectingR of family and the embrac oi affection, and all the cherished hopes of life will cluster around them on their return triumphant from a glorious campaign.
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