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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
I do not think it should be a crime that they become old. I do not think young aspirants, who have never on any occasion fleshed their maiden swords, should be preferred to them. Throw more duty, if you please, on the young and vigorous, and give more respite to age, ·if it be necessary; but give them all their just reward for faithful service and for valorous deeds. I am not for postponing men if they are entitled to a position in the service. Give them the promotion to which they are en- titled. You may call them old fogies, or old veterans, or what you please; but give them the reward of merit. As for your brevets, I am proud to say that though I served five years in the regular Army of the United States, I never received one. Whether I deserved it or not is another question; but certainly I never received it, and I am proud of it. Why? Because I have seen the practice prostituted; I have seen men breveted during the last war who never saw an enemy in their lives, and I have known men of distinguished merit who never received a brevet, and yet had not only offered their lives and given their blood, but their limbs, to their country. It is a system of partiality and favoritism, and the very lackeys who hang about the generals-in- chief are the men who receive brevets-men who are screened from the shock of battle and ensconced behind favoritism. I have no respect, therefore, for brevets. I know that gentlemen some- times receive them who deserve them well; but the most deserv- ing are not those who are most fortunate in obtaining them. It is a system that I would put down. I would brevet no man except for service on the field of battle, as knighthood was received from the royal touch on the field, and than I would only brevet for deeds that would attract and electrify the Army. When brevets are thus acquired, you give a stimulus to gal- lantry on the field of battle-you create a spirit of daring that will be terrible to your adversary; but when they are obtained by favoritism, by skulking, through political influences and agen- cies, they are a disgrace, and in the end will honor you as little as they will them. But I can see no earthly necessity for this change in the system of the Army, and of promotion, and there- fore I shall oppose it, leaving things where they have stood for nearly a century, and where they have operated well, and where there is no ncessity shown for this change. Show that there is a necessity for it, that benefits will result from it generally, that it will create harmony and efficiency in the ranks of the Army, and I will then be prepared to vote for it; but not till then. Whilst it inflicts injustice on a single individual, I will op_pose it as
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