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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1854
58
The head of the navy controlled that. The head of the army, if it could be said to have any head, controlled that. It was not so with the succeeding Administration. Here, sir, I must be permitted to say, that it is a remarkable fact, that since the ex-President of Texas took his seat in the Senate of the United States, he has abstained from ever men- tioning the name of this individual unless it was mentioned to him. Anxious that the meritorious officers of the Texan navy should have justice done them, _I have forborne, though the bill has been repeatedly under discussion, from making an insinuation against any one of them. My honorable colleague was once very much indisposed and unable to attend here, when he expected the bill to come up. I had said t() him, "I cannot speak on that bill, I will vote for it with you, but I cannot speak on it." During his indisposition, the bill was called up, and I did speak for an hour or more 12 -with what effect or what wisdom I shall not pretend to say. I cast no reflection on any one who pretended to be a member of the navy. The honorable chairman of the Com- mittee on Naval Affairs, [Mr. Gwin.] as well as the honorable Senator from Florida, [Mr. Mallory,] who is a member of that committee, can testify, that when this subject was before them, I begged of them, as far as delicacy would permit me, to make a report as favorable to the officers of the Texan navy as the facts would justify them in doing, without making an exception of any one member of the navy. T'his course I have uniformly pursued. I have done nothing to provoke the individual. Yet, sir, I did not pursue this course from affection, respect, love, oi· fear of him. [Senators Gwin and Mallory declared that Houston had never mentioned Moore to them.] I have conversed with my colleague about him, but even that has been incidentally. I have met him on the streets and else- where; but I have never noticed him. I believe he has published it that he has not spoken to me for ten years. I have got a year's start of him, for I have not spoken to him for eleven years. He made nothing by that operation, I think. Sir, I have presented to you facts which are sustained by the record. I did not make it out. I had a hand, years ago, in making some of it, and I was very sorry that I had occasion to do so. I was compelled to do so from the condition of Texas. Every nerve was strained, and he was sweeping away everything belonging to her. He was flourishing off Campeachy, leaving
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