4.57
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1842
Believing, therefore, that the period has arrived when every effort should be used to adjust the confusion and chaos of our land system, and that the provisions of this bill will have directly contrary tendency, and consequently be detrimental to the coun- try, I return it to your Honorable.Body without my signature. Sam Houston. 1 "Messages of the Presidents," Congressional Papers; also Executive Rec- ord Book, No. 40, p. 30. To THE TEXAS SENATE 1 Executive Department, City of Austin, January 31, 1842. To the Honorable, the Senate: I herewith return to your Honorable Body without my signa- ture a bill "authorizing and requiring the Secretary of War and Navy to issue certificates of bounty land to the officers, seamen and marines of the Navy." I do so with a full appreciation of the exalted gallantry and distinguished bravery of our naval forces from the moment that our flag was first unfurled to the breeze on the bosom of the gulf down to the present hour. But while I admit all this, with feelings of pride and pleasure, there are considerations which lead me to the conviction that to permit the bill to pass without the negative of the Executive, would be little less than a sanction of injudicious and unnecessary extrava- gance. It appears, from all the information I have been able to obtain, that the policy of granting land to seamen has never before been recognized by the government even in the darkest and most try- ing scenes of our revolutionary distress. Indeed, Congress has re- peatedly refused to pass laws upon the subject. Bounties in lands have at different times been granted to the army, but never to the navy. The reasons that must have hitherfore induced this dis- tinction exist now with increased strength. The present, less than any former period, in my opinion, will justify such a policy. Generally, the seaman has had no interest (except a transitory one) on shore. His professional pursuits forbid that attention to the use and improvement of grants of this kind, which alone could result in benefit to either the recipient or the country. To make such grants, then, would, in a large majority of cases, be the very perfection of prodigality. The harpies that are usually found in sea-ports, and to whom seamen usually become indebted,
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