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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1842
68
To GENERAL JAMES DAVIS 1 Executive Department, Galveston, Texas, June 15, 1842. To Acting Adjutant General James Davis: Sir,- Your official communication of 6th instant, came to me on the 11th. My surprise was only equalled by my indignation at the insubordinate conduct of some of the troops. In the regulations of all service, there is no medium between obedience to orders and mutiny. An order once given is not a subject of question or discussion. The duty of a superior is to order and that of an inferior is to obey. The propriety or neces- sity of the order is not a matter for subaltern decision, but one for which the superior is amenable to the laws. The power to judge is and must be vested in some one. The President, is by the constitution, the head of the government and the commander-in-chief of the army and navy. His orders are to govern the service; and the constitution and laws are the standard by which his actions are to be determined. He is ac- countable to no subaltern; but all are accountable to the laws. They require absolute obedience, and the legality of an order is not for them to discuss. Admit the principle for one moment that the inferior has the right to question the authority of a superior, and all rule and government is at an end. You had as well admit that the President has the right to question the power of the con- stitution and laws and their binding effect upon him. He has the power, but not the right. He can only disobey them in viola- tion of his oath. Horrible as this would be in a free government, he would still be answerable for his conduct; but to admit the right of an inferior to disobey a superior's orders with impunity, there would neither be subordination, discipline, nor rule in the service. If an officer has the power to j.udge of the validity of an act of a superior, why, then, a soldier has the right to judge of the conduct and authority of a subaltern officer, and hence all subordination is at once destroyed; and an army becomes a mob unable to resist an enemy and only terrible to those whom it should defend. In the late conduct of a portion of the troops at Corpus Christi, in hesitating or refusing to obey, the order of the Executive, there is no excuse for their misconduct and mutiny. I am proud to say that only a portion were under the influence of a mutinous spirit; and that while I contemplate the evils of insubordination on the one hand, I behold with emotions of
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