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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
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REMARKS ON THE TEXAS BOUNDARY BILL 1
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May 18, 1858. Mr. Houston. I had thought that on the amendment offered by the Senator from Illinois being presented, the bill would pass without difficulty. I called on the gentlemen of the Territorial Committee, and I understood that there would be no obstruction in the way of the passage of the bill. I think if the amendment of that committee be adopted, the measure will be complete, and nothing further would seem to be necessary. I conferred with my colleagues in the House of Representatives, where this bill originated; my senatorial colleague was absent when I last had an interview with them; but I could have no doubt that, in their opinion, this was the best plan that could be suggested; and only required the additional nomination of a commissioner to super- vise the whole campaign. I can see no necessity for any further provision; that would only accumulate expense without any correspondent advantage. The exact place where the line runs will be ascertained at the different points and angles where observations are taken, and mounds will be erected at those points, and such artificial corners as well be endurable and will not perish. I am sure that so soon as a Surveyor has been on the ground, and marked the boundary line, there will be no topographical surveys required to give the settlers on either side of the line intelligence as to their rights. I can see no necessity for such a provision; and I must solemnly protest against this aggregation of offices in so little a matter. There are now many applicants for the crumbs that are thrown out-one hundred for every office that is to be given-and·unless we have some more expeditious plan of running our boundaries than we have had heretofore, we had better have none hereafter. Why, sir, the boundary commission, under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, exhausted hundreds and thousands of dollars, and re- sulted in nothing but an additional expense for the books and bugs of which the Senator from Mississippi [Mr. Brown] has told us. It seems to be that the supreme object of ambition of the persons who are engaged in such works to get their names before . the public. Sir, the catching of a single bug of rare quality immor- talizes a scientific gentleman, and a lizard is double immortality; and so too of a horned frog. [Laughter.] These are wonderful things to expend millions upon ! Scientific men, if you get them started, must have something to do; they cannot come back with rational observations, but they must come back with something
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