132
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
redeem people from thralldom and anarchy, they will not deserve the approbrious epithet of filibusters, who invade a country for the purpose of depredating, robbing, and committing sacrelige, and burning cities. Sir, any citizen of the United States, who can accomplish in this respect what the Government withholds its power from doing, or even regarding with a proper considera- tion, will be vindicated against the charge of marauding or fili- bustering. It is with this view I announce to the Senate that I wish for an expression of this body, to say whether they will consider the subject, or will leave Mexico to float on in its downward course to ruin, or to a cataract that awaits it-to that gulf from which nothing can extricate it. I do hope that I shall, at least, be allowed to receive an expression of the Senate by yeas and nays, on tak- ing up the resolution. 1 Congressional Globe, 1857-1858, Part 3, p. 2630. See Volume VI, p. 508, and this volume, pp. 33, 84, 127. The question was taken by yeas and nays, ~nd resulted-yeas, 16; nays, 32. AMENDMENT GFFERED TO THE TEXAS NA VY BILL, JUNE 2, 1858 1 Mr. President, I ask leave to present an amendment for the purpose of explaining and carrying out an amendment attached to the appropriation bill at the last session. It passed then. I am not going to make a speech about it. It was for the benefit of officers who were in the Texas navy at the time of annexation. It did not extend to the widows and legal heirs of those who deceased before the passage of the law, but to those who were in service at the time of annexation. This is intended to explain the object of that law, and carry it out more perfectly. The next portion of it will be to explain the fact that the Secretary has put a construction upon it to suit himself, different from what was intended, that midshipmen were not commissioned officers. With the leave of the Chair I will read it. And be it further enacted, That the widows and legal heirs of the officers of the late Texas Navy, who were in service at the time of annexation, and have since deceased, be, and they are hereby placed on the same footing that the officers of the same tenure were placed, who were living on the 3d of March, 1837, and that the midshipmen of said navy shall be regarded as com- missioned officers by the Secretary of the Navy, and be entitled to the benefits intended by this section. . . .
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