139
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
It is a singular idea that individuals must not be employed by those who are interested in the lands. If I wish lands surveyed in Texas, I go and employ the surveyor myself, and I pay him. If there is any law prohibiting that, I do not know it. There is none. No; there is no such law, but the law does say what his wages shall, or may be per day; and if I choose to give him a douccur of five or ten dollars, to hurry on with the work, antici- pating the necessity of having [it] accomplished by a certain time, can the Government prohibit me? Is that not a private trans- action between us? That is the burden of complaint on this occasion, that the surveyors have received perquisites from private land claimants. I have no idea of attempting to prohibit it. It is mockery. How will you prohibit the private transactions between man and man? You cannot do it. You may give them $100,000 and that will not restrain them; and all your legal prohibitions that you may attempt to impose here, by starting amendments, will be mere cobwebs, mere mists, not tangible. I am decidedly of opinion that the recompense offered is fair. But we are told that the surveyor general has nothing to do with this. Has the surveyor general complained, and has the subject been investigated in such a way as to lead the head of the Department to the conclusion which has been stated? He has to rely on the information of others. We have heard of no com- plaints urged in the Senate or House of Representatives hereto- fore, that it is impossible to do the work for the present price. Certainly the expenses of living in California are less now than heretofore; and if the officer would make it known at large that he had contracts to let he would induce the competition of sur- veyors from every part of the United States; they would flock there for the purpose of obtaining fifteen dollars per mile, when they are receiving in several States a per diem of not even five dollars. They would resort to California; the competition would become great; the facility of obtaining employees would be no question of difficulty there. I will not vote to place at the dis- position or discretion of any individual $100,000 that he may issue it with or without vo\1chers, especially when the vouchers may be mere mockery or sham. I have no reliance on them; and if the vouchers should not be produced, it will only be necessary to pass an act of Congress saying, let the auditor settle it agreeably to the principles of equity and justice, and that is done on the state- ment of individuals, so that the accounts are never stopped here for want of vouchers. The day was when a picayune had to be
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