WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1859
303
community, because they will be deprived of the means of intel- ligence which they now possess, and which are of great impor- tance to them. Hence, I will vote for raising the postage; but I will not vote for diminishing any of the privileges of mem- bers, that are calculated to disseminate irttelligence throughout the country, or to enlighten the minds of the constituents upon important subjects connected with the well being of the Union and the Government. I never will vote for it. I have deprecated the reduction of postage, but I have never been in favor of the repeal of the franking privilege, and I never will vote for it in this body. [Later] Mr. Houston. I think it necessary to make a remark or two. I have no disposition to make a speech; I am not in the habit of it. ["Go on."] The honorable Senator from Massachusetts stated that there was a great deal of mail service in Texas at most extravagant rates; but he has not asserted nor shown that the service was unnecessarily enlarged in that section. I have a fact to state, that will satisfy the gentleman that the facilities have not been equal to the demand. At one place on a mail route, I have seen the mail matter accumulate until it reached forty-one large bags, which could not be transported in a two- horse stage, and it was necessary to employ four-horse stages for that purpose, and to make the trips tri-weekly, instead of bi-weekly. Similar facts exist all over the State. If the gentle- man would take a trip through that country, he would compre- hend the necessity of mail facilities there. Whenever he will show that they are unnecessarily great, I shall consent to cur- tail them. I have nothing to say in vindication of the overland service to California. I know they are exorbitant in their charges for the service; and I do not know that it has been productive of any very good results. I do not think it neces- sary for the gentleman to get in a bad humor, or declaim about a thing that he knows nothing of, and that he has no reason to denounce. I hope, hereafter, he will inform himself in rela- tion to matters of the kind, and then I will discuss them with him, whenever he will adduce reasons in support of his position. 1 Congrtssional Globe, Part 2, 1858-1869, pp. 1303, 1311. The amendment to abolish the franking privilege was offered on the Post Route Bill. See Houston's former speech on this subject, June 10, 1858.
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