WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1824~1857
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Resolved, That the Committee on Military affairs be instructed to inquire into the practicability, and expense of opening an in- land navigation from the Sabine to Galveston, and thence to the mouth of the Rio Grande, as connected with the defense of Texas. Resolved, That the committee on Military Affairs be instructed to inquire into the necessity and propriety of making an early and adequate provision for the survey, improvement, and per- manent fortification of the principal harbors on the coast of Texas, and Resolved, That the President of the United States, be requested to communicate to the Senate copies of the reports of the board of engineers heretofore employed in an examination of the coast of Texas, with a view to its defence and improvement. [Having received the information requested, Houston as Chair- man of the Committee presented on July 22, 1846, the following repcrt, which he may have written.] The Committee on Militar11 AfJairs, to whom were referred the resolutions of the Senate directing the1n to inquire into the necessity and propriety of 1naking an early and adequate pro- vision for the survey, improvement, and fortification of the principal harbors on the coast of Texas, and into the practica- bility, propriety and expense of opening an· inland navigation from the mouth of the Sabine to Galveston, and thence to the mouth of the Rio Grande, as connected with the defence of the coast of Texas, report: That the accession of Texas to the Union has added several hundred miles of seacoast along the Gulf of Mexico, which is wholly unprotected against the incursions of the enemy. The same wise policy that has provided for the fortification of all the harbors, bays and inlets, which allow of the approach of shipr;ing to our coast frcm the bay of Funday to the confines of Louisiana, dictates the extension of these safeguards of our soil to our newly acquired territory. No doubt this policy will be acquiesced in the more readily, because the coast of Texas is so formed by nature as to require for its protection much less ·expense than any other portion of the seaboard of the same ex- tent-throughout the United States. There is no port on the whole coast of Texas that is accessible to ships-of-war of the first class; and the port of Galveston, undoubtedly the first in importance either for commerce, or defence, has a maximum depth of water on the bar of only twelve feet, and a minimum at low tide, of only nine feet. It will be seen, therefore, that this harbor which has
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