WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1846
493
But Texas, too, had officers, and brave ones, and he might justly expect his arm to be palsied should he refuse to raise it in demand- ing for them and for their country justice-sheer simple justice. She came before the Senate neither in the garb of a suppliant, to ask favors from this Government, nor in the spirit of a relentless creditor, to exact her pound of flesh; but, with the respect due to this Government, modestly but firmly to demand the fulfilment of contracts which were tendered to her by a stronger party. Let gentlemen remember, that those who made this demand were no aliens and strangers, but Texian citizens, native-born Americans, descendants from the same stock as the Senators in this Chamber or the Representatives in the Hall at the other end of the Capitol. They were of the posterity of the revolutionary fathers, having still their blood and lineage, and having inherited their inborn love of freedom. It has been asserted by some gentlemen, that the expressions used in framing the joint resolution of annexation did not em- brace the officers of the Texian navy. Gentlemen far more learned than himself had exposed the fallacy of this statement. He should not undertake to discuss the question as a jurist, but should speak of it according to the principles of common sense. Looking at the language of that resolution, he would venture to say, that the officers of the Texan navy were in the fair contemplation of its terms when the joint resolution passed both Houses; if not, it was fair to infer that such an interpretation would have been guarded against, and that these officers would have been excluded by a proviso. Were not the officers and men, as well as the ships and guns, a part of the "means" pertaining to the public defence? Why should they not be considered as a constituent part of the navy of Texas? The terms employed by the resolution Were: "Said State, when admitted into the Union, after ceding to the United States all public edifices, fortifications, barracks, ports, and harbors, navy and navy yards, docks, magazines, arms, arma- ments, and all other property, ancl means pertaining to the public defence, belonging to the said republic of Texas, shall retain all the public funds, debts," etc. Some gentlemen, indeed the most of those who had spoken, had confined themselves to so much of the resolution as ended with the word "arms," there they had stopped, and had not said a word about "means." Mr. H. said he should be glad to know- and, if he was wrong, there were gentlemen present abundantly capable of instructing him-of what use all the rest of the prop- erty stipulated for in this clause would be if there were no men
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