512
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1847
highly respectable families; many of them in professional Iife, especially such as came from our large cities. The colonel ought to have the authority to select persons of this character, either from his own subalterns, or from the rank and file. From among these he would choose his quartermaster, his adjutant, his com- missary, his paymaster. He would have the opportunity of taking young men of clerical accuracy and neatness, and such as would entitle themselves, by their moral worth, to his regard and confidence, and his relative situation would afford him the best opportunity of discerning their personal characteristics and qualifications. In this way he would be in no danger of having men under him who would betray him, and he could count on those who would sustain him by faithfully discharging their duty. How could our department here determine on the propriety of these appointments as well as the colonel? What would most necessarily be the means by which it was to judge? The recom- mendation of members of Congress; made by them, too, at second or third-hand. Was this .as good a channel of information as the personal knowledge of the officer who was to command them in the field? Could the President or his Secretary form as just an opinion, either in regard to the staff or the line of the army, as the colonel could? He could not believe it. This amendment was founded on such a conviction, and intended to produce this effect. Supposing the colonel should be authorized to select the surgeons of his regiment, where would he go to make his selec- tion? There were to be thirty surgeons and assistant surgeons for these ten thousand men-not a large number considering the nature of the climate in which the troops were to serve. He would probably have recruits under his command from several counties, in each of which there were a number of physicians of reputation. Would he not naturally select such of these as he was personally acquainted with? And how important would it not be to the health and safety of the men that such a selection should be made; because the physician taken from their own vicinity, and personally acquainted with many of the families from which they came, and with many of themselves too, would be in better circumstances to sympathize with them in their afflictions, and more ready to do all in his power to relieve them. A surgeon so situated would not act merely from a sense of duty, but from feelings of kindness and of personal friendship. How much fitter would he be for his official duty than a total stranger appointed by the Government? If a corps were inlisted from New York, would any man of sense think of selecting their
Powered by FlippingBook