Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/213

Rh Houston replying to objection made because others were equally deserving, that while States had given swords to subordinate officers, Congress had only given them to commanders-in-chief. On June 18th, Houston reported from the Committee on Military Affairs a resolution, which passed July 7th, giving a vote of thanks to all the troops engaged, and a medal to Gen. Taylor. He also recommended payment to volunteers called out by Gen. Gaines for the Mexican war. On June 24th he sustained a resolution, proposed by Mr. Benton, but opposed by Mr. Crittenden, giving the President authority to select Brigadier-Generals outside of the State where the troops were raised; a measure whose wisdom secured, after long debate, the concurrence of the Senate. Meanwhile an elaborate report on the surveys and defence of Texas was brought out under Houston's supervision.

On the 31st of July Houston made an elaborate speech on incorporating the navy of Texas into that of the United States. He dwelt on circumstances of the annexation, showing from official documents that the overtures originated with the United States; he declared Texas never would have accepted those overtures if she had supposed her navy was to be excluded; and he urged that the Senate see to it that the honor of the United States, again and again pledged, be redeemed. Thus, in every measure relating to the foreign and domestic policy proposed, Houston showed himself at the outset of his Senatorial career, in this, his first session, to be a master in all practical matters discussed. In this first session also he renewed, and ever afterward continued, his careful scrutiny of bills for public service rendered; analyzing items, and insisting on economy in the accounts presented by the Committee on Printing.

The Thirtieth Congress, the second during President Polk's administration, whose first session lasted from December 6, 1847, to August 14, 1848, and its second session from December 4, 1848, to March 3, 1849, brought out Houston before new hearers, and to meet new issues. As new Sen-ators came, Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi; Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois; R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia; J. P. Hale, of New Hampshire; John Bell, of Tennessee; Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine; and the two Dodges, father and son, the former, Henry, and the latter, A. C. Dodge, representing respectively the newly-admitted States of Wisconsin and Iowa. In the House, Robert C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, had been made Speaker; while also Abraham Lincoln, then giving no special promise for the future, came to spend his only two years as a Representative of Illinois. The entrance of these men, associated with the two great parties which were becoming more and more