Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/229

Rh was indicated when, on February 2d, Senator Clarke, of Rhode Island, quoting at length from eminent European and American authors, on a nice question of interpretation, cited at length the statement of Houston on the relations of the United States to European Governments, in their right to intervention in neighboring American States. The death of Mr. Clay, June 29, 1852, called forth the appreciation of his brother Senators, by his appointment to accompany the remains to his home in Kentucky. The declining health of Mr. Webster, who died October 24, 1852, led to a natural and just comparison between the universally admired passages of his reply to Hayne,—grand outbursts, as they were, of deep patriotic sentiment,—and the like utterances of Houston. In Houston, however, there was less of the somber and more of the hopeful. Houston was the Nestor, not the Jeremiah of the national crisis.

The second session of the Thirty-second Congress, opening December 6, 1852, furnished little to call forth the Texan Senator; for the Presidential canvass, resulting in the election of General F. Pierce, of New Hampshire, as President, and of Rufus King, of Alabama, as Vice-President, changed the character of the executive administration which was to follow the brief Congressional session. It was natural that the time of the Senate should be given to legitimate legislative conference; and in this Houston filled his place and bore his share. On the 6th January, 1853, a resolution was proposed that the "Committee on Bribery and Abuses in Elections" investigate local disputes, to which Houston gave his adhesion. On the 13th of January he reported in favor of an increase of the "sword exercise" at the National Military Academy at West Point. On the 1st February he sustained a resolution in favor of supervision of the supply of clothing in the navy, and in opposition to the increase of naval officers. On the 20th February, 1853, his colleague, Mr. Rusk, presented resolutions from the Legislature of Texas, appointing Gen. Sam Houston Senator for the term of six years, from March 4th ensuing; and expressing special confidence in his course on national issues; an annoucement which called forth a general murmur of satisfaction, both on the floor of the Senate and in the galleries. On the 23d February an appropriation for the removal of the Indians from Florida, called forth his usual intelligent and fixed views on the best modes of treating with the Indians. He remarked: "A regiment to hold an Indian tribe in subjection costs no less than $1,200,000 annually; whereas $10,000 to aid them would be more effective. I never knew, during the whole course of my life, a treaty made in good faith with the Indians that was violated by them." On the 25th February he spoke in favor of a supervision of the national armories