Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/230

 by civilians who were Intelligent among business men, since army officers failed in knowledge of the tricks of contractors, and in the management of mechanics. On the ist March he spoke in favor of special care in payments for service, in taking and collating census reports. On the 2d March he spoke on the appropriation for mail steamers from San Francisco; replying to the suggestion that the subject should be discussed in secret session, with this remark: "Public opinion is well regulated. When the public decide, their judgment is generally correct." On the 3d March he unfolded frauds in private bills before Congress. Thus up to the last day of the session he showed fidelity in that most important part of civil administration, the watch for unfaithfulness in public office. His sternness, when he thought there was fraud, and his manliness when charges were found to be made by interested parties, became noted in many conspicuous instances; a specimen of which will be cited as characteristic, under the incoming Democratic administration; to whose political policy, though not to all their administrative measures, he was intelligently devoted.