Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/245

Rh many of its cadets did not finish their course, or left the service after completing their course. Houston approved this thinning of the ranks as a benefit to the service, and exclaimed: "Practical men, not martinets, are wanted." He urged, however, that the course might, in some respects, like those of colleges, require adaptation to the practical demands of the service; and said: "I doubt whether the extent to which theoretical study is carried there is essential to every officer constituting the army of the United States."

The meeting of the second session, December 6, 1858, found Houston cheerful and devoted in his Senatorial duties. On the 23d December, 1858, when the motion to go into the new hall, just then near completion, after the holidays, was pressed, Houston said:

"That as his term expired on the 4th March, it was a matter in which he could be disinterested. He urged, however, that the change was necessary for the health of the members." On the same day he presented and urged a memorial giving a pension to the widow of Col. Trumbull. He said that this duty, imposed by friends of his in the North, was imperative. Col. Trumbull did not fall in battle, but died from lingering disease contracted by exposure in the service. He urged that men who, after faithful and protracted preparation for the service, had lived for years on small salaries, were entitled to remuneration in the brief years of their later service. On the 10th January, 1859, when provision was proposed to exclude ex-Members of Congress from the floor of the new Senate Chamber, since they were so often there as mere lobbyists, Houston provoked merriment by a humorous allusion to its possible application to himself. On the 5th January Houston made honorable mention of Gen. Quitman, commending his gallantry in coming to the relief of Texas in her need; though by unworthy detention prevented from being present at the decisive battle. On the 12th January Houston spoke on the Pacific Railroad bill, urging that the southern route through Texas be chosen as the most economical, and least liable to interruption in winter. On the 31st January he spoke on the Indian reservation; urging to the last his views of domesticating the Indians, and declaring that he believed even the warlike Comanches might be trained, like other Mexican Indians, to habits of civilized society.

On the 28th February Houston delivered his farewell address to the Senate.

No man ever left the city of Washington with such unanimous esteem for mingled nobleness of character and faithfulness in action as Sam Houston. The following mention of him in the National Intelligencer, which for half a century was esteemed