Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/487

 The venerable Senator from Delaware was unacquainted with the subject, for that letter was as far from closing the controversy as anything could possibly be. I am glad that the Senator has not pledged to the statement his " sincere testimony," because it would have implicated him; but, as I have intimated, he involved not only his friends, but others who had no connection whatever with the papers called for, and whose names were not included in them. I leave that point, however, for the present.

When I formerly addressed the Senate on this question, my course was also the subject of comment on the part of the Senator from Delaware near me [Mr. Bayard]. For that gentleman I entertain feelings of kindness and personal respect. I admire his talents, his intelligence, and his usefulness in the Senate. I am aware of the fact, that he is justly the pride of his constituency. All these considerations conspired to impress me most favorably and kindly toward him; but I think that he did not, in his remarks on the occasion to which I allude, exercise that courtesy which is looked for, expected, and desired in the Senate. I stated that Captain Du Pont had, when a lieutenant, insulted Captain Smith. The honorable Senator replied that it was untrue, and asked me for my authority. I told him; but he said it was untrue, and that the authority on which I relied could not be tortured into the meaning which I gave it, unless I had greater powers of perversion than ever he had before suspected me to possess. I thought that was pretty sharp; but I suppose that, as it was a gratuity, I ought to be thankful for it and take it. Therefore I did so. [Laughter.] On that point I desire to place myself right, and, without any unkind feelings to the Senator, to vindicate my veracity; but I shall indulge in no asperity of remark toward him, because I have no unkind feeling to gratify, and I have great respect to cherish.

I propose to read the evidence on which I based the statement that Du Pont had insulted Captain, now Commodore Smith, of the navy; and then it will be seen whether my construction is not the most reasonable one. The distinguished Senator intimated before that I really had not read my extracts in a manner to please him, implying that my education was not as good as it ought to have been. I shall overlook that remark; but really it seems to me that the deductions which I draw from the documents are most rational for a plain, common-sense man. I think that Captain Smith was insulted; and to show it I shall read what he wrote to Commodore Hull in reply to a letter of Mr. Du Pont. If I did not read all the letters to which I referred before, it was not because I had any purpose to garble them, as was intimated. They are all very rich. Captain Du Font's productions are all of a classical character. I should like to give them all, but it would render my speech too voluminous. He had complained of the accommodations of the Ohio. He was placed on the orlop deck—a deck that comes to the water line, I believe. It appears, from the inklings which have transpired here, that Commodore Hull had taken his family on board the Ohio, as was customary on ships of war at that period, by permission of the Secretary. Because Du Pont and some other officers were excluded from the cabins to give place to the ladies, they were provoked; and four of them, according to the Secretary of the Navy, formed "cabals " for the purpose of annoying the Commodore and expelling the ladies. I do not say whether or not that was social and gentlemanly; I doubt it. When they made complaint to Commodore Hull, as the documents will show, they were occupying quarters to