Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/488

 which they had been ordered by the Navy Department. When complaint was made Commodore Hull ordered Captain Smith to provide them cabins or temporary accommodations on the deck, so as to relieve them from the confined atmosphere below, where it was said to be insalubrious. When this offer was made to Mr. Du Pont, he said, in a letter to Captain Smith, dated July 29, 1839: "But the commander-in-chief, having decided that he is not authorized to make any permanent change, of which he is of course the sole and proper judge, I prefer remaining where the Navy Department has placed me as long as my health will endure it, rather than occupy quarters which I deem unfit for an officer holding the third rank known in our service, and from which he may be ejected at any moment."

This refusal was given to Captain Smith, who had, at his instance, provided these quarters. He declined going into them. Did Commodore Hull press him? No, sir. Why? Because he was where the Secretary of the Navy had placed him. Commodore Hull had not placed him there. Then, sir, that venerable and gallant commodore, the first that ever struck a British flag upon the ocean in our war of 1812, still bore the proud sailor's spirit in his heart, loving his country, and exacting due obedience to his orders. I have read what Mr. Du Pont said in his letter to Captain Smith. At page 44 of Executive Document No. 44, of the present session—the same from which I last read—I find this letter of Captain Smith: " at Sea, July 30, 1839.

":—I have received from Lieutenant Du Pont a very, as I think, extraordinary and uncalled-for communication, which I think it is proper, as well as it is a duty, to inclose to you,

"The true military course for me to pursue would be to compel him to occupy the apartment assigned to him in addition to that which he has so much complained of, and which he says is untenable; but under the present state of excitement upon the subject of accommodations of the ward-room officers, I do not deem it expedient to take such a course, but to allow the gentleman to remain in the apartment assigned to him by the Navy Department, which he prefers to that prepared for and appointed to him by myself, and which was certainly intended by me to relieve him from what he complained of in the other. The tenor and character of this communication, as well as the course he has taken, first, in making the complaint referred to, and then declining to accept the accommodation offered as a remedy for the evil, develop a spirit of dictation in its author too clearly, to my view, to require comments from me.

",

"Captain United States Ship Ohio.

", Commander-in-Chief of the United States Naval Force in the Mediterranean, at sea."

Now, I leave it to the candor of any and every Senator to determine whether I made an untrue statement, or drew a false deduction, in asserting that he had insulted Captain Smith. Is not this the language of an insulted man? Certainly it is.

Mr. . Will my friend allow me to draw his attention to one point in this connection?