Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/490

 "spirit in which it is sent '; and this observation was reported to me at the time by Mr. Pendergrast.'"

This was the hearsay of Mr. Pendergrast, communicated to Mr. Du Pont, and Mr. Du Pont communicates the same hearsay to the Secretary of the Navy, and to the distinguished Senator from Delaware, so that it is hearsay evidence upon which Mr. Du Pont relies to show that Captain Smith was not insulted. He gives his recollection. Whether his recollection be right or wrong, in opposition to the letter I have read of Captain Smith, I will let Senators determine. I am inclined strongly to believe that Du Pont's memory was bad, even if Captain Pendergrast ever made the communication; whether he did or not I do not pretend to say. It does not appear from Captain Smith's letter that their deduction was correct at all events.

I am thus willing to leave the issue of veracity between the distinguished Senator from Delaware [Mr. Bayard] and myself without any unkind feelings. He observed that he thought I had read extracts in a peculiar manner, so as to give particular things peculiar force and meaning. In the course of the Senator's remarks he stated that he had been the schoolmate of Captain Du Pont. I admit that I have very little diplomacy about me, and very little of that polish and exquisite refinement which is acquired by intercourse with foreign nations, and results from education and early associations that are calculated to impress a young man with refined and delicate ideas. I admit, sir, that the Senator has possessed advantages in these respects. If I had been of another school—if in early life I had been thrown into association with Captain Du Pont, I might now come forward under more imposing auspices than I am enabled to do at this time. Not having had such advantages, however, what am I to do? If I have an idea to convey that language will not express, or if I desire to represent an act that is described in an extract which I read, but the meaning of which can only be conveyed by a similar act—such as a whistle—I can not avoid presenting it in a natural way, so as to present what I mean. This is considered "undignified" on my part! Be it so. I can not help it.

Sir, I am more the child of nature than of art and refinement. If I had been the companion and schoolmate of Captain Du Pont, if I had been conversant with learned lore, and v/ilh abstract science, with all the depths of learning, and all the accomplishments that a proud and glorious lineage could give, as is the case with the Senator from Delaware [Mr. Bayard], I, too, might claim tiie preeminence that always appropriates itself to men of high and noble parts. But, sir, I have not possessed these advantages; and if I do not accord with the views of gentlemen of taste and of classic lore, it is no fault of mine; nor do I reprehend myself for the misfortunes attendant upon early life. Sir, I have found in life one volume open—it is Nature's volume, where every chapter is nature, and every verse 's human life. That volume is open to the humblest as well as the proudest. Education to the common mind may embellish, but it can never implant what Nature has failed to supply. [Applause in the galleries.]

The. The galleries will be cleared if the demonstrations are repeated.

Mr. . Mr. President, there is one circumstance that really seemed for a moment to embarrass me, from the apprehension that a possible deduction might be drawn from what was said by others, that I had attempted surreptitiously to impose on the Senate by interpolating the word "sex " into a