Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/493

 "'Subordinate officers, nowadays, set aside the decisions of their captains, and appear prepared and determined to resist the acts of the Navy Department by appeals through newspapers, and by referring their imaginary grievances to their Senators and Representatives; and, in the case of the letter of Lieutenant Du Pont, it would seem that his determination to appeal to the Senators and Representatives in Congress from his State is intended to convey an implied threat.'"

This was the condition of things. He was threatened impliedly that an appeal would be made to the Senators if he did not immediately make satisfaction for a row that was kicked up here«by the officers, when, if they had been on board ship, or had been careful on shore, they would not have been involved in that dilemma.

Sir, I am willing to go on, and show how far these gentlemen were really exculpated by the Secretary of the Navy. I wish to refer to a letter written by Commodore Hull after he received the exculpatory dispatch. I believe it was written afterward, judging from the dates given in the printed documents, though they are very much confused. After they came to the Senate they were referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs, and they went to the printers in a miserable condition; and the dates and letters are so completely reversed and mixed up that it causes utter confusion in attempting to get at them. How it happened I do not know. I saw them in proper order at the desk, and where they received this overhauling I do not know.

Commodore Hull, after the difficulty had arisen, in March, 1840, when the insubordination of these gentlemen was at its height, was driven to great straits. He understood that we were on the eve of a war. He was in the Mediterranean. He had the finest ship in the service; he had officers who had been detailed to give character and credit to his command. After the reading of the first reprimand, he addressed these officers—Messrs. Du Pont, Pendergrast, and Godon—in this language: "There are three remedies which strike me for this state of things. One is, to lay this ship up in a Spanish port—this noble ship, the pride of our country, with her beautiful flag, of which we were once ready to boast, with its stars and stripes, hoisted at half-mast—until lieutenants can be sent from the United States to restore it to its proud and honorable bearing. Another is, to take you to sea with all your discontent, disaffection, and disrespect for your commanding officers, and trust to time to bring about a better state of feeling. And the third is, to make such changes among you as my means will admit of. I have not yet determined which to adopt; but I will now state to you that I am responsible for this ship. I shall go to sea when I please; I shall go where I please; and stay as long as I please."

They thought that Commodore Hull was an elderly gentleman. These men have a great antipathy, as they have shown on the naval board, to aged men. Age fares badly with them. The feeling germinated there, and it has grown rapidly since.

I have now presented some of the evidences on which I rely to show that these men were not the most subordinate in the world. It is necessary for me also to advert to another circumstance which was referred to by the Senators from Delaware—I mean the private letter which they allege I read, that was