Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/502

 conduct. He merely says that he did not do what he ought to have done, because he thought so and so. He did not drill his men for fire, nor train them for anything but passing powder. They all passed powder well. But what is powder without ball and without the other facilities which give efficiency to its use? I will read what Lieutenant May said in regard to Captain Pendergrast. On these charges he was never arraigned— never tried. This is a key to open the mysteries of the Navy Department, and it will show why reform has been necessary, and where the default was, and where the error originated and now exists. Lieutenant May, as far back as the 13th February, 1852, says: "I have to charge Commander Pendergrast with neglecting and failing to put this ship, the Saranac, under his command, in fighting order; and also, in the important arrangement against fire, neglecting to muster the crew at stations. From June 10, 1851, the day Commander Pendergrast took command of this ship, till the 24th day of December, the crews of the guns were exercised but once (as the log-book will show), and that only time was on the ist day of September, a few days out from Norfolk, on the passage to the Havana. Thus it will be seen that in the period of longer than six months, or one hundred and ninety-six days, the guns' crews were drilled at great gun exercise but once, and from the 10th day of June until January 19, 1852, the ship's company were not once mustered at fire stations, and on that day, the 19th, were mustered for the first time, from the fact, it may be presumed, that on the previous evening the alarm of fire had been raised on board the ship. These startling facts speak for themselves; the log-book of the ship, and the testimony of the officers, will bear me out in them; and if anything could make more culpable such unprecedented neglect, such apathetic indifference to the condition and efficiency of the ship, it is the fact that at this very time we were engaged in a delicate and responsible charge growing out of the Cuban difficulties, at any moment liable to have involved us in difficulty or collision; and, of later date, in the same unprepared state, we sailed from Pensacola for San Juan de Nicaragua to investigate the Prometheus difficulty, which, happily for the credit of this ship, was peaceably settled."

He never was called to account on these charges. Whether true or false, it was the duty of the Secretary of the Navy to bring him to trial. They were substantiated by a respectable officer, whom for some reason the board retained on the active list; so that he has an indorsement by them; and yet these charges still remain in the Navy Department.

Mr. here gave way to a motion to adjourn.

, April 2, 1856.

Mr. said: Mr. President, when the Senate adjourned yesterday upon the motion of my friend from Tennessee [Mr. Bell], I was engaged in making some remarks in reference to certain charges preferred against Captain Pendergrast by Lieutenant May, of the United States Navy. Those charges were of a most grave and imposing character. They remained in the Department, and are yet there upon file; they were never withdrawn. No action was ever taken upon them. They should have been adjudicated. They were preferred by an officer of high character and reputation in the navy of the United States. It can not be charged that he is one of those disaffected toward the board; it can not be said that chagrin and mortification have influenced him; for he has been