Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/507

 consideration of the special committee, where nothing- can be smothered, but where the facts, glaring as the noonday sun, can be investigated, and a just award made on his merits.

Mr. . Will my friend from Texas inform me to what particular officer he alludes, as having received the thanks of Congress, and having been seven times in victory—as I understand him to say—and who has yet been dismissed?

Mr. . Lieutenant Brownell.

Mr. . I will ask the honorable Senator if he knows the fact that the officer to whom he alludes has never seen an hour's sea service in the navy in his life? He has held a commission, I believe, since 1837, and up to the hour that the board acted upon him he had never rendered at sea, on board of any vessel, an hour's duty, and he was annually reported in the Register as, "Sea service, none. "

Mr. . I ask the Senator from Texas to allow me a moment.

Mr. . With great pleasure.

Mr. . I have never in my life heard a statement, though true in itself, which did so great injustice to any man as that just made by the chairman of the Naval Committee of this House [Mr. Mallory]. Lieutenant Brownell entered the navy as a master at the beginning of the war of 1812; he was in seven actions on the Lakes, and did himself the most distinguished credit, as is evidenced by the records of the Department. He was there throughout the entire war. After it closed he resigned, having been wounded and rendered unfit for sea service, as he admits. He re-entered the navy in 1841 as a lieutenant, when he might have entered as a captain. And a Senator now rises in his place and says that he never saw a day's sea service. This is said of a man who fought on the Lakes during the whole war, who was seven times in action, and seven times assisted to haul down the British colors.

The chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, by his statement, would have the Senate and the country believe that Lieutenant Brownell never did one day's sea service. Coming out of the war, wounded and unfit for service, he retired from the navy, and drew a pension for the wounds which he had received. He re-entered the navy in 1841 as a lieutenant, with all these facts known, when he might have entered as a captain. We are simply given the statement that since that time he has performed no sea service. I am at liberty to state that before 1849 his three years' service on the Lakes, during the war with Great Britain, and in the action of Commodore Perry, where he distinguished himself, were marked on the Naval Register, and it has been stricken out by the Navy Department unjustly, and without any authority. Those are the facts of the case.

Mr. . Mr. Brownell is a native of Rhode Island, and he never refused to go on duty until within a short time past, when he was suffering from the wounds which he received in the battles on Lake Erie. He was always ready, and had never declined to enter the service at any time whenever called upon. These statements I make at his request; he called on me yesterday, and desired that I should make them if his name should be Called in question.

Mr. . Allow me to state another fact. He has for these