Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/51

Rh too much for endurance. He determined—and we do not pretend to say that his course was in this case a wise one—to chastise the member for his cowardly insolence to the President. The member ascertained Houston's purpose and avoided him, but learning one evening that Houston was unarmed, he crossed to the side of Pennsylvania Avenue where Houston was walking, to make an attempt upon his life, as there is the best reason to suppose; for it was proved in the trial that Stansberry was armed and Houston had no v/eapon with him but a hickory cane. Recognizing his antagonist by the moonlight, Houston asked him if he were Wm. Stansberry, of Ohio. No sooner had the answer escaped Stansberry's lips than Houston, as he was unarmed and had no time to close, levelled him to the ground, shivering his hickory cane upon his head. A pistol, held to the breast of Houston by the member from Ohio, had snapped, but missed fire, or he had been a dead man. Houston spared the forfeited life, speaking after the manner of "a false code of honor," and the humbled member of Congress betook himself to the bed which he kept for some days.

Four processes were commenced against Houston by the chastised member. He expected to disgrace and crush the General forever by these methods. First: The House of Representatives resolved itself into a judicial tribunal, directed the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest Gen. Houston, and bring him to its bar, to be tried on the "charge of violation of the rights of one of its members, whom Houston had held responsible for words uttered in debate." For nearly thirty days the Court sat, and to condemn the accused man no means were spared. His friends argued with great ability that the House had no jurisdiction in the case; that Congress, by the Constitution, had been made a Legislative Assembly; that it possessed no judicial powers over American citizens. In this view, some of the political opponents of Gen. Jackson concurred. Houston spoke in his own defence on the trial, at great length, with consummate ability and eloquence. But as the matter dragged wearily for a month, his foes became tired of the prosecution, and the people were becoming indignant that the business of the country should be abandoned by the Congress, to prosecute a soldier who had bled in the service of his country, and who was unfortunately self-exiled. He had been four years a member of the body before which he was arraigned; he had been Governor of Tennessee; he bore in his body unhealed wounds received in fighting for the flag which then floated over the Capitol. Popular feeling turned in his favor; as it was understood that he had only repelled the attack of an armed coward, and chastised one who had boldly charged. the President of the United States with fraud because he thought he would be protected by his privilege as a member of the House m so doing. Houston became dear to the people as