Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/609

 From this time no hostile gun was fired. The last detachment of the enemy immediately surrendered. This was not in the onset of the action; but when it was over. Mr. Sherman displayed his prudence in the onset of the action, and secured his person beyond the reach of danger. Thus far, Mr. President, I have referred to documentary evidence that may be relied on, to establish the conduct of the general, which may be found in one of the most authentic histories of Texas; one written with good taste, succinct and instructing in its character, and giving a good idea of the object for which it was designed—Yoakum's History of Texas. It is a work with which the Commander-in-chief had no connection, never having seen a page of it in manuscript in his life. His object has not been to write history, or to supervise its composition. His only object has been to vindicate himself against the calumnies that have been brought forward, and got up recently, for the purpose not only of attacking him, but assailing every man who was friendly to him, and that by individuals whose malignity has been bitter; whose hostility to the cause of Texas, and to everything like the establishment of good government, has been notorious and proverbial in Texas. The author of this almanac, Willard Richardson—I must immortalize him—if reports be true, and I have no reason to doubt them, had he been assigned to his proper place, would have been dignified by a penitentiary residence before this time, owing to the peccadilloes with which he was charged. Although they have been smothered and done away with, his character is not vindicated to the world. He still goes on from sin to sin, from abuse to slander. Sir, I have no disposition to animadvert more; but could the characters of these individuals, and the motives which prompted them, be known, it would not have been necessary for me to occupy the time of the Senate on this occasion; or to give a thought to what has transpired, in relation to the Commander-in-chief of the army of Texas. I find, however, that bitter, that undying hostility to him, that will not perish even with his life; and I have no doubt the very creatures that are hunting him now, would hunt him, if they could, beyond the grave. No longer than last night—and I regret, exceedingly, to advert to it—I received a letter from a respectable gentleman in New York, containing an item that I must pay some attention to. I hate these trivial things; but yet they bear an import with them that seems to claim my attention. He says:

":— Chagrined and mortified, I sit down to tell you of the burning disgrace that has, this evening, been given to your well-earned fame. Reverend James H. Perry, D.D., of New York, delivered in a lecture in the Methodist Episcopal Church, this evening, the most bitter remarks respecting your bravery and honor that ever passed human lips. The subject was 'The battle of San Jacinto; its causes and consequences.' Mr. Perry informed his large and intelligent audience that he was prompted by patriotic motives to enlist in the Texan cause; that he visited you at your camp, with letters of introduction, and was admitted a member of your staff. Without repeating the details of the battle, in which he took occasion to say that every advance movement of the army was without your consent, and only made by the wiser and more patriotic manifestations of the army, in which you were obliged to acquiesce, he closed by a peroration that astonished and wounded every person