WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
296
Moreover, I intend to show that both the gentlemen from Dela- ware are as partial in the evidence which they array in vindi- cation of this gentleman, as they have charged me with being in supporting what I knew. The remarks of the honorable Senator from Delaware [Mr. Clayton] were published the other day, containing laudations, most eloquently and finely embellished by rhetoric, upon this offi- cer. I announced the fact that the letters exculpatory of his conduct had been read in advance, and it was not necessary for me to read them, for they were before the community. That is one ground for my arraignment on this occasion, as if I had been culpable in suppressing something! I suppress nothing; and if the gentleman from Delaware [Mr. Bayard] comes for- ward as his champion, I return to him the assurance that Mr. Du Pont may well exclaim, "Save me from my friends!" The Senator, speaking on behalf of Captain Du Pont, arraigns me for referring to official documents, and relying on them to sustain the position which I have taken in relation to him as a man. I alluded to his publications in the papers in regard to Commodore Hull, to his subsequent conduct, to his reprimand by the Secre- tary of the Navy, to the whole history of his transactions in the Mediterranean, and to the subsequent order returning him to the ship. I will read on some future occasion the reply of Commo- dore Hull to the last letter of the Secretary of the Navy, and the public shall judge of the whole case when they hear the analysis which Commodore Hull gives of the letter of the Secretary of the Navy restoring these gentlemen to favor. I had intended to read it to-day, but fortune has reserved it for an occasion when it will not be less telling than it would have been to-day. I have no disposition to occupy the time of the Senate; but •when I obtain, in a published form, the remarks of the gentle- men who have spoken in defense of Captain Du Pont, I shall collate and compare them, treating them with all possible respect, without, I trust, an unkind emotion in my heart towards them, or towards any virtue which Captain Du Pont may have. I shall only animadvert on such acts of his as are legitiinate subjects of speculation, of inference, of deduction-nothing else. [Bayard and Mallory insisted that Houston had drawn upon a private letter for evidence.] Mr. Houston. For all that was alleged against Mr. Du Pont, I relied on official documents. For the remarks which I made I
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