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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
311
Captain Smith was insulted; and to show it I shall read what he wrote to Commodore Hull in reply to a letter of Mr. Du Pont. If I did not read all the letters to which I referred before, it was not because I had any purpose to garble them, as was intimated. They are all very rich. Captain Du Pont's productions are all of a classical character. I should like to give them all, but it would render my speech too voluminous. He had complained of the accomodations of the Ohio. He was placed on the orlop deck-a deck that comes to the water line, I believe. It appears from the inklings which have transpired here, that Commodore Hull had taken his family on board the Ohio, as was customary on ships of war at that period, by permission of the Secretary. Because Du Pont and some other officers were excluded from the cabins to give place to the ladies, they were provoked; and four of them, according to the Secretary of the Navy, formed "cabals" for the purpose of annoying the Commodore and expelling the ladies. I do not say whether or not that was social and gentlemanly; I doubt it. When they made complaint to Commodore Hull, as the documents will show, they were occupying quarters to which they had been ordered by the Navy Department. When complaint was made Commodore Hull ordered Captain Smith to provide them cabins or temporary accomodations on the deck, so as to relieve them from the confined atmosphere below, where it was said to be insalubrious. When this offer was made to Mr. Du Pont, he said, in a letter to Captain Smith, dated July 29, 1839: "But the commander-in-chief, having decided that he is not authorized to make any permanent change, of which he is of course the.sole and proper judge, I prefer remaining where the Navy Department has placed me as long as my health will endure it, rather than occupy quarters which I deem unfit for an officer holding the third rank known in our service, and from which he may be ejected at any moment." This refusal was given to Captain Smith, who had, at his instance, provided these quarters. He declined going into them. Did Commodore Hull press him? No, sir. Why? Because he was where the Secretary of the Navy had placed him. Commodore Hull had not placed him there. Then, sir, that venerable and gallant commodore, the first that ever struck a British flag upon the ocean in our war of 1812, still bore the proud sailor's spirit in his heart, loving his country, and exacting due obedience to his orders. I have read what Mr. Du Pont said in his letter to Captain Smith. At page 44 of Executive Document No. 44, of the
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