WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
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to the humblest as well as the proudest. Education to the com- mon mind may embellish, but it can never implant what Nature has failed to supply. [Applause in the galleries.] The President. The galleries will be cleared if the demonstra- tions are repeated. Mr. Houston. Mr. President, there is one circumstance that really seemed for a moment to embarrass me, from the apprehen- sion that a possible deduction might be drawn from what was said by others, that I had attempted surreptitiously to impose on the Senate by interpolating the word "sex" into a document where it did not exist. I thought, at the time, that I could not be mistaken; I had evidence satisfactory to my mind; but when I called for a copy of the official documents from the Department the copy did not contain the word "sex." I went to the office,. and in the recorded copy I did not find the word "sex" written,. though it was necessary to give force and sense to the language. I learned, subsequently, that the press copy taken at the time con- tained the word "sex"; this was not discovered until the 24th of March, 1856. Then, sir, after all the rhetorical flourishes and denunciations of the Senators from Delaware, I come forward prepared, under the official statement of one of the officials of the Navy Department, to assert that the word "sex" is contained in the letter of Secretary Paulding of December 16, 1839. It was intimated that I introduced the word surreptitiously, or that, if not surreptitiously done, there was a second motive for it. First, I was charged with the crime of having acted improperly; and next, it was said that it was unjust to the individual. I regret exceedingly ever to have occasion to dwell on private character, or to advert to scenes of an unpleasant nature that are calculated to reflect on my countrymen, whether in private or official position, and to brand them with anything dishonorable, or which is not illustrious and glorious to the country. Sir, the man who bears my country's flag, the ·man who represents her in a foreign country, the man to whose discretion and integrity the honor of the country is confided, should be a man of spotless character, of pure and exalted chivalry, of refined and delicate sensibilities, particularly when he has occasion to defer to that sex to whom every hero, every soldier, and every statesman is most honored in rendering the homage of his heart. Sir, for the man who has a mother, or a sister, or a daughter, and does not feel that woman is to be shielded, and protected by his generous arm, there is no epithet too-I will use no phrase to designate
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