WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1856
324
his speech, that the ladies of -those officers were here. What a high crime on the part of men who have been stricken down and dishonored ! [Mr. Mallory denied that he had referred to such attendants in the galleries.] Mr. Houston. I suppose the honorable chairman of the Naval Committee means that the whistle was to come. I did not intend that at the time myself, so that he knew more than I did. I per- ceive that was a misfortune for me. I wish I had never learned to whistle [laughter], but I might have learned to blow a trumpet. Trumpeting and whistling were coupled together in the letter to Thorburn, and I might have illustrated it very well without whistling, by blowing a trumpet. [Laughter.] If the distinguished Senator did not refer to that, the Senator from Delaware did. Have men no right to entertain anxiety for their sullied honor, for their blighted prospects, for their dis- honored name? May not the partners of their woes and joys-the mothers of their children-the companions of their cares-who feel interested in their honor, be permitted to sympathize with their sorrows? To forbid these would be worse than the worst despotism. It is a tyranny that chains the mind, and renders the freedom of limbs a reproach to the possessor. What woman would not feel for a husband-she whose anxious care, whose deep solicitude, has pursued him when tossed on the billows of the ocean, when borne before the fury of the storm, when struggling in the battle breeze? Is she not to be permitted to feel for that husband? I pity the Government that can forbid such feelings, and its Senators who forget their duty to themselves. I have not the pleasure of seeing in his seat at this moment my friend, the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Butler], but we have had, on several occasions, little spats on the floor, always awakening some new and pleasant emotion in my heart toward him. Sometimes he is a little sharp and razorish in .his 1:emarks; but still I like him. That Senator and myself, I am proud to say, on this occasion concur in opinion. I have always admired the gallant State of South Carolina. If there is pure and unadul- terated chivalry in the world, you will find a portion of it in South Carolina, in the descendants of the Huguenots. Sir, a noble son of South Carolina has recently been tried in every station. He has performed feats of valor and neither corsair, nor com- mander, nor sailor, has rivaled ln the last five centuries. I allude to Rolando. His generosity is only equaled by his sterling and
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