WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
344
Lieutenant Bartlett and Commodore Perry was repeated in the Senate in the presence of my colleague, and not denied by him.] Mr. Houston. I hope the gentleman will not become too much excited. I will correct him. [Mr. Benjamin. I am not excited; but I do not intend that my colleague's position shall be misrepresented, through error on the part of the Senator from Texas.] Mr. Houston. I said that the remarks of the Senator's colleague grew out of a reference to the quotation from a letter of Commo- dore Perry to Mr. Parker. I do not say that the statement which I have just presented has ever been read in the Senate before; and because I believe it had not been read, I proposed to read it on this occasion that it should go out on the authority of a Senator. [Mr. Benjamin. The Senator from Texas, then, does not pre- tend this statement has ever been read in the presence of my colleague without contradiction.] Mr. Houston. I never did pretend it.... But I pretend, and I assert, that it has been published in the newspapers for weeks and months, and that it has never met a contradiction, that I have discovered, from Commodore Perry. [Mr. Benjamin. It was published unsigned-an anonymous communication.] Mr. Houston. Ah! that has very little to do with the contra- diction of a falsehood; I apprehend the Senator would not be prevented from contradicting a falsehood by any nice considera- tions as to whether it was signed, or sealed, or delivered, if it was generally circulated. I have never seen it contradicted, and I have seen the statement corroborated by Mr. Gibson's letter which was read here yesterday. That embodies, substantially, a conversation of the same import, but it did not go into the same details that appear here. It has remained uncontradicted by Com- modore Perry. I mean no reflection or disparagement on Com- modore Perry. I read this statement without intending to impli- cate him in any way; because I believe he told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, when he called the board a set of "packed conspirators." That is just what I believe about them. I will inform the Senator from Louisiana [Mr. Benjamin] that it was entirely in relation to the quotation used by Lieutenant Bartlett, in this communication to a friend, that the discussion arose between the Senator from Georgia [Mr. Iverson] and the
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