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 Commodore 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, do:s not pretend this statement has ever been read in the presence of my colleague without contradiction?
Mr. Houston. I never did pretend it.
Mr. Benjamin. I am satisfied, sir.
Mr. Houston. 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 contradiction of a falsehood; I apprehend the Senator would not be prevented from contradicting a falsehood by any nice considerations 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 Commodore Perry. I mean no reflection or disparagement on Commodore Perry. I read this statement without intending to implicate him in anyway; 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 Senator from Louisiana [Mr. Slidell], in which the latter denounced, in the most unmeasured terms. Mr. Bartlett, as having stated a falsehood, and perhaps said he was degraded, or something of that sort. It is very easy to say such things; but I do not recollect that he ever opposed a contradiction to the detailed conversation given by, or imputed to, Lieutenant Bartlett in this paper. It was only to the use of the words "monstrous injustice" that he objected. I believe it was with reference to that very expression used in the conversation with Lieutenant Bartlett, that he placed his quotation to the letter to Mr. Parker; but his veracity is equal to that of any gentleman. I have not the least doubt that his services and standing in the navy, his spotless reputation, his intelligence, and chivalry, are as irreproachable as those of any gentleman who sat on
