Mr. Houston. This is the publication which has made so much fuss, and in it occurs the quotation which has been commented on in the Senate.
Mr. Benjamin. Is it signed by Lieutenant Bartlett?
Mr. Houston. Not at all.
Mr. Benjamin. It is anonymous, then?
Mr. Houston. It was recognized by gentlemen here. It was stated by the Senator from Georgia and recognized by
Mr. Iverson. The Senator from Texas will allow me to say that he is under some mistake about that. I did not make any allusion to anything from Mr. Bartlett except the quotation of the letter of Commodore Perry to Mr. Parker.
Mr. Houston. That is what I say. It is a quotation used in this publication—it is all the same publication.
Mr. Iverson. The Senator should not give me as authority for the residue of the statement which he has read.
Mr. Benjamin. This is a question which I can not allow to pass in any confusion. I do not understand—and my recollection is not—that my colleague heard that letter read, and failed to deny that that conversation was had between Commodore Perry and Mr. Bartlett. On the contrary, my distinct recollection is that my colleague repelled, as a charge which would dishonor the character of Commodore Perry, the fact that he had made any such statement as that which was contained in the pretended extract from a letter, which extract was afterward admitted to be false
Mr. Houston. It was not admitted to be false. I hope the Senator will use an expression becoming the Senate.
Mr. Benjamin. Did I not understand the Senator from Georgia and the Senator from Tennessee to admit it?
Mr. Houston. They admitted that it was erroneous; that it was a mistake.
Mr. Benjamin. If it is not true, I beg the Senator's pardon. But what is the case? That which purported to be the copy of a letter written by Commodore Perry was, according to the statement of the Senator from Tennessee yesterday, merely something that rested in the brain of Lieutenant Bartlett from a conversation; the letter was an entirely different thing. Now, sir, the Senator from Texas says that my colleague, having heard that letter read, or these statements of Lieutenant Bartlett about a conversation, which he repeated, did not deny them. I say that, according to the best of my recollection—I am very sorry that I have not the Globe here before me in which my colleague's statements are contained
Mr. Iverson. If the Senator will allow me, I will say that I may remember them, as I was particeps criminis in the transaction at the time. The Senator from Louisiana [Mr. Slidell] did not deny that Commodore Perry ever wrote such a letter, and, as evidence of the fact, he produced the original letter.
Mr. Benjamin. I am now referring, not to the letter, but to the pretended statements by Mr. Bartlett of a verbal conversation. The Senator from Texas says that this conversation between Lieutenant Bartlett and Commodore Perry was repeated in the Senate in the presence of my colleague, and not denied by him.
