WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1831-1832
205
"P.S. You will have to come this way-Your letter of 8th Inst. is to hand." Soon after his arrival at Port Gibson in 1829, Houston was charged with having designs on Texas. It was said that he planned to raise an army, join forces with the Texans and the Federalists (Republicans) in Mexico, wrest Texas from Mexico, and establish a great western empire with him- self as ruler. See H. Yoakum, History of T6xas, II, 306-308. This corre- spondence between Houston and Prentiss in 1832, gives just a tinge of color to that rumor. It seems more probable, however, that Houston's object at that time was to secure large grants of Texas lands for speculation. :?Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779-January 11, 1843), author of the Sta1· Spangled Ba.nne1·, was Houston's counsel in the Stanbery Case. Houston was also permitted to address the House in his own defense on May 7, 1832. See Dictiona1'1f of Am61-ican Biography, X, 362-363. 3 Texas. ¾See Houston to Prentiss, April 8, 1832. 5 Throughout his life Houston always had many projects afoot, and he seems to have had a different partner for each one. Colonel John Drennan of Nashville, Tennessee, was his partner in the Saline mines and other interests on the Verdigris. See Captain Vashon to President Jackson, Indian Office, 1830; also see Grant Foreman, Pioneer Days in the Early S011th11nst, 195. But Benjamin Hawkins, an educated Creek Indian, living with his halfbreed Cherokee wife in the Cherokee Nation, was his partner in his trading and gold mining enterprises. It is probably "Ben Hawkins" to whom Houston refers in this letter, for Hawkins was in Washington during the summer of 1832. See United States House Documents, 22d Cong., 1st Sess., Doc. 502. Also, Foreman, op. cit. 205. 0 This is evidently a misspelling of the name of Jose Callava who was commandant of Pensacola, Florida, in 1820-1821, when Jackson took ,that town. Governor Callava was in New York from 1830 to 1833. See Parton, II, 599-641, passim. 1 Daniel Jackson was a merchant and banker of New York. He was inter- ested with Houston and Prentiss in the scheme for .speculation in Texas lands. See the James Prentiss Letters, The University of Texas Library.
PRENTISS TO HOUSTONt
New York 4 May 1832 My dear GenC:ral I acknowledge the receipt of your much es- teemed favours of the 8th Ult.& 1st Inst. Having previously been fully apprised of the circumstances that have detained you, and supposing your time necessarily engrossed in your own affairs at Washington I had found a propEr excuse for your silence and thot proper not to interrupt you with any communications on the subject of the affairs which mutually interest us Supposing that this may find you at your own disposal again and that you can
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