261
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1850
I do pray that you may be cheerful in my absence and not repine at what is unavoidable. As it is Sunday night I will not write you on any matters of. business. My love to all. Ever thine Houston Margaret. P. S. Tell Sam, Nannie and Maggy that I have preserved all the roses and chrysanthemums which they gave me. 1 The original letter is in the Temple H. Morrnw Collection of Houston Materials, Dallas, Texas. It is printed in Marquis James, The Raven, 376.
JANUARY, 1851-FEBRUARY, 1851
TO JOHN LETCHER 1
Washington, Jan. 24, 1851. My Dear Relative: I thank you for your favor recently re- ceived, and in reply I must assure you that I realize all the solicitude that you could expect me to do in relation to the present attitude of our national as well as our sectional affairs. In connexion with these I have recently seen in the public papers a letter from Gen'l James Hamilton, of South Carolina, dated [Re] trieve, [Texas,] December 15, 1840, [sic.] and ad- dressed to Langdon Cheves, containing some suggestions and sentiments in which I cannot coincide. These are times of wide spread agitation, and of deep and earnest feeling on the part of many of our fellow citizens, and such ideas as those expressed in the following extracts from the letter of General Hamilton are likely to be productive of evil consequences, however well meant by him. His name has been long familiar to the public as one of the most ardent and active of the champions of South Carolina in the time of nullification, and his late conciliatory admonitions have invested his opinions with increased influence among the moderate and rational friends of the country. These suggestions, therefore, if erroneous or hasty, should not be allowed to pass by unnoticed. The object I have in view is not to engage in a newspaper contest with the General, but merely to intimate to you and some other friends at Richmond that as he places Virginia in the vanguard in his contemplated movement, it appears proper that steps should be taken there to manifest her dissent from the high honor proposed.-These are the extracts
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