267
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1851
tendered to you requires an answer; let it be such as is worthy of the proud fame of Virginia. Sam Houston.
Hon. John Letcher, Richmond, Va. 1 Thc No1·theni Standctrd, April 12, 1851.
John Letcher was born at Lexington, Rockbridge County, Virginia, March 29, 1813. His academic education was obtained from the rural schools of his county, and from Washington College, graduating from the latter institution in 1833. In 1839 he was admitted to the Virginia bar, and in addition to his law practice he edited the Valley Stm· from 1840 to 1850. He was a presidential elector in 1848, a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, 1850, and as a Democrat was elected from the Thirty-second to the Thirty-fifth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1851, to March 3, 1859. Jfe was then Governor of Virginia (1860-1864) and was prominent in the organization of the Peace Convention which met at Washington, D.C., February 8, 1861, in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war. John Letcher did not favor secession and did all he could to discour- age the movement in Virginia, but was active in sustaining the ordinance after it was passed by the Virginia Legislature, April 17, 1861. After the close of the Civil War he resumed his law practice in Lexington, and served as a member of the House of Delegates, 1875-1877. From 1866 to 1880 he was a member of the board of visitors of the Virginia Military Institute, serving as president of the board for ten years. He died, January 26, 1884, at. his home in Lexington, and is buried there in the Presbyterian Cemetery. See Biographical Directory of the Ame1-ican Congress (1928), 1221. A LECTURE ON TRIALS AND DANGERS OF FRONTIER LIFE, JANUARY 28, 185!1 Ladies and gentlemen-I thank you for the expression of wel- come with which you have greeted me, and I am very sorry that I cannot promise myself to make you a suitable return. Un- expected this lecture is not, but the subject upon which I am called upon to address you is one that I had not anticipated until eleven o'clock last night. Since then I have either been sleeping or traveling, and traveling in good company-that induced more conversation than reflection. The object for which it is intended, I _hope, will carry an ample apology with it; that is, to erect a house of worship to the Diety, in which all earthly considerations of self-pride, or love of approbation, should be merged, if we seek to contribute to that important end. I have been un- accustomed to lecturing and to composition; with composition I have never been familiar. Accustomed from very early years to a border life, I have not enjoyed the advantages of scholastic education, nor the refinement obtained only by mental application
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