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WRITINGS OF SAl\•I HOUSTON, 1851
holder from carrying his slaves into any part of the ceded territory. 1 Texas Range,·, October 8, 1851. This spech was delivered in the Presby- terian Church at Huntsville. The editor of the Range,· expains: "We regret that we cannot give a more satisfactory report of General Houston's speech here on last Monday. We have noticed it but imperfectly, merely hoping to give something like a faint outline of its general features. It is impos- sible for us to do more. Most of our countrymen were present to listen to his masterly vindication of his course, and that of his colleagues, in regard to the exciting questions that have agitated our country for the last two or three years. Of one fact we are well satisfied; General Hous- ton was never more popular-never more firmly seated in the affections of the people of Texas, than he is at this time. They a1·e ready to endorse and ratify his course. They have unlimited confidence in his fidelity-in his patriotism and in his ardent devotion to the Union of the States."
TO JOHN WOODS HARRIS 1
Huntsville, Texas, 7th Oct. 1851. My Dear Harris. I did as you wished me. I wrote, but named no man for the office, if it should become vacant. It was a task. I wish it [could be] held in abeyance, until we could reach there, and tell him who are clever fellows. Spoke of his own Party and told him some were cleverer than others. I wrote to you long since & you did not answer me. I told you about the young Ladies, and you, why did you not answer, whether you received it or not. Instinct ought to have told you I had written & what I did write. Please tell Philip, the barber, to send the dog he gave me to the care of J. W. Brashear, Esq., of Houston. He will send him to me. Mrs. H. & Sam send their best respects to you, & all our friends. God bless you, and write to me. Truly thy Friend, Sam Houston Hon. J. W. Harris. 1 Williams Pave,·s, Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Texas. John Woods Harris was born and reared in Nelson County, Virginia. His father was a small Virginia farmer. The boy was given two years of elementary training at Washington College (now Washington and Lee Uni- virsity), but in 1832 he entered the University of Virginia, where he remained five years, graduating from six departments, including law. In the fall of 1837, he came to Texas and located in Brazoria County, near the mouth of the Brazos River, and January 1, 1838, found him practicing law in partnership with John A. Wharton and Elisha M. Pease. After Wharton's death, in 1839, Harris and Pease continued the partnership, and their firm became one of the
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