WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1847
28
Doct. Smith be pleased to salute him, and commend our regard and friendship to him as well as our gratitude. Faithfully Thine, Houston. Allen. My intention is to set out on [torn] by way of Natchi- toches. I cannot bear the Gulf route, Thine H. 1 The original is among the Hale Papers in possession of Miss Doris H. Connerly, Austin, Texas. There is a photostatic copy in the University of Texas Library. !lfhe case of Floyd vs. Stephen G. McClenny (3 Texas, 114, Supreme Court, District of Montgomery, 1850), shows that Stephen G. McClenny was born and reared in Virginia near Richmond. After he had finished his medical course, he found himself an orphan with seven negro slaves. He owed a debt for his medical course, and for loss in a cotton speculation, of nearly $5,000. His two older brothers paid the debt and took a mortgage on the negroes, which the young doctor was allowed to keep, in order to save the payment of his debt from thefr hire. He moved first to Mississippi, then to Alabama, then to Texas, but everywhere he went the mortgage loomed large against him and again and again he had to renew it. After coming to Texas he lived with another doctor, one Joseph Floyd, who finally, to prevent the negroes being taken from McClenn,y, took title to them in a bill of sale. Joseph Floyd, however, testified in court prior to his death, that he had never paid McClenny· a cent for the negroes, and that he held title to them for accommodation. Then, Joseph Floyd died. His administrator (his brother who inherited the property) claimed that the bill of sale in Joseph Floyd's possession gave him (the administrator) possession of the negroes. The case was long drawn out, and the transcripts among the Supreme Court of Texas files do not show how the case terminated.
JANUARY, 1848-MAY, 1848
To THE EDITORS OF THE NATIONAL lNTELLIGENCER 1
Washington, Jan., 1, 1848. To the Editors- A short time since there appeared in your paper a publication of Ex-President Anson Jones, which originally appeared in the Western Texian, a newspaper published at San Antonio. Whether the object of the writer was to inculpate me in con- nexion with my course on the subject of annexation, I am unable to determine. Not having the archives of Texas to which I can refer, I ,vill at this time offer no explanation. So soon as I return to Texas, I may deem it proper to lay before the public some facts, which may be gratifying, touching the history of those
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