299
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
of Texas, 115-117; Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, (1895) History of Texas with Biographical History of the Cities of Houston and Galveston, 599-601; N. G. Kittrell, Governors Who Have Been, and Other Public Men of Texas, 63; Homer S. Thrall, A Pictorial History of Texas, 546. :?Edward W. Gray was an officer in the United States Navy, and had in 1856 been unofficially notified that he would be dismissed from the navy upon his return from the cruise upon which he was at the time employed. Both he and his brother, Judge Peter W. Gray, wrote to Houston, United States Senator from Texas, asking his intervention and assistance in keeping the place for Lieutenant Gray. Edward W. Gray's letter was written from Amoy, China, on board the U.S.S. Vandalia, January 7, 1856. Houston wrote his letter to Judge Gray on the back of Lieutenant Gray's letter. To MRs. ANA s. STEPHENs 1 Washington, 22nd March 1856 Dear Lady & Friend, I am truly sorry that you are unhappy and I am glad that I can administer oil and wine as did the good Samaritan. I will now with a plain unvarnished tale put down all your troubles. Major Donelson, if you recollect, was in New York last summer, and was, as I suppose, arranging matters with the friends of Mr. Fillmore. When he came on to the Convention, he knew that Tennessee was for me, and masses were for no one else. He told me of those Delegates from Tennessee, who were for me if the action of the Convention should not be postponed. · He afterward left here in a great hurry, and did not call on me! again! Now, it was through his influence that the matter took place. This was the whole contriv3:nce, and he thought the mantle of Genl. Jackson rested upon him, which with his own position would carry the Ticket, for he thinks well of hi?'nself. Now Dear Friend, I assure you, I was glad that I was not nomi- nated, by such an incongruous Body. I did not authorize my name to go before the Body, and since I heard of the nomination I have neither felt regret, or mortification. I am perfectly happy, and if I wished to be President, I would much rather take my chances, as a "National Candidate," & go before the people with- out any Platform, but "the Union & the Constitution," than to rely on a nomination of the Convention, and accept the platform sent forth by the meeting at Philadelphia. The papers will not adopt or endorse the Ticket; that would have stuck to the Ameri- can party, if another selection had been made. You can judge better what support will be given to the Ticket in the North, than I can! I have not attended any ratification meetings, for the
Powered by FlippingBook