WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1838
190
learn by Natchez, sloop of war, now off Galveston, that her com- mander has orders to suffer Mexican cruizers to board no vessel under American colors- and that other American vessels of war are off Matagorda and Copano. This looks well!! At the first moment possible I will leave for the East. Pray reserve for us all the frolicks until we come. We have no recent news from the Red Lands. It is late at night, and I am freezing in a miserable open house; four windows in it, and not one pane of glass nor shutter-three doors, and shutters to but two-no ceiling and the floor loose laid. Is not this a "White House" with a plague to it? The Palace is not finished, but it is said to be in progress and will soon be completed. I have sent to New York for magnificent furni- ture, and when it arrives, what a beautiful contrast shall I enjoy! People are daily arriving by twenties and fifties in this city. I have been down to the Bay and found it a Fairy region, in- deed it was beneficial to my health, which you have never seen so fine as it is at this time. My friend ,vright- 1 has completed my portrait for your Father's parlor until I have as good a mansion. It will be taken to you, because it is said to be the best likeness ever taken of me, and withal, an elegant painting. I am sure you will fault it, but I will not tell you why nor wherefore. You wou'd be astonished at the improvement of society here. A few nights since I was at a Ball in the Capitol, and met some forty or fifty ladies who wou'd have shown well in Washington City. That was the only chance I had to see and judge of society, as I neither go to church nor into Ladies' Society. Church- we have none. [ several lines are missing here.] but hope when I visit Egeria and behold the nymphs of the East that I will enjoy the Elysium of inspiration, and that a New Rhetoric will speak peace and happiness to one who, in all the candor of truth, at times feels that he wears a yoke of iron in lieu of a silken cord as the world deems it. Salute your Ma-ma and Sisters-a cuff to Charley. I will w1:ite to your Father. Salute my God Parents, little Sis and the boys. [Signature missing] 1Dallas Morn-ing News, March 21, 1916. 2sec Houston to the Senate, November 24, 1836. 3Qn· March 3, 1837, President Andrew Jackson appointed Alcee La Branche, a Louisiana man, charge d'affaires from the United States to Texas (James D.
Powered by FlippingBook