WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1822-1841
11
Since I left you, the U. S. sustained in the death of Judge Grundy, a serious loss. He was a great Man! His place will not soon be filled. His sphere was greatness. His latter days were full of Glory and Honor. His cast of Genius was peculiar, but it was peculiarly Grand! I sympathized with his family, in their bereavement. His memory belongs to a nation, whose honor and renown he nobly aided in perpetuating!! Be pleased to commend me to you Father, Mother, and our mutual friends. Thy Friend Sam Houston Gen 1• '\V'm G. Harding [Addressed] : To Gen 1• William G. Harding Nashville Ten- nessee Via Galveston Mail . [ Postmarked] : Galveston, Texas, Aug. 1 New Orleans, La. Aug. 6. 1 lt is through the courtesy of Mrs. M. G. Buckner of Nashville, Tennessee, a granddaughter of General William G. Harding, and the owner of this letter, that it is permitted to be published here. William G. Harding (September 15, 1808-December 15, 1886), son of John and Susannah ·(Shute) Harding, was born at Belle Meade Farms, near Nashville, Tennessee. At the age of fourteen he entered the Nashville University. He later attended the American Literary and Scientific Academy at Middletown, Connecticut, from which he graduated in 1829. His first wife was Mary Selene McNairy of Nashville; his second, Elizabeth McGavock of Franklin, Tennessee. For a rather full sketch of General Harding, see W. W. Clayton, History of Davidson County, Tennessee, etc., 419-425. ~Two manuscript Mier diaries, one, the George Glasscock Diary in the Texas State Library, the other, the Joseph D. McCutchan Diary in the Rosenberg Library, give some account of Houston's run-away slaves in Mexico. Their names were Esau and Tom. Esau was a large black man, surly, impudent and insulting; Tom, a yellow boy-"as white, almost, as any of the Mier prisoners"-was polite and kind to the Texans. Esau sensed that his attitude was repulsive, and realized that he had better keep away from the Mier men, but Tom went among them freely doing them small favors, and eager to talk about Texas.
To THE EDITOR OF THE Austin City Gazette 1
December 29, 1841 There is nothing under a Republican form of government that it behooves a free and enlightened people to guard against, more than the attempts on the part of one branch of the government to encroach on the rights of eithe~· of the other branches. An •
Powered by FlippingBook