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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1824-1857
Please write to me and let me know if I can serve you in any way. Salute our old friends. Ladies first, and the gentlemen next. Sam Houston [Rubric] Hon. Jas. B. Shaw, Austin, Texas [Endorsed on back] : Having no data from which to find the lands we are unable to identify, or locate them. [Second endorsement] : From Sam Houston Nov. 28, 1856 Recd and answered Dec. 20, 1856. 1 Comptroller's Letters, Texas State Library. The answer to this letter is to be found in the Comptroller's Letter Book, 1858-1858, p. 691, also in the Texas State Library.
To SAM HousToN, JR. 1
Washington, 7th Dec., 1856. My Dear Son, Supposing that you have written to me since I left home, and that you will from time to time write me, I am happy to write you, although I have today written to your dear Ma. This is the day on which I am, when at home, most sur- rounded by my Dear family, and when far from them, as the shades of evening are thickening around, I ·feel all the loneliness of my situation. I compare all the scenes of past hours of a busy home where cheerful and noisy children were, and the solitude of my room, and I feel that a man to be happy must be good! In life's hustle man may avoid reflection, and baffle serious medi- tation and drive serious thoughts far from him; but the time must come to him when he must reflect and think not only of the past, but he must meditate, as well, on the future. To render these thoughts pleasant, and to be at peace with ourselves, we should be careful to pass our youth in such manner as will afford us pleasure when we come to ·look back on the mazes of life thr·ough which we have passed. You, my son, are now just rising on the plane of youth, on which you must soon advance to the point of early manhood, and before you will have time to reconnoiter the future, you will find yourself involved in all the cares and responsibil.ities of manhood! Throughout this stage of life you must walk erect truthful, and fearless. Be just and fear not! If spared you will descend from this point like the sun from its meridian splendor to the last stage of man's existence-old age!
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