254
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1844
not be long on the way up, as I confidently hope you will not have left Houston for the East. Thine truly, Sam Houston [Rubric] '"Houston's Private Executive Record Book," p. 493, courtesy of Mr. Franklin Williams. James Pinckney Henderson (March 31-June 4, 1858), lawyer, diplomat, soldier, first governor of the state of Texas, was the son of Lawson H. and Elizabeth (Carruth) Henderson. He was bbrn in Lincoln County, North Carolina, and was educated at Lincoln Academy and the University of North Carolina. He did not graduate from the University, because he decided to begin the study of law before he had finished the academic courses. He was admitted to the bar in 1832, and moved to Canton, Mississippi, where he set up his la,v office in 1835. In April, 1836, he and Memucan Hunt raised a company of volunteers for service in the Texas revolution, arriving at Velasco on May 25, 1836. Part of these volunteers participated in the disturbance over the deportation of Santa Anna. Houston appointed him Attorney General in November, 1836; and on May 10, 1837, appointed him Secretary of State, while later in the same month he was appointed Minister to Great Britain and France. In 1840, he returned to Texas and resumed his law practice in partnership ,vith Kenneth L. Anderson and Thomas J. Rusk. In 1844, Houston sent him as a special minister to the United States to assist Isaac Van Zandt in the negotiations for annexation, and after annexa- tion, he was elected the first gove1·nor of the state of Texas. 'When the Mexican War began, by the authority of the Texas Legislature, he commanded the Texas Regiment, with the rank of Major General of Volunteers; and for gallantry at Monterey, the United States awarded him a sword. After Thomas J. Rusk's death he was elected to fill out the unexpired term. But his health was bad, and he did little as the United States senator from Texas, for on June 4, 1858, he died. He lies buried in the Congressional Cemetery at Washington. See Dictionary of American Biog·1·aphy, VIII, 481-482; Biographicctl Directo111 of the A me1-ica.n Congress, 1086; Thrall, A Pictm-icil Histo111 of Texas, 551; Lama,· Papern (6 volumes, vassim); E. W. Winkler (ed)., Secret Jozwnals of the Senate, Repziblic of Texas, 1896-1845, 11assi1n; Fulmore, The History and Geogmphy of Texa,s as Told in Co1inty Names, 180; Kittrell, Governors Who Have Been, and Other Public Men of Texas, 13-15; Garrison (ed.), Diplomatic Con·espondence of the Republic of Texas, I and II, passim; W. C. Binkley (ed.), Official Correspondence of the Texan Revolution, 1895-1896, II, 766; and many other sources.
TO CHARLES ELLIOT AND W. 8. MURPHY 1
Private
Washington, February 10th, 1844.
My dear Captain and General: I wrote you some few days since; and now add a line to repeat that I should be happy to see you here at your earliest convenience.
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