WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1845
429
TO JOHN FITZGERALD AND OTHERS 1
City of Houston, November 5, 1845 Gentlemen- In reply to your polite invitation to the public dinner which you have been so courteous as to tender to me, I beg you to accept the expression of my grateful sense of obliga- tion. The continued regard and confidence of my fellow citizens, I esteem as the richest earthly reward for any service which it may have been in my power to render to my country, or to the cause of national freedom. Being on my way to Galveston in the hope of meeting my family there, I will not have leisure at this time to make the stay requisite to meet your wishes with regard to my views upon the " great topics" which are so interesting to my countrymen. It seems to me fitting that I should respectfully decline the dinner offered, but I will take pleasure in notifying you gentle- men of a time when it may be in my power to give my views upon the subject of the changes now confidently anticipated, and our future relations, as a member of the great American Union. Sam Houston. Messrs. Jno. Fitzgerald, C. McAnelly, A. S. Thruston/ F. R. Lub- bock, Wm. Thompson, A. Ewing, and others. 'Teleg1·avh and Texas Registe1·, November 12, 1845. This letter from Houston was in answer to an invitation inviting him to a public dinner to be given any time that he might find it convenient to set. The invitation expressed the wish to testify their continued appreciation and satisfaction of his distinguished services; their unimpaired confidence in his wisdom, integrity, and patriotism, and to hear him expound the great topics of the day. The invitation was signed by thirty names. "Algernon Sidney Thruston. Although this man's name is found Albert S. Thruston in some newspapers and even in some manuscript documents of the 1840's and 1850's, he himself always signed it "A. S. Thruston," and a letter from Mr. R. C. Ballard Thruston of Louisville, Kentucky, makes clear the fact that his name was Algernon Sidney Thruston. He was born May 19, 1801, and died March 5, 1864. He married Harriet C. Jaques, daughter of Benj. and Adalnide Jaques of St. Louis, Missouri, who was born May 5, 1827, and died in Kentucky, October 23, 1873. The couple had ten children, five of whom lived to maturity. A. S. Thruston was a useful man to Texas during the period of the Republic, nnd served the new nation in several important positions: Commissary General of Pur- chases in 1837; Quartermaster General in 1838; and he was nominated Attorney General, November 13, 1838, but Lamar came to the Presidency before this nomination had been approved by the s·enate, therefore ho did not serve in that position. See Louisville Jou.rnal, January 10, 1837; als(. letter from R. C. Ballard Thruston, January 15, 1940, Texas State Library.
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