Details
HOUSTON, SAM, President of Texas. Letter signed ("SamHouston," with large flourish), to the Washington publisher FRANCIS P. BLAIR, "City of Houston, Texas ," 27 December 1845. 2 pages, 4to, integral address leaf with two circular postmarks (Houston, Texas and New Orleans, Louisiana in red and black respectively), seal hole, several small holes at fold intersections, otherwise in very good condition.
TWO DAYS BEFORE TEXAS IS ADMITTED TO THE UNION, HOUSTON EXTOLS ANDREW JACKSON: "THE FRIEND, THE HERO, THE STATESMAN, THE SAGE, THE CITIZEN," WHOSE "HEROIC DEEDS AND PATRIOTIC COURSE" WILL BE EMULATED BY "FUTURE GENERATIONS IN TEXAS"
A letter written from the city bearing his name only two days before the Texas Constitution was accepted by Congress and Texas was admitted to the Union. Blair, a powerful Democratic figure was soliciting funds for a monument to Andrew Jackson (who actively supported annexation). "I have a most worthy friend in this place, Daniel D. Culp, Esqr., who was in days of yore greatly devoted to Genl Jackson & the Democratic Party of the United States...a young gentleman above reproach...The fact that you may wish to afford our citizens an opportunity of contributing to the erection of a monument to the memory of [Andrew] Jackson, the benefactor of mankind, has induced me to call your attention to the name of Mr. Culp. If you should make proper to make an appointment for the purpose of receiving contributions in Texas, I feel great pleasure in naming him...
"In proportion to our population, I feel assured, that no section of the American Continent can boast of a greater number, or more sincere admirers of the man whose memory it is intended to honor [Jackson], or more devoted to his political opinions and actions, than Texas. It may be true that our contributions would not be in proportion to others...yet, we hope the mite which we cast in may entitle us to a participancy of the honor, and, that future generations in Texas may produce men, who will emulate the heroic deeds and patriotic course of the illustrious man...and whose virtues, the annals of America will proclaim to the world as the friend, the statesman, the citizen, the patriot, the sage and the christian...."
Blair (1791-1876), a respected member of President Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet," had established a pro-Jackson paper, the Globe, in the capitol in 1830, under the slogan "The World is governed too much." Blair became one of the most influential political voices in the decade between 1832 and 1841 when Jacksonian Democrats were in power. Initially, Blair sided with Van Buren in opposing the annexation of Texas, on the grounds that it would exacerbate the national divisions over the issue of slavery. He relinquished his interests in the Globe when Polk became President but remained intimately connected in political circles. Later a founding member of the Republican Party, he actively campaigned for Abraham Lincoln, was one of Lincoln's close advisors (he arranged the Hampton Roads peace conference in 1864) and was an unsuccessful candidate for Vice-President in 1868.
TWO DAYS BEFORE TEXAS IS ADMITTED TO THE UNION, HOUSTON EXTOLS ANDREW JACKSON: "THE FRIEND, THE HERO, THE STATESMAN, THE SAGE, THE CITIZEN," WHOSE "HEROIC DEEDS AND PATRIOTIC COURSE" WILL BE EMULATED BY "FUTURE GENERATIONS IN TEXAS"
A letter written from the city bearing his name only two days before the Texas Constitution was accepted by Congress and Texas was admitted to the Union. Blair, a powerful Democratic figure was soliciting funds for a monument to Andrew Jackson (who actively supported annexation). "I have a most worthy friend in this place, Daniel D. Culp, Esqr., who was in days of yore greatly devoted to Genl Jackson & the Democratic Party of the United States...a young gentleman above reproach...The fact that you may wish to afford our citizens an opportunity of contributing to the erection of a monument to the memory of [Andrew] Jackson, the benefactor of mankind, has induced me to call your attention to the name of Mr. Culp. If you should make proper to make an appointment for the purpose of receiving contributions in Texas, I feel great pleasure in naming him...
"In proportion to our population, I feel assured, that no section of the American Continent can boast of a greater number, or more sincere admirers of the man whose memory it is intended to honor [Jackson], or more devoted to his political opinions and actions, than Texas. It may be true that our contributions would not be in proportion to others...yet, we hope the mite which we cast in may entitle us to a participancy of the honor, and, that future generations in Texas may produce men, who will emulate the heroic deeds and patriotic course of the illustrious man...and whose virtues, the annals of America will proclaim to the world as the friend, the statesman, the citizen, the patriot, the sage and the christian...."
Blair (1791-1876), a respected member of President Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet," had established a pro-Jackson paper, the Globe, in the capitol in 1830, under the slogan "The World is governed too much." Blair became one of the most influential political voices in the decade between 1832 and 1841 when Jacksonian Democrats were in power. Initially, Blair sided with Van Buren in opposing the annexation of Texas, on the grounds that it would exacerbate the national divisions over the issue of slavery. He relinquished his interests in the Globe when Polk became President but remained intimately connected in political circles. Later a founding member of the Republican Party, he actively campaigned for Abraham Lincoln, was one of Lincoln's close advisors (he arranged the Hampton Roads peace conference in 1864) and was an unsuccessful candidate for Vice-President in 1868.