Beschreibung:

HOUSTON, Samuel (1793-1863), First President of the Texas Republic . Letter signed ("Sam Houston," with bold flourish) to Prof. J. K. Mitchell, Washington City, 8 July 1846. 1 page, 4to, slight foxing to top edge . A HOUSTON LETTER FROM EARLY IN HIS SENATE CAREER. In full: "My dear Doctor: I have had the pleasure to receive the very elegant and very acceptable present which you have been so kind as to ask me to forward to Mrs. Houston. I shall do so by the first safe conveyance; and I know she will receive it with becoming emotion. I pray you to accept my acknowledgments for this evidence of your remembrance and regard, and believe me, with my best wished for yourself and your family, Faithfully your friend Sam Houston." Houston had just taken up his post as Senator for the new state of Texas, a seat he held from 1846 to 1859, when he returned to serve as Taxas's governor. It was the capstone to a remarkable career begun as a soldier under Andrew Jackson in the Creek War, service in the House of Representatives, from Tennessee, then as that state's governor (1827-1829). He moved to Cherokee country in the Oklahoma Territory, then on to Texas where he led the armies of the breakaway republic at San Jacinto. He served as the republic's governor in 1836-38 and again in 1841-1844. He was a national figure by the outbreak of the Civil War and in 1860 ran a close second to John Bell for the Union party nomination for President. But before the inauguration of Lincoln, Texas voted to secede from the Union in spite of Houston's vigorous opposition (see lot 454). On March 16, after refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, Houston was removed from office and retired to his home in Huntsville.