The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 68, July 1964 - April, 1965 Page: 80

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

the uncle of Lucadia Niles, who some years later was to become
Mrs. Elisha Marshall Pease. The title page of the book bore the
double titles: History of South America and Mexico; comprising
their discovery, geography, politics, commerce and revolutions.
By Hon. John M. Niles, member of the Senate of the United
States. To which is annexed, A geographical and historical view of
Texas, with a detailed account of the Texian Revolution and War.
By Hon. L. T. Pease.
E. M. Pease was incorrect in thinking that his letter would not
arrive in time to be of service to his father, for there is in the
book a quotation from the letter, including the two lines of verse
quoted by Pease. Unfortunately, the documents which he says
were enclosed with the letter were not preserved with it.
In addition to its value as a contemporary account of the Texas
Revolution, the letter also shows that Elisha Marshall Pease, who
was later to serve his state with distinction as governor, already
possessed, at the age of twenty-five, a clear and logical epistolary
style, a definite set of convictions, and a loyalty to Texas which
was to continue throughout his life.
Columbia
Dear Father: January 8th 1837
I received a day or two since your Letters of the 6th of Oct & the
3oth, and embrace the first opportunity of answering them, by some
unaccountable circumstance they have been delayed between this and
New Orleans, I regret this the more, as I fear you cannot now receive
any thing from me, for your proposed undertaking, in time to be of
any service to you. I am suprised [sic] at your not receiving my letter
announcing Thompson's death and the particulars attending it, but
I presume Mr. Handy retained it to deliver on his arrival, I beleive
[sic] I was very minute in that, giving all that could interest you, It
is unpleasant now to recur to that subject, at some future period when
time shall have healed the wound occasioned by his loss and 1 can
write more calmly on the subject, I may attempt to give you some
of his adventures and escape as related by himself.
I have now enjoyed uninterrupted good health for nearly a year,
more so than ever before during my life. Our Country is rapidly re-
covering from the effects of the invasion of last spring. Many emigrants
are coming in, our newly organized Government is in successful opera-
tion and if we are not disturbed again this spring, everything bids
fair for a long course of individual and national prosperity. Whether
this fair prospect is to be obscured and defaced by the clouds of war