The Texas Almanac for 1868 Page: 59
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than would Henderson for his country or for a just cause, and none could be
more kind and generous than he to a fallen foe.
General Henderson was one of the commissioners appointed by General
Taylor to negotiate with Ampudia for the surrender of Monterey. For his
services in that battle, Congress voted him a sword, in connection with the
heroic Quitman and two other major-generals.
As another instance of the probity he practiced in the discharge of his
public duties, it may be mentioned that, while in the war with Mexico, he was
appointed a major-general in the service of the United States, and was entitled
to the pay of that office as well as to his salary as Governor of Texas. But
he declined to receive any portion of the compensation due him as Governor
while he was absent from the seat of government, and accepted only his pay
as an officer in the army, deeming that most clearly due him for labor per-
formed, and considering also that, as between Texas and the United States, the
former was much more in want of every dollar in her treasury. After the
close of the war, General Henderson returned to Texas and resumed his duties
as Governor. At the expiration of his official term he declined a renomina-
tion, and resumed the practice of his profession. He steadily declined to hold
any other public office until November, 1857, when, after the death of General
Rusk, he was'unanimously chosen his successor by the Legislature of Texas,
in response to what was the general voice of the people, according to the most
unmistakable indications.
[The Honorable John McClarty, in a eulogy delivered by him, in the House
of Representatives of the State of Texas, on the 6th of February, 1860, gives the
following particulars of his death.]
" When the noble but ill-fated Rusk vacated his seat in the United States
Senate in 1857, the State, by one almost unanimous voice, solicited Henderson
to fill his unexpired term. He accepted this position with reluctance, for
office-seeking-a hungering and thirsting after place and position-was a
spirit which he always contemned. It was his misfortune to be in very-feeble
health when the intelligence of his election as United States Senator reached
him. He felt gratified in the fact that he was the unanimous choice, or almost
so, of the representatives of a free people who had known him so long and
well, and by whom his political opinions were so well understood; but he felt
that the finger of death was then feeling about his vitals, and that the time
of his sojourn upon this earth was drawing to a close.
" Yielding to the earnest entreaties of his friends, who were ever at his bed-
side, for a brief period he delayed his departure for the Federal capital, but
he found that his physical energies were failing; and, impelled by an ardent
desire to reach the field of his last labors, he began his journey, and dragged,
by the power of an indomitable will, his disease-smitten frame onward to his
post of duty. like a stricken soldier upon the field of battle. For a time he
tarried amidst the orange groves of the island of Cuba, with a" faint hope
that the balmy breath of the tropics would yet quicken the flagging life-stream
within his veins. He found that this was not to be so, for each day and each
hour the solemn warning, 'Dust thou art, and to the dust thou shalt soon
return,' became more audible.
" With a final exertion he reached the Federal capital. He assumed for a
few days his seat in the Senate, then a reaction took place-the flame of life
flickered feebly for a'time, then passed, away gently as the breath of morning
when it floats among the trees. James Pinckney Henderson, in the meri-
dian of his manhood-clothed with well-earned honors-was dead. His mctal
career was ended, but he still lives on the page of history and in the hearts
of friends, where his virtues will remain embalmed while life endures."
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The Galveston News. The Texas Almanac for 1868, book, December 1867; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123773/m1/63/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.