The Personal Correspondence of Sam Houston, Volume IV: 1852-1863.

Volume IV: 1852-1863. Edited by Madge Thornall Roberts. (Denton, Tex.: University of North Texas Press, c. 2001. Pp. xii, 571. $45.95, ISBN 1-57441-084-9.)

In this volume Madge Thornall Roberts concludes her efforts to illuminate the private side of Sam Houston by making his family correspondence more accessible. Most of the letters are between Houston and his wife, Margaret Moffett Lea Houston. Also included are letters to and from Houston's children. Some letters fall outside of 1852-1863, since Roberts includes letters up through Margaret Houston's death in 1867 and rounds out the earlier volumes with some recently discovered family correspondence from the 1830s. Most of the letters, however, were written during Houston's final term in the U.S. Senate from 1853 to 1859.

More so than in the earlier volumes, these letters reflect Houston's public as well as his private life. Even in letters to his family he cannot hide his fear for the dissolution of the Union. Indeed his public fears for the Union and private concerns for his family ironically converged. In a letter of May 2, 1860, to his son Sam Houston Jr., he wrote, "My son, I wish you to love, and revere the Union. This is my injunction to all my boys!!! Mingle it in your heart with filial love" (p. 367). As early as 1854 he warned of "the fearful storm which is gathering in the political sky, and which I fear will break upon the south" (p. 119). Despite his best efforts, the storm did break over the South, and Houston found himself urging Margaret to let their son join the Confederate army. In August 1861 he wrote, "If war comes upon you before I return, [don't] keep Sam from going, my Love, but let him go. God can shield him, as he has his Father before him" (p. 386). Yet enough faith to entrust his beloved son to God came slowly to Houston. Letters to Margaret in the earlier volumes revealed a man searching for understanding. He attended services, read the Bible, and engaged in long theological discussions. Finally, in November 1854 Houston was baptized and joined the Baptist church in Independence, Texas, after which he declared, "To God only am I accountable" (p. 163).

He also repeatedly declared his love for his wife and children. Time after time, while he served in the U.S. Senate in Washington and his family remained in Texas, Houston wrote of his love and his longing to be with them. In January 1859, when he concluded his service in the Senate, Houston wrote, "I leave good friends, I hope to meet dearer objects at home" (p. 333). But love did not blind him to the need to cultivate his children's moral values and encourage their good works. As he wrote to his daughter Maggie, "The piety, and accomplishment, of my children are to me objects dear to my heart." Like many of his day, however, he viewed his daughters and sons differently: "[M]y sons honest, manly and noble, my Daughters gentle, pure, & pious, surpass all earthly objects of desire" (p. 323).

These letters contain little that will surprise those familiar with Houston. They confirm that he was a cautious and skillful politician who tried his best to sustain the Union. He understood the implications of the political acts of the 1850s far better than most, and he remained devoted to the Union until war came. He also loved his family, missed them when he was away, and tried to help them through his letters. It is this that comes through the clearest in Roberts's final volume: that Houston tried to fill the gap left by his absence from his loved ones by writing long and detailed letters to them. Out of his loneliness came a remarkable record of a public man trying to do his best for his family.

WALTER L. BUENGER
Texas A&M University