To-day I encountered by the luckiest chance the man of all others for you to see from West Texas: an American in whose judgement you may have more confidence than any other I know. He assisted Douai, edited the paper once in his absence, wrote for & proof-read his English department, stood by him in the most dangerous crisis—in this wise. The Vigilance Committee sent a six foot major to him with a subscription paper on which all the other merchants’ names of the town stood for $50 each, for a fund nominally to pursue fugitive slaves & reward the captors. This man—Ulrich is his name—politely declined. The major then told him that he was known to sympathize with the abolitionizers & it would not be safe for him to remain long in those parts. Ulrich immediately answered that it would not be safe for the major to remain long on his premises and if he ever showed his face within his store again he would be put out, that he would welcome an attempt on the part of the major’s party to expel him from San Antonio & he would be very willing to leave if he could not force the major to.

I believe Dr. Douai finally quarrelled with him, as he would have done with you or I, if we had been there I suspect—Ulrich counselling a more discreet tone. Only one friend remained after Ulrich, Riotte. He is a merchant & perilled much in his friendship for the doctor. You would perhaps consider [401] him cowardly or over-careful, but he told me today in a manner that I felt to be genuine that if there should ever be a contest for a free-state with a chance of success—if it should come to fighting—he should be ready to spend his fortune & if necessary his life, for freedom.

He was one of the men Dr. Stillman spoke of in connection with the Unitarian church project. He seems to have had no definite plan about it, but says he would like a good powerful, attractive preacher but none of the “old-fogy Christianity.” I imagine he thinks a man of Parker’s views & habits would draw in the Germans & Americans disgusted with the ranting, canting, Hard-Shell, Baptist & cataleptic Methodist sort of thing.

I saw him but a few minutes but I got without asking for it one pleasant bit of information. Within a year he says a hostility to Slavery has become much more decidedly evident among the Mexicans about San Antonio & often gets forcible expression. He had heard a poor white from the South, also, lately exclaim, “We don’t want any more of these damn’d niggers moving into these parts,” & he thinks that feeling is gaining among them. He describes some encouraging symptoms among the Americans of the better class. One man, a slaveholder, born a Missourian, to whom he had lent my “Seaboard Slave States,” on returning it, confessed he thought Western Texas should be made a free-state & he wished it were possible. If there were any chance of success he would be one to favor a movement for it.

Ulrich promises to come to Boston—particularly in the course of a fortnight. If possible, I will come with him.

I showed him the notice of my book which I had just found, in the Advertiser, which much gratified him. He said he wished he could send some copies of it to land-owners at the West (Texas). Can you send me some copies—one or two?

I have had a letter from an illiterate man in Rhode Island who has determined to go to Texas.

The book sells very well & I get letters almost daily indicating much interest in the subject.

I wrote you yesterday of Ulrich. I had a longer interview with him today.

Touching the sect of the preacher wanted he says he cares nothing, only that he should be able to talk simply, forcibly and in a manner to make rough men of strong good sense, respect godliness. He has observed of the frontiersmen, though sound hearted & honest & reverent, that they hold the general clerical Christianity in great contempt. He himself was born, bred, & still holds with some loyalty with the faith & practices of the Hicksite Quakers.

They have a Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, which is trying to build a meeting house. The congregation numbers about 200—of which only one man is “of any account. “He is the elder & has both pluck & piety. About the time of his taking the office of elder he had publicly said something, of Governor Bell, which the Governor then at Austin had regarded as insulting & for which he threatened dire punishment. Governor Bell soon came to San Antonio, whereupon the elder bought a revolver & for several successive days dogged the Governor, placing himself in his way, taking care the Governor should be informed who he was, & for the avowed purpose of provoking him to attack. As elder of the Church he thought it would not be best to act except on the defensive. Our Hicksite friend considers this the only respectable embodiment of Presbyterianism in West Texas.

A Baptist clergyman caused it to be advertized that he would preach in a school house in San Antonio on a certain Sabbath day & proposed to form at that time the nucleus of a Baptist Church. He did not receive sufficient encouragement, however. Meeting with no hospitality, he was obliged to fasten the horse which he had ridden from Austin to the school-room window & sleep himself in the school-house. He mentioned this unpleasant circumstance to the brethering as rayther discouraging in his sermon, yet he was allowed to buy fodder for his horse again of the Mexicans Sunday night & next morning he was met riding east very early & on a stranger’s asking him how far it was into San Antonio, he replied, “Damn San Antonio!” So the warm river runs all winter thro’ the town for nothing still, as far as the Baptists are concerned.

A Lutheran clergyman has lately organized a church among the Germans. [404] He is a good man and laborious & has begun at the right end by establishing a good child’s school. An Agent of the Boston Christian Aid Society (?) some time ago visited San Antonio & the Lutherans had commissioned Ulrich to ask aid for their church of this Society. They are very poor & the clergyman poorly supported.

The Presbyterians expect to pay their preacher $1200 a year. He supposes a Unitarian clergyman could get as much, but will make no promises until he returns & consults with friends.

Ulrich himself was once a working printer & it is in his plans, when he has made a little more money in his business (in two or three years he says) to give it up & establish a paper himself. English & German, for he speaks German perfectly, his parents having been “Pennsylvania Dutchmen.”

He has thought much of building a cotton mill at San Antonio himself. Cotton, power, building material & labor all cheap, he says, & a capital & peculiar market over the border. Good fertile farm land—cotton land—within 20 miles of San Antonio is now from $1. to $5 an acre. 20 miles further West, it is not generally worth over $1. & much can be bought for less. He owns large tracts himself & he says the largest land-owner in Texas, Maverick, is well inclined to free-soil & perhaps would act confidentially to obtain northern immigration. Maverick, who has been in the Senate of Texas, has spoken to him strongly in favor of a free-state.

Many Missourians have been in West Texas this winter looking at land, some evidently merely speculating on the prospect of a stampede of Slave-holders from Missouri if Kansas comes in free. Since it has been anticipated that Kansas would be free, the idea that West Texas might be so has generally been given up & an increased slave holding immigration is anticipated—not merely from Missouri, but of Kentuckians & all others who would otherwise have moved to Missouri or Northern Arkansas.

On the other hand, lately a good many people have come among them from Illinois—for stock raising.

A wealthy old gentleman called on me today—said he had read my book & it had occurred to him that the best thing he could do with his sons was to send them to West Texas to be stock-farmers. He wanted advice about it.